News on Potato Cultivation from Northern America

Long-time potato and vegetable growers Norm and Marv Worzella of Worzella & Sons, Inc., Plover, Wisconsin, were inducted into the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association Hall of Fame at the industry’s annual awards ceremony held February 3, 2021.

The amount and quality of the potatoes coming off Chad Berry’s field last fall weren’t that much different from one side to the other, but one half came with a lot less tillage.

Given the unusual times of a global pandemic, the Idaho Potato Conference shifted from the annual in-person conference held in Pocatello to three days of virtual presentations.

Enabled by AT&T’s nationwide, highly secure LTE-M cellular network, the Soiltech Sensor precisely records and transmits data for soil moisture, temperature, humidity, location and impacts that may create bruising while crops are being grown, transported, and stored.

Potato Production in Canada for the year 2020, is estimated at 104,203,000 hundredweight. This is down 1.4 million hundredweight or 1.3 percent below de production in 2019.

In humid climates, there is a high risk of topsoil loss from erosion on bare soil as well as nitrogen from fertilizers leaking or leaching from the soil into water sources, which can cause groundwater pollution.

Launching new research in support of Washington potato growers, Washington State University is partnering with industry leaders to study healthier, more sustainable, and productive soils.

Potato harvest in Canada is complete in most provinces with the exception of Quebec, according to this final crop report of the season prepared by the United Potato Growers of Canada

This year’s potato harvest was met with an unrelenting drought that diminished crops and tied up water resources for Aroostook County, Maine farmers.

With the harvest season underway, the impact of summer's drought-like conditions is being unearthed in New Brunswick. Due to a lack of rainfall during the growing season, potato farmers say their yields are down significantly for fall 2020.

The smallest potato from the Carcross/Tagish First Nation garden harvest this year was the size of a pea. The spud might be tiny, but its ancestors travelled a long way to get here. The Lingít K'úntsx', or Tlingit potato, has been grown in Alaska for over 200 years.

Northern Farm Training Institute will test a range of potato varieties to see which do best in Northern Canada. This pilot project could approved earlier this month could improve food security.

As the first day of fall arrives, the potato crop in Canada is in varying stages of growth and/or harvest. The United Potato Growers of Canada provide an update.

Many potato fields across Prince Edward Island are not in the condition they usually are at this time of year due to the hot and dry conditions for much of July and August.

A WSU study has estimated the 2020 economic losses from potato production and processing in Washington. The demand shocks of COVID-19 resulted in a hit of roughly $1 billion dollars in gross state product.

The potato harvest is now underway in the Red River Valley. Yields are all over the board ranging from poor to excellent. Most of the fields with poor yields were damaged by heavy rain that fell on, and around June 30th.

Just days before his Center, CO, operation kicked off its 2020 San Luis Valley potato season, Skyline Potato Co. General Manager Les Alderete said he was optimistic about the overall market situation and the coming year.

MountainKing Potatoes has added Cindy Adkins, a former owner and operator of the nation's largest certified organic packer of fingerling potatoes, to its team of sales representatives, the company says in a press release recently issued.