Crop tour potatoes - week 20
Potato growers are making big progress with their plants
Potato growers have accelerated in recent days by planting Innovator and other varieties. Whether the soil was sufficiently suitable is another matter, but necessity rules now that it is mid-May. Progress must be made now that it is possible. The first potato growers have already finished planting.
Due to the dry and warm weather since last week, there is finally the opportunity to plant potatoes and make progress throughout the country. This also applies to the growers who participate in the Boerenbusiness Crop tour Potatoes, although it's not entirely easy. The wet winter and the heavy precipitation of spring are leaving their mark, literally and figuratively, now that many growers are planting potatoes. The structure is generally not that bad and wet spots that cannot actually be worked on a plot are very common this growing season. That is the shared opinion among the potato growers of the Crop Tour. Waiting is not an option for the majority, because a lot still needs to be done on the land and the expected (heavy) precipitation can also put agricultural work on hold again.
More work to be done due to precipitation
In addition to planting potatoes, potato grower Gybert Doggen in Wouw, North Brabant, is extra busy preparing the land and the wet past months are making themselves felt. "Due to the heavy rain recently, it has not been possible to prepare all the plots in advance. As a result, we have more work to do. But we are making progress now and if it does not rain too much, we will have them ready by the end of this week." a lot." Rain is expected again in the south in the coming days, which may put agricultural work at Doggen on hold again. The Crop Tour plot has now been plowed, but the Innovator has not been planted.
The dry and warm weather finally offers growers the opportunity to accelerate, but it also has its downside when it comes to preparing the land. The soil on top dries hard, while the structure leaves much to be desired. The surface remains very wet and dries with difficulty. In Hellevoetsluis (South Holland), potato grower Kees Trouw also indicates that it is wet at the bottom, but waiting is not an option. He expects to have his entire potato area covered before the precipitation if things continue like this.
Potato grower Daan Tap planted potatoes in Elst, Gelderland a week and a half ago his crop tour plot and he already has all the potatoes in it. Now he is milling, where the hard drying weather is also clearly visible. "We have all the potatoes in it, so we started with the ridge cultivator on our soil. The milling is going well, but the soil at the top is actually too dry again. The moist soil at the bottom still lubricates a bit."
Just east of Tap's Crop Tour plot is the Crop Tour plot of potato grower Wouter Vierboom. He also planted the plot in Leuth last weekend, which was generally not disappointing. "You prefer different circumstances, but this is the way it is this spring. In general, it went quite well. I initially doubted whether it was wise to plant, but we did," referring to the conditions such as the weather forecast and the ground. "The pots had already been cut and ready for 3 weeks, so leaving it out longer doesn't help either."
Something that several growers are also encountering this spring is the size sorting of the potatoes. Many growers have received a coarser size grading than normal or have not (often) worked with cut seed potatoes. This sometimes requires adjustments and not every planting machine is equally suitable for working with larger tubers. This sometimes leads to problems with potato planting, such as irregular distribution or damage.
Jesse Torringa
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