Dutch Crop tour Potatoes - week 19
Potato growers are making big progress with their plants
Potato growers have really stepped up the pace in planting Innovator and other varieties over the past period. Thanks to the recent dry conditions, the fields were in good condition, demonstrating once again how much work can be accomplished in a short time. As a result, a number of potato growers have already finished planting.
For example, various Crop Tour participants have already planted their potatoes.
Alex van Erp from Midwolda in Groningen planted his Crop Tour plot fourteen days ago. This week, potatoes also went into the ground at fellow provincial resident Jan Kolhorn from Uithuizermeeden, as well as at Kees Trouw from Hellevoetsluis in South Holland. In Dronten (Flevoland), the Innovators went into the ground at Philip Kroes and Adriaan Wortman's early last month, just like at Brian Salomé from IJzendijke in Zeeland. Gybert Doggen from Wouw in Brabant followed in the middle of the month.
After an April in which almost every day was a day to work the land, it is now time to take a step back in various areas.
Showery precipitation causes regional differences
That is precisely where the biggest difference lies at the moment. René Mesken from Appelscha in Friesland received only 1,5 millimeters of precipitation last weekend, while Ruud Steinbusch from Voerendaal in Limburg is already heading towards 30 millimeters. As a result, Ruud has not yet finished planting in South Limburg, and work is temporarily at a standstill due to the rainfall. The same applies to Wouter Vierboom from Leuth in Gelderland. While he got off lightly last weekend with about 4 millimeters, a heavy shower passed over a day later, leaving behind approximately 25 millimeters.
Incidentally, that precipitation is very welcome for ridge formation. Philip Kroes from Dronten (Flevoland) did not wait for rain and took the irrigation reel out of the shed about fourteen days ago to irrigate almost all the potatoes prior to tilling. "We irrigated before tilling to soak the potatoes nicely in moisture and to allow any remaining soil clumps to weather. We were also not satisfied with the final ridge formation without the ridges getting wet after planting," explains Adriaan Wortman.
Before a ridge is actually wet, several millimeters have passed. Alex van Erp is experiencing this as well. After the 15-millimeter shower, the potatoes in the ridge are actually still lying dry. In mid-March, Alex first tilled the grass sod, which, according to him, extracts an enormous amount of moisture from the soil. "Our potatoes that were planted, where the grass sod was tilled in the autumn, are much wetter," says Alex.
Still take into account retaining sufficient fluids
René Mesken, who had only 1,5 millimeters of rainfall, is actually not very dissatisfied with it himself. "As far as I'm concerned, it is a wonderful spring to carry out all the work at a leisurely pace; it is actually going very well." Before the potatoes are planted, René plows the soil a few hours in advance to ensure the potatoes are still in moist soil, and that is still working fine, according to René.
When the potatoes are indeed lying nicely in the moist soil, Philip Kroes and Adriaan Wortman also note that the potatoes actually get going quite quickly and continue to grow well. At their farm, the first potatoes are already poking at the soil surface before emerging above the ground.
Precipitation is expected again starting next week. This time it appears to be a more substantial amount, with a chance of several millimeters of rain daily. With a number of dry days still ahead, the expectation is that the majority of the potatoes will be planted before that 'rainy period' arrives.
Jan Willem Veldman
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