Cut the cost of a clean potato harvest
With continued heavy rain this season potato growers could make significant savings in fuel costs for haulm destruction, reduce soil damage and cut the risk of tuber disease spread, by adopting Reglone desiccation programmes.
Syngenta Potato Manager, Tom Whitworth, reports that in the wet conditions many potato crops are remaining very green and leafy, which will prove incredibly power hungry for flail choppers – with correspondingly high fuel costs and slow work rates. "There is also the real risk that chopping and spreading a thick mulch of green leaf in wet conditions may encourage tuber diseases, including blight and Blackleg (Erwinia)," he warns.
To combat the problem Mr Whitworth advocates a Reglone desiccation programme for growers. "The ground is so wet that, in many instances, growers would be better to leave the flail in the shed and adopt a two-spray desiccation programme, to minimise wheelings and soil damage prior to harvest.
"If they do need to flail, then a pre-flail Reglone treatment will significantly reduce the volume of haulm to be chopped – speeding up the process and reducing costs by making the flail operation easier and more efficient." Desiccation of the green leaf and stem also reduces any mulch left on the soil surface, which will cut the risk of disease developing and make harvesting cleaner and faster.
Trials by SAC have shown a Reglone application five days before flailing can increase flail output by over 50%, achieving 1.74 ha/hr compared to 1.14 ha in an untreated crop. With fuel costs for a 170hp tractor now reaching over £140 a day, a grower with 175 hectares could not only complete flailing in 10 days, compared to more than 15, but also save over £600 in fuel.
"In a difficult year for harvesting, the higher output and faster lifting will be even more important to get quality clean tubers into store," adds Mr Whitworth. "Delayed lifting will increase the risk of Black Dot and other storage diseases developing."
Tuber blight risk
With the continuous wet weather and blight pressure during late July and August growers must now assume that the risk of tuber blight will be high. Blight spores can survive in the soil for several weeks after haulm destruction releasing zoospores to infect tubers, so the inclusion of Shirlan in the desiccation programme is essential to minimise the risk of tuber blight.
Mr Whitworth highlights that Shirlan has inherently high activity on blight zoospores that infect the tubers in the soil. Inclusion of Shirlan in Reglone treatments will not only help to stop zoospore production from blight lesions, but also provide an additional tier of blight protection on the soil surface.
"Growers using flail for haulm destruction will need to make additional blight spray applications; inclusion of Shirlan with Reglone desiccation can save £20/ha in application costs and minimise traffic in wet soil conditions," he adds.
