From bncraig@peinet.pe.ca Mon Oct 3 19:00:20 1994 Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 19:55:08 -0300 (ADT) From: "Brian N. Craig" Subject: P.E.I. POTATO NEWSLETTER -- Vol. 1, No. 2 -- Oct 94 Message-Id: PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND POTATO NEWSLETTER October 1994 Volume 1, No. 2 This is a newsletter to provide information on extension technology that may be useful to the agriculture sector for potato production. The information will provide ideas and information useful to potato production in the North Eastern parts of North America. As this is a Canadian potato newsletter, the information on products will be those registered for use in Canada. Foreign products will be mentioned to provide the agriculture sector with new technology. Please feel free to read the articles and comment on the content. The Newsletter is designed to help individuals to stay up dated on events and technology. Only through comments will the newsletter be able to provide information that will suit your needs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This issue of the Potato Newsletter will focus on Potato Storage Buildings, Post Harvest Potato Treatment, Potato Seed Field Inspection Standards, Items Wanted To Purchase, Products and Services For Sale. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From ab4el.com Mon Oct 3 00:00:00 1994 Subject: Potato Storage Building POTATO STORAGE BUILDING: Potato storage buildings should be thoroughly inspected to ensure the potato stores well. The storage building must be able to protect the tubers from freezing while held at low temperatures. The building must be capable of maintaining high levels of humidity to keep the potato from loosing moisture. Because the tuber is "living", the storage must be able to move air and the humidity through the piled tubers. Storage buildings should be inspected each year. What should you check for? Here are a few things to check: 1. Insulation - Insulation can be damaged over the years. If they are not kept under control, rodents can cause major damage to the insulation. Therefore check the storage doors, ceilings and walls to ensure all of the insulation is still intact. Keep in mind that the walls of the storage building should have an insulation factor of R-30 while the ceiling should have an insulation factor of R-40. This level of insulation will keep condensation from collecting on your walls and ceilings. Moisture collecting on the building and falling down onto tubers creates ideal conditions for bacterial soft rot to develop. 2. Vapour Barrier - Check the vapour barrier covering the insulation. With high humidity requirements to store potatoes at, the vapour barrier protects moisture from entering the insulation. If moisture enters the insulation, the insulation ability of the potato storage will be reduced. Make sure the vapour barrier is still in good repair to keep moisture from soaking into the storage insulation. 3. Equipment (Fans & Humidifiers) - High quality storage buildings use fans to circulate air through the stored potato tubers. Stored tubers must have frequent air exchanges to remove heat, carbon dioxide, and excess water vapour. Fans must be in top working order to ensure even temperature and water vapour is evenly distributed throughout the piled potato tubers. Humidifiers may be required to ensure the relative humidity remains between 90-95%. Each year always consider if the fans and humidifiers are matched to meet the greatest demand the storage will be faced with. Will there be more tubers to store this year than last year? If the answer is yes, will the equipment handle the extra harvested tubers this year. Will the fan capacity deliver one (1) cubic foot of air per minute per cwt (hundred weight) of tubers. This should be your minimum fan capacity in your storage building. Make sure all equipment is in good repair. Check bearings, belts and lubricate the equipment before filling the storage. When the potato storage building is filled, make sure that the storage is moving air uniformly throughout the building. A good potato storage building must remove excess condensation from the ceilings and walls. 4. Duct System - The duct system that the fans and humidifiers are connected to should be checked. Check to ensure that none of the ducts are plugged or broken. This can be very crucial to ensure air movement is well distributed through the piled potato tubers. Once the potatoes are placed in storage it becomes extremely difficult to repair or clean a duct system. Keep in mind that the duct system has to be properly sized to the fan and humidifier system to ensure proper air flow through the stored potato tubers. 5. Doors - This is one area that causes many producers problems. Storage building doors must function the same as the walls of the building. They require the same insulation and vapour barriers as the walls have. When the doors are closed, they must seal "tightly". There is more heat lost in storage buildings because of doors not closing tight and providing a good quality seal. Doors are very prone to damage. Trucks, tractors and unloader have caused what would be consider small damage but results in major storage losses such as frozen tubers. Check and keep doors in top repair. 6. Control Panel - This is the "brains" of the storage. If the control panel is not functioning properly, the whole storage could be quickly lost. The control panel is connected to thermocouple which should be checked carefully to ensure they are in good repair and are working properly. Be sure that the thermocouple are placed properly in the storage building and replace andy malfunctioned ones. Before filling the storage make sure the control panel operates the dampers and damper motors to ensure the inside environment will be maintained at the levels required to store the harvested tubers. From ab4el.com Mon Oct 3 00:00:00 1994 Subject: Post Harvest Potato Treatment POST HARVEST POTATO TREATMENT: Potato harvesting usually brings with it the risk of storage diseases. To keep these diseases well under control a potato tuber treatment is recommended. MERTECT (thiabendazole) is the standard treatment to consider for treating tubers going into storage. Mertect controls tuber diseases: Dry Rot (Fusarium spp.), Pocket Rot (Phoma spp.), Silver Scurf (Helminthosporium spp.), Skin Spot (Oospora spp.) and Black Scurf (Rhizoctonia spp.). Mertect will provide a higher quality potato to be marketed as table stock. Through the use of Mertect seed potato producers will be able to preserve potato seed vigour, reduce seed decay and keep the five diseases mentioned above under control. The processing potato will benefit from Mertect. Processing potatoes are stored at a higher temperature than seed and table stock tubers. Warm temperatures are more favourable to disease infection than tubers stored at cooler temperatures. Mertect is sold in Canada as a 45% thiabendazole flowable product. When mixed with water, Mertect disperses easily in the water. The product is applied directly to the tubers as a mist as the potato moves over the bin piler. It is also recommended that tubers for seed and table stock be retreated at time of grading to help protect the tubers during shipment and storage at their destination. Mertect Application : 1. Shake the container of Mertect well. 2. Mix 8 litres of Mertect in 170.21 litres of water. Be sure to add the Mertect to the water. Do NOT add water to Mertect. 3. Keep the solution agitated in the holding tank at all times. This prevents the Mertect from settling out. 4. Apply 2 litres of the suspension per metric tonne of potatoes. Be sure the potatoes are rotating over the conveyor line to ensure total tuber coverage. 5. An ideal nozzle pressure for applying the Mertect mist is 80 to 100 psi. This allows a fine mist that will minimize product run-off on the potato tuber. 6. Always try to mix up a new solution of Mertect each day. Do not let the mixture to stand over night. 7. Always follow the labelled directions on the Mertect container. Mertect Applicator: A minimum of equipment is required to apply a Mertect solution. A small motor and pump is needed that will provide 80 to 100 psi of pressure. A holding tank for the Mertect solution with an agitator system, a pressure regulator (with shut-off valve) and a return bypass hose, a pressure gauge and three hollow cone nozzles (8 to 10 inches from the potatoes) that operate on a swivel to set the spray pattern. The applicator system should be installed at a point on the conveyor where the potatoes are falling or turning over. One good place for the spray system is on the bin piler where the potatoes drop onto the boom conveyor form the dirt eliminator or sizing chain. The potatoes both tumble and fall through the mist at this point. The spray equipment can also be watched carefully by the bin piler operator. Be very careful in locating the Mertect treater where the spray mist will cover canvas-backed belts. Canvas belts tend to shrink or separate if they become wet. Use belts that are completely rubber coated. From ab4el.com Mon Oct 3 00:00:00 1994 Subject: Field Standards for Classes of Seed Potates... FIELD STANDARDS FOR CLASSES OF SEED POTATOES PRODUCED ON PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND Pre-Elite: During the growing season, the fields are inspected 3 times by Agriculture Canada Potato Inspectors. With each field inspection, the potato plants must be visably free from any varietal mixture and free from visible symptoms of viruses or other diseases that could affect the quality of the seed. Elite I: During the growing season, the fields are inspected 3 times by federal agriculture inspectors. The potato seed fields must be planted in tuber units - whole seed or cut seed. The first 2 inspection have a tolerance for viruses - there must not be any more than 0.1% visible symptoms of viruses. During the last inspection no visible viruses must be observed. For varietal mixture, there is a zero tolerance during each inspection. Elite II: Durinng the growing season, the fields are inspected 3 times by federal agriculture inspectors. The potato seed must be planted in tuber units - whole seed or cut seed. During the first 2 inspections there must be no more than 0.1% visible symptoms of viruses with no symptoms visible during the last inspection. For varietal mixture, there is a zero tolerance during each inspection. Tolerances for field inspections of Elite III, Elite IV, Foundation and Certified are as follows: Elite III: Inspection 1 .25% Total Viruses; .5% total viruses, wilt, blackleg; .1% Foreign Varieties. Inspection 2 .1% Total Viruses; .25% total viruses, wilt, blackleg; 0% Foreign Varieties. Inspection 3 .1% Total Viruses; .25% total viruses, wilt, blackleg; 0% Foreign Varieties. Elite IV: Inspection 1 .5% Total Viruses; 1.0% total viruses, wilt, blackleg; .1% Foreign Varieties. Inspection 2 .1% Total Viruses; .25% total viruses, wilt, blackleg; 0% Foreign Varieties. Foundation: Inspection 1 .5% Total Viruses; 1.0% total viruses, wilt, blackleg; .1% Foreign Varieties. Inspection 2 .2% Total Viruses; .5% total viruses, wilt, blackleg; .05% Foreign Varieties. Certified: Inspection 1 1.0% any one virus; 2.0% Total Viruses; 3% total viruses, wilt, blackleg; 3% Foreign Varieties. Inspection 2 .5% any one virus; 1% Total Viruses; 2% total viruses, wilt, blackleg; .1% Foreign Varieties. IN UP COMING NEWSLETTERS TUBER STANDARDS FOR SEED SHIPMENTS WILL BE DETAILED. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From ab4el.com Mon Oct 3 00:00:00 1994 Subject: Wanted! WANTED! WANTED! WANTED! WANTED! WANTED! WANTED! WANTED! WANTED! WANTED! Any one wishing to sell Russet Norkotah this year? I have Prince Edward Island buyers who are looking for major sources of this variety. For sales please contact this Newsletter. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From ab4el.com Mon Oct 3 00:00:00 1994 Subject: For Sale! FOR SALE! FOR SALE! FOR SALE! FOR SALE! I have suppliers of new potato varieties. All seed is Nuclear stock or Pre-Elite. The varieties that are for sale include over 80 potato varieties. These varieties include: ATLANTIC, AC NOVACHIP, AC DOMINO, ALLEGANY, CHIEFTAIN, FONTENOT, GEMCHIP, GOLDRUSH, FRONTIER RUSSET, KATAHDIN, KRANTZ, KENNEBEC, NISKA, NORWIS, REDDALE, RUSSET BURBANK, RUSSET NORKOTAH, SEBAGO, SHEPODY, SNOWDEN, SUPERIOR, YUKON GOLD, D.R. NORLAND, NORCHIP. A hot new variety A7961-1 is also available. For further information on any of these varieties please contact this Newsletter. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From ab4el.com Mon Oct 3 00:00:00 1994 Subject: Geneteic Engineerings Genetic Engineering: If you have specific genes in bacteria you wish to introduce into other potato varieties, this newsletter has listings of companies who have the technology and abilities to commercialize this opportunity for you. Confidentiality will be maintained with any genetic requests made by cooperating individuals. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From ab4el.com Mon Oct 3 00:00:00 1994 Subject: Author Info If you have products or services that would be of interest to the potato sector, please contact this Newsletter. Comments or suggestions for future Newsletters are welcomed. POTATO NEWS bncraig@bud.peinet.pe.ca