Dutch Crop tour potato - week 17
Potato planting is hindered by drought
The potato growers of De Gewastour are speeding up planting the potatoes, but it is not going to happen by itself this season either. The drought plays a major role and hinders the speed at which planting can take place.
Especially on the (heavy) clay soils, potato planting is hindered by the drought. The inclement weather made the top layer very hard and it is full of hard clods. Also in the north and center of the Netherlands, where there was still a lot of precipitation at the beginning of April, the ground dries very hard. Potato growers have to anticipate this.
Irrigating before planting
Due to an extra tillage and a lower speed, the potato planting is going well, but certainly not smoothly. Many growers enjoy the lighter soils, although they do start to worry when they look at the dry weather forecast. Especially on the newly planted plots it dries hard and growers are only too happy to see some water fall from the sky. In Hellevoetsluis (South Holland), where the precipitation was nil at the beginning of April, according to potato grower Kees Trouw, it is necessary to irrigate for the first time. "It is easy to plant on the lighter soils, but the heavy plots (45% silt) are very dried up and rock-hard. The Crop Tour plot is one of them. We will harrow it and then irrigate it and then plant it."
A lot further south, potato grower Kees Vrolijk planted his crop tour plot in Fijnaart (North Brabant) last Wednesday. It concerns a soil of 40% silt and the clods are also visible on the potato ridges there. Merry planted his cut Innovators (50/60) at a planting distance of 28 centimeters.
NKG land very humid
Another plot of the Gewastour has just enough moisture and is located in Eethen (North Brabant). Potato grower Jacob Branderhorst does NKG on the heavier soil of his company. There is still plenty of moisture there, he reports: "The conditions are good now, but the soil remained quite moist for a long time. We had turned it upside down and slightly turned it over a week ago. The idea was to get a better drying, but this fell off afterwards. against. With NKG you have to be patient with potato legs". The plot is planted variably with seed potato size 35/45. Today (29 April) he plants the plot.
First potatoes almost on top
The potatoes that were first planted in Dronten (Flevoland) are almost out. These were planted on March 24, so they are on the road for over a month. The milling of these ridges also happened this week, just before they were on top.
Jesse Torringa
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