Late rains help potato crop Prince Edward Island

A “boom or bust” cycle of rain, then drought, then more rain turned out well for Prince Edward Island potato growers, who expect good quality and little late blight pressure.

The only wrinkle in 2011-12 could be undersized burbank russets.

Early fall rains dumped as much as 7 inches on some Prince Edward Island potato fields, said Greg Donald, general manager of the Charlottetown-based Prince Edward Island Potato Board.

It came after a month and a half in which almost no rain had fallen on the island, Donald said.

“We wished for some rain, and we got a lot of it,” he said.

“Digging in the last week of September, not much clay was coming up on harvest equipment, and growers worried about bruising.”

A lot of rain, but not too much, Donald said. The ground was so dry, even 7 inches didn’t flood fields.

“The russets needed that rain late to size up,” he said.

Burbank russets, which are harvested toward the end of the deal, still need to do some sizing up, but earlier varieties were yielding well, Donald said.

The quality of the crop as of mid-October was excellent.