Potato Grower

18 POTATO GROWER | JULY 2020 Federal and state researchers are studying irrigation scheduling and a potential for water savings in potato plants at the Conservation and Production Research Laboratory in Bushland, Texas. This year they called upon an ally in the potato industry to help them when the COVID-19 pandemic threatened the planting of the 2020 potato plots due to social distancing rules. The three-year project, supported by the Texas Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Block Grant program, is a collaboration between Susan O'Shaughnessy, an agricultural engineer specializing in irrigation automation for USDA-ARS, and Charlie Rush, a Texas A&M AgriLife Research plant pathologist. The project has two purposes: O'Shaughnessy is analyzing the ability of sensors attached to an irrigation system to determine when the crop needs a drink using the plant's temperature as a guide. The variable rate wireless irrigation scheduling system would schedule water application in relation to the temperature of the plant. Rush, on the other hand, sees himself as a "plant doctor" who wants to know if that plant's temperature is an indication of disease or illness, much like a fever in a human. BRINGING IN THE BIG EQUIPMENT In the past two years, a six-acre plot of potatoes has been planted in Bushland with a four-row planter that requires multiple people to work closely together. First, they must unload totes of potatoes into the planter and then spend three days riding side by side feeding the potatoes into the planter. Rush says it could have been done again this way in 2020, but only if they could have obtained enough COVID-19 protective equipment for all the workers. "We had a situation where ARS had rules handed down that made it difficult to continue this project," he says. "We didn't want to lose an entire year's worth of research, but we weren't about to put our people at risk. And if we had waited and planted later in the season, it would not have been an apples-to-apples comparison from one year to the next." Rush's longtime collaborators from the potato industry, CSS Farms, helped them avoid the COVID-19 issues and loaned Study utilizes irrigation system feedback to distinguish between thirst and disease By Kay Ledbetter, Texas A&M AgriLife Research them the use of their industrial-sized planting equipment. It took a little over two hours to plant the entire research plot. Rush and AgriLife Research have been at the forefront of the battle against zebra chip of potato, a disease that once almost destroyed the potato industry in Texas. The potato psyllid transmits a bacterium, which causes zebra chip. "We have been working with Dr. Rush and his research team for more than 10 years on the potato psyllids and the zebra chip disease," says John Scheuring of CSS Farms in Dalhart, Texas. "He has been a tremendous help to us and the industry, and we owed him and his program this. Also, we will benefit from their ongoing research, so it was a win-win situation for us." Rush says it truly is a win-win-win situation for the researchers, growers and consumers. CSS Farms grow potatoes for Frito-Lay, and "this is all based on producing the best-quality crop and maximizing the water we use so we can produce the biggest, healthiest crop with the least amount of water and not waste it by putting it on diseased plants." RESEARCH AIMED AT WATER EFFICIENCY O'Shaughnessy's research will help potato growers be more efficient with their water inputs. She is managing chipping potatoes with canopy temperature measurements and soil water sensors to determine how to apply the right amount of water at the right time. "Potatoes are very sensitive to both over- Sick or Just Thirsty? Susan O'Shaughnessy at the control box of the variable rate irrigation system. Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Kay Ledbetter

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