Potato Review

CONTENTS www.potatoreview.com POTATO REVIEW SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 3 Editor’s letter HARVESTS of potatoes were expected to shrink this year as the drought took its toll on UK farmland. With overall yields and the average size of each tuber expected to be lower than usual, growers and suppliers were facing the challenge of persuading supermarkets and consumers to accept the smaller products. It’s been reassuring to know that organisations have been taking this on board, but a few things cropped up that may not have been considered: e e ects on sortingmachinery and the fact that existing ‘wonky veg’ marketing drives may not be the best approach for this year’s general crop. Details of these, and the climatic impacts, are included in our special news focus. is year’s extreme heatwaves mean growers are likely to be left with stubbles in very dry soils which will be hard to break down so we spoke to soil specialist David Harrod about how best to condition the soil and, unusually, we hear from a Finnish company which is extracting sustainable micronutrients for fertilising potato crops from recycled alkaline batteries. While the weather is something we have no control over, the usual pests are also still out there posing their own challenges to growing. In this issue, we detail some of the research and breakthroughs on wireworm, as well as sharing insights froma PCN open day and new feasibility study. Experts’ insights and top tips to help growers get the best results from lifting andmanaging potatoes into store are shared, while two seperate features look at preventing soft rots in storage. It’s been an eventful summer, with everyone glad to get out and about without the previous COVID-19 restrictions. Potatoes In Practice and special hubs organised by BASF o ered a good knowledge exchange and ‘hands-on’ opportunites. We bring full details of both events to readers. ere have been a number of key appointments throughout the industry, so don’t forget to check these out, along with machinery and agtech updates, in the latter part of the magazine. Stephanie Cornwall Editor News 04 Heatwave hits UK 05 Pests 08 Jersey Royal farm focus 11 PCN: Case history and research project 16 Soft rots in early storage 20 Fertilisation: Nutrients from batteries 24 Soil conditioners 25 Potatoes In Practice review 27 BASF hubs review 32 Seed storage 35 Appointments 45 International market updates 50 Machinery 55 Agtech 59 Industry news 61 Late blight 14 Potash focus 39 Reader Pro le: Pat Nix 42