Special Crop tour week 24
Closing potatoes, tuber setting started
Close the potatoes (of the Innovator variety) on the crop tour plots, and tuber setting has started in many cases. However, there are still clear differences between the 10 plots. This reflects the potato development situation in the Netherlands: 5% has had too much rain, 5% has had too little rain and the other 90% are developing very well.
In certain parts of the Netherlands it is getting quite dry; this mainly concerns Flevoland, Overijssel and Drenthe, although it did rain there on Thursday 14 June. Due to the drought, it has recently been necessary to irrigate several plots (for example, on the plots in Hank en Biddinghuizen).
The differences between the 10 plots are mainly visible in the tuber construction. On the plots in the southwest of the country, the tuber formation of the potatoes has only just started; this can be seen in Zeeland (Scharendijke) and West Brabant (Fijnaart).
Central and north of the Netherlands
The potatoes are the freshest on the plots more centrally located in the country; that applies in particular to Middenmeer, Marknesse and Biddinghuizen. The Innovators are also in bloom on the plots further north. On the plot in the John Kerkhoven Polder 5 millimeters of rain fell this week. That was badly needed, because it had been dry for a long time. Tuber setting has just started there, but the small seed potatoes are lagging behind the large seed plants.
Difference between the regions
So it is certainly clear that the Innovators in the south and north of the country are slightly behind the potatoes in the central Netherlands. However, it is also drier there.
Anne-Jan Doorn
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