This month’s Synopsis bulletin from Adrian Cunnington at Potato Storage Insight (PSI) provides growers with guidance for getting their crops into store, reminding them of the importance of good skin set and effective ventilation for storage management to best practice.
Keeping a close eye on any development of blight and blackleg is also important. Both diseases have been quite widely reported pre-harvest this season.
Adrian stresses the need to get crops into store and under close control quickly through the use of ventilation to reduce the risks of unwanted problems in storage. Effective drying is paramount, especially if there is disease risk, and crop temperatures need to be managed carefully during the store loading period to allow crops to be stabilised and cooled in a controlled way.
Free moisture on the crop – such as condensation – must be avoided at all costs so as not to compromise tuber quality and reduce the prospects of storage success.
Read more of this content by subscribing to the Synopsis bulletin at www.potatostorageinsight.com
Contact: Adrian Cunnington
adrian@potatostorageinsight.com
Photo: Will tuber late blight be rearing its head as crops enter storage this autumn? Credit AHDB archive
