Article taken from Farmers Weekly magazine
Article by Agrovista Agronomist, Andy StevenThe potato harvest is well under way in the North after a late start. The cool, and at times we, summer has meant crops were never able to catch up on their late start in the spring and harvest was at least 7-10 days later in getting started. Conditions in September have largely been good for lifting and around the Moray, Firth, fields are being cleaned in good time and some growers have harvested more than 50% of their crops. Down the east coast of Scotland land is wetter and its slowing lifting. Skin set is proving to be slow and holding up the clearance of some fields. Crop yields are described as average or slightly above, but within that there is a lot variation – the weather this year has caused some varieties to perform much better than others and factors such as planting, field aspect, local weather and variety are having much more influence on final yield than usual. Crop quality overall is good – the only disease causing concern is powdery scab, which can be found in susceptible varieties. Again, it’s presence depends on locality and field conditions during summer.
Article by Agrovista Agronomist, Andy StevenThe potato harvest is well under way in the North after a late start. The cool, and at times we, summer has meant crops were never able to catch up on their late start in the spring and harvest was at least 7-10 days later in getting started. Conditions in September have largely been good for lifting and around the Moray, Firth, fields are being cleaned in good time and some growers have harvested more than 50% of their crops. Down the east coast of Scotland land is wetter and its slowing lifting. Skin set is proving to be slow and holding up the clearance of some fields. Crop yields are described as average or slightly above, but within that there is a lot variation – the weather this year has caused some varieties to perform much better than others and factors such as planting, field aspect, local weather and variety are having much more influence on final yield than usual. Crop quality overall is good – the only disease causing concern is powdery scab, which can be found in susceptible varieties. Again, it’s presence depends on locality and field conditions during summer.