Potato Grower

January 2020

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WWW.POTATOGROWER.COM 41 3. Teton Russet: 371 acres 4. Alegria: 266 acres 5. Centennial Russet: 231 acres A wide range of potato varieties are certified in Colorado including multiple varieties of russets, reds, yellows, chippers, fingerlings and specialties. The Colorado Seed Act and Late Blight Quarantine requires all seed lots imported into Colorado to undergo a post-harvest test and a 21-day late blight incubation test, both of which need to take place prior to shipment. Also, a PVYN tolerance of 1 percent is in place for all seed coming into Colorado. IDAHO Alan Westra Southeast Area Manager Idaho Crop Improvement Association Idaho experienced a somewhat challenging growing season in 2019. Planting began at the normal time, but was interrupted by a 10- to 14-day period of rain. Additionally, late frosts and cooler temperatures delayed the development of those crops planted before the rain. However, heat later in the season helped the crop catch up. With harvest recently completed, some growers are reporting average to good yields, while others have reported lower than average yields. Quality going into storage was reported as good to excellent. Overall, the 2019 crop appears to have a very nice size profile. Seed health is steady from 2018. The number of seed lots with visually detectable levels of PVY in the field increased only slightly compared to last year, and there were no bacterial ring rot (BRR) detections during field inspections. At the conclusion of the second round of field inspections, a total of 29,974 acres are eligible for final certification this year. This is essentially unchanged from 2018. Excluding proprietary genetics, the 2019 acreage accepted for certification represents a total of 119 varieties, selections and advanced clones. For 2019, the top varieties were: 1. Russet Burbank: 39 percent of total acreage accepted) 2. Russet Norkotah (all strains): 18 percent 3. Ranger Russet: 12 percent 4. Clearwater Russet: 5 percent 5. Alturas: 4 percent 6. Umatilla Russet: 2 percent Significant movement occurred in Clearwater, Alturas and Umatilla acreage (+38, + 26 and -12 percent, respectively) compared to the 2018 crop. A complete listing of this year's seed potato crop is available in the 2019 Idaho Certified Seed Potato Directory, posted at www.idahocrop.com. Seed buyers should be reminded that the nomenclature used to describe Idaho seed potato generations was changed to a "field year" system, effective with the 2019 crop. This nomenclature is similar to that currently used by a number of other certification programs and is intended to promote standardization and transparency within the seed potato industry by designating generations by the actual number of years that the seed has been produced in soil. Please note that there are no changes to the tolerances associated with the various field generations. MAINE Eric Hitchcock Seed Certification Program Manager Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry The 2019 growing season in Maine was very similar to what growers experienced in 2017 and 2018 with a cool spring and prolonged dry spells for the rest of the growing season in Aroostook County. Southern and central Maine similarly Irrigated potato field near Declo, Idaho Potatoes emerge at Green Thumb Farms in Fryeburg, Maine

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