A tough harvest is translating into a challenging storage season for Manitoba potato growers.
It’s especially frustrating because growers were looking at a bumper crop, forecast to be the third largest harvest on record. But they were denied that by rains that delayed harvest and hard frosts that hit in mid-October causing ground to freeze as deep as three inches and ultimately leaving more than 5000 acres, causing Dan Sawkatsky, Keystone Potato Producers Association manager, to describe the situation as “unprecedented” in the province’s 50 year history of growing potatoes.
Those frost-damaged potatoes will generally break down in storage as the waterlogged tissue provides a host for rot, Leonard Rossnagel of the Manitoba Seed Growers Association said.
