b'ROUNDTABLE Prepping Your Potato Seed for SpringWhat you need to keep in mind to get your potato seed ready for planting this spring.BY: ASHLEY ROBINSONKHALIL AL-MUGHRABI Editors note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.Provincial potato pathologist with the New BrunswickSpud Smart (SS): Why are potato Department ofseed treatments important?Agriculture, AquacultureKhalil Al-Mughrabi (KA): Potato seed and Fisheriestreatment is important. One of the most important pest management practices RYAN BARRETT that growers can follow or should follow Research and agronomyis planting disease free certified seed specialist with the Princepotatoes. So, if high quality seed stock Edward Island Potatois planted and properly healed after Boardcutting seed piece decay can be minimal, providing that conditions at planting and consequently after planting, allow for rapid emergence and growth.Seed potatoes being loaded at a reduced So, seed piece treatment can be adrop height to reduce injuries to seed. PHOTO: RYAN BARRETTvaluable insurance in the event conditions deteriorate after planting. In Canada thereapical dominance, and we usually have are several products that are registeredmore tubers of smaller size. As we have for seed treatments, much of which areyounger seed, we usually have fewer targeting fusarium dry rot, and sometubers of larger size. If youre going target rhizoctonia and silver scurf WhileRusset Burbank, or other varieties that seedborne late blight has three productsnormally set a lot of tubers, and you wantReason, Revus and Vibrance Ultra. to make sure you dont get small ones in your resulting commercial crop, you may SS: What is physiological age andwant to keep that seed younger. If youre why does it matter when it comes togrowing a variety that generally has fewer seed potatoes? tubers plant, like Dakota Russet, then Ryan Barrett (RB): Physiological age seedthere can be advantages to adding age to is largely influenced by the varietytheyour seed.end use is going to be a big part of this. A huge factor in the physiological age ofSS: How does seed size impact row seed is the growing conditions of the yearspacing when planting potatoes?before, like was the year before hot andRB: In our trials, we have seen that the dry? If it was your seeds probably will besmall whole seed and the large whole more physiologically aged than if it wasseed in general had the same or better an ideal growing season, or if you had allyield than the cut seed with slightly fewer your seed under irrigation.defects, slightly more smalls and less per The storage temperature that yourecent over 10-ounce. The larger whole seed keeping your seed at is importantatpieces, those two and a half to four-ounce ROUNDTABLE SUPPORTED BY: about 4 C were not adding age on to theseed pieces, they did have a higher dollars seed, but above that we are. Importantly,per acre in terms of result and value. we really cant turn the clock backwards.What becomes clear is that when youre So, as we add age to seed, we cant reallycomparing cut seed against whole seed, reverse that. one thing that we really need to do is dial And why this is important is thatin exactly what your seed spacing is. The as seed gets older, it generally breaksbigger the seed piece, either whole or 46SPUDSMART.COM Spring 2023'