Crop tour Potatoes and onions
How are the crops doing after the heat?
With the first national heat wave since August 2022, crops have been struggling in recent days. Because 2025 is already an early year, many crops have now developed a large foliage package. This allows the crop to develop well, but at high temperatures this also causes a lot of evaporation. Especially during the heat wave, the crop again extracted a lot of moisture from the soil.
After the warm temperatures of the past few days, a cooling shower failed to materialize nationwide yesterday (2 July). Now that the month of July has arrived, this is the period in which potatoes and onions have to produce their tons. After the dry conditions did not provide an abundant supply of moisture in the soil, the heat wave has ensured that crops are now starting to show signs here and there.
Major differences in crop development after heat
René Mesken from Appelscha in Friesland reports that his potatoes are holding up well under the circumstances. "We had about 30 millimeters of rain at the end of last week and that allowed the potatoes to continue for a while. We haven't irrigated since then, but because there has been no precipitation after the warm temperatures, we are ready to start again." René says that the potatoes are not showing any signs of the heat, but he does notice that the crop does not like these temperatures. "The leaves are hanging a bit limper than normal, but that is a stress reaction of the plant to better cope with the heat," says René.
The onions of Klaasjan Boer from Kortgene (Zeeland) have suffered considerably from the heat. Klaasjan cannot irrigate his crops and as a result his onions are starting to show signs of wear. Gybert Doggen from Wouw in Brabant also reports that his potatoes are deteriorating after the past few days. "The crop is still in full bloom, the plants have started to droop a bit, but the beds are still nicely covered."
Adriaan Wortman from Dronten (Flevoland) is positively surprised about the state of his potatoes. "They are not really showing much yet. The crop is doing quite well," he says. "We irrigated for the second time last week and that will probably make a difference."
Cooling of the crop
Reinder Hogenhout from Kimswerd (Friesland) has cooled his onions the past few days using drip irrigation. According to Reinder, applying moisture to the root is the optimal way to get the crop through these days. "This way, the crop does not suffer from burning and can use the water when it needs it." Reinder is also convinced that drip irrigation has a positive effect on crop yield, especially this year. Due to the dry year, there is sometimes a lack of moisture, Reinder explains. "As soon as that limiting factor is removed, for example by irrigation, the crop can in principle continue to grow without restriction. If you ensure that the crop gets enough water, you can achieve a gigantic production under these conditions."
Jan Berend Biesheuvel from Zeewolde (Flevoland) has irrigated his onions in recent days. "The cooling effect of irrigation is what the crop needed more in recent days", Jan Berend indicates.
Peter Holster from Marknesse (Flevoland) has not irrigated his onions in recent days and was afraid of burning the leaves. "Every drop is a magnifying glass with that bright sun." Peter's Gewastour plot also has drip irrigation. "I had to do my weekly round of fertigation anyway, so I could also cool the crop a bit." Peter also has the idea that the plot looks fresher after the heat than his other plots, which do not have drip hoses.
Winter wheat almost ready to harvest
Klaasjan Boer expects that his first winter wheat can also be harvested next week. While many people are still in the middle of the winter barley harvest, the limited amount of precipitation and the heat of the past few days in Zeeland have ensured that the ripening of winter wheat has gone incredibly fast in recent times.
Jan Willem Veldman
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