Potato Grower

December 2017

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WWW.POTATOGROWER.COM 47 Surprises are a "good thing"... right? Let the experts at Agri-Stor make sure ALL of your "surprises" are good ones! Let us help you avoid: This is the time of year we look forward to surprises! www.agri-stor.com Twin Falls, ID 208.733.7000 Blackfoot, ID 208.785.7000 Warden, WA 509.349.7000 "Surprise! Your potatoes are sprouting!" "Surprise! Your potatoes are not healthy!" "Surprise! Equipment failure!" 167157AgrSto13s.indd 1 10/16/17 4:13 PM THREE RIVERS CONVENTION CENTER & TOYOTA CENTER 7016 W Grandridge Blvd - Kennewick, WA 99336 January 23-25, 2018 Pre-register online and be entered to win one of ve $500 Sportsman Warehouse gicards. Registration is still only $5! MAKE YOUR HOTEL RESERVATIONS ONLINE NOW! Springhill Suites Marriot, Kennewick, $124/night - (509) 820-3026 Red Lion Columbia Center, Kennewick, $105/night - (509) 783-0611 Red Lion Inn & Suites, Kennewick, $115/night - (855) 406-0344 Hilton Garden Inn, Kennewick, $119/night - (509) 735-4600 Go to www.potatoconference.com WASHINGTON w w w. p o t a t o c o n f e r e n c e.c o m C O N F E R E N C E OREGON 2018 Hays says this project initiated from a separate project using the same technology for earliness on cassava or tapioca, a small tree with roots that bulk up into a starchy product much like a potato. Cassava in Africa is considered to be the drought security crop, Hays explains. But cassava bulks and goes through productivity and harvest in one- or two-year cycles. Cassava breeders want to select for new cultivars that bulk at six to eight months to speed the cycle time of the crop. "They have the same problem as potatoes," says Hays. "It's a vegetatively propagated crop, so they have to make these massive yield trials where they have multiple harvest times with each one dug up. "During our project with cassava, we've been able to get about an 80 percent correlation between the dimensional image and the actual size of the cassava. So we can basically get a three-dimensional image of the cassava without digging it out," Hays continues. "We hope in the near future, we will be able to select for cassava and provide a 50 to 100 percent yield gain because we've increased the cycle time per year, allowing them to grow two crops instead of one in a year or grow three crops in two years." Hays says his project has an additional objective—to optimize the equipment itself. "These ground-coupled instruments have to contact the ground to select for earliness, and that's a little bit of a problem," he says. "It means you are basically running over the crop, damaging it during the development process." Hays is working with a company called IDS GeoRadar North America to optimize the instrument itself so it is airborne and flies just above the canopy. "This way we can get a three-dimensional image through a crop canopy and into the roots," Hays says. "We can go over the yield trials multiple times through the growing cycle without damaging the vegetation." The researchers hope to have the equipment tested as a prototype this fall with a commercial instrument available shortly after.

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