Winter 2020 ALBERTA Terence Hochstein, Executive Director, Potato Growers of Alberta Only in Alberta can you go from -35 C on Friday to 2 C on Sunday morning. Such is the life in the Chinook belt of southern Alberta. The winter in Alberta has been a mixed bag to say the least. Three feet of snow at the end of September, then it’s gone for a while, then another couple of feet,…
Fall 2019 MANITOBA Dan Sawatzky, General Manager, Keystone Potato Producers Association MANITOBA Dan Sawatzky, General Manager, Keystone Potato Producers Association As I write this article in mid-September, the storage potato harvest is finally fully underway. Rain that was in short supply over the summer came in the early part of the month, limiting harvest progress. Processors managed their supply through rain stock, asking growers with direct contracts to lay their product in…
Summer 2019 MANITOBA Dan Sawatzky, General Manager, Keystone Potato Producers Association The crop in Manitoba is progressing well. Planting was only slightly behind normal but cool May weather delayed emergence putting the crop three to five days behind. Dry conditions contributed to little seed rot being reported in spite of the delayed emergence resulting in good stands. Another observation with delayed emergence is the even staging of the crop development across the…
SPRING 2019 MANITOBA Dan Sawatzky, General Manager, Keystone Potato Producers Association As I write this snapshot of what I am seeing in the Manitoba potato world, both Simplot Canada and McCain Foods are busy with capital projects. Simplot is on track with the construction of a new plant adjacent to their Portage location doubling their capacity and adding to their ability to produce specialty products. McCain is near the end of a…
New Brunswick The 2018 growing season in New Brunswick is complete and will be remembered as one of the most challenging in the last 10 years or more. The challenging growing season in New Brunswick was further exacerbated by an early deep penetrating frost and subsequent excessive moisture during the harvest season. The September frosts capped yields early and wet conditions during the harvest posed several challenges for growers as they attempted…
MANITOBA Dan Sawatzky, General Manager, Keystone Potato Producers Association Heat and lack of rainfall highlight the growing conditions for Manitoba this season. Above 30 C days were double the normal, which will have some effect on yield and quality. 2011 was the most recent year where we experienced similar heat, which resulted in significant yield losses. Dry conditions were carried over from last fall and winter, where little precipitation fell. This summer’s…
BRITISH COLUMBIA By Hugh Reynolds, Reynelda Farms, Delta, B.C. B.C. has had near endless rain in January with a very cold February and a wet, cool March forecast. This puts B.C. behind for our famous early potatoes. With today’s excellent planters, we will only need a good week to pound in many acres of potatoes, but they will be a little later this year. In B.C. we have a regulated quota for potato delivery…
ALBERTA By Terence Hochstein, Executive Director, Potato Growers of Alberta Alberta’s 2017 crop turned out to be a mixed bag. While quality remains excellent, our yields were all over the place. Some fields had Russet crops going down mid-August which greatly affected their yields. The ones that stayed green until mid-September were quite a bit better yielding. Like many growing areas across Canada, the increasing occurrence of Verticillium wilt (early die) is…
ALBERTA By Terence Hochstein, Executive Director, Potato Growers of Alberta Alberta’s spring got off to what most would consider a normal spring, with good weather and normal moisture. Planting got underway in the south about April 20, with the north seed areas starting about three weeks later. It’s a good thing we had early spring moisture because that is the last that most growing areas received. The south has not received any…
MANITOBA By Dan Sawatzky, General Manager, Keystone Potato Producers Association Growers in Manitoba experienced an excellent start to the season, seeing good potential in the crop this year. Although planting began a little behind last year, the majority of the crop did get planted during the first 10 days of May, bringing it in line with average planting completion. Crop development was rapid, with row closure beginning by the third week of…