b'Cut seed potatoes.PHOTO: RYAN BARRETTcut, the more that were going to have toon the variety you may have to adjust thatgot even cutting, you dont have potatoes increase the seed spacing. Likewise, theslightly. bunching up and getting on top of each smaller the seed well have to tighten thatother, that youve got bruising from spacing up a little bit. SS: What should growers keep inbouncing around and maybe not being mind when it comes to potato seedcut in the right place. Keep the knives SS: What should you keep in mindhandling? sharp to avoid jagged edges on your cut regarding size when cutting seedRB: One of the main priorities is reducingsurfaces. Check that horizontal knife for tubers? drop height. Try and keep that dropthe ones that are getting cut in half on RB: This year in a lot of parts of Canadaheight to less than six inches, and ideallythe top, ensuring that it is cutting those and North America, seed supply is tight.as low as possible the better. Monitoringtubers evenly. Finally, open up that chip So, there can be pressure on the growerthat bin piler or the conveyors andeliminator to discard those pieces less side to cut seeds smaller because theykeeping it level with where the seed isthan 1.5 ounces. Remember those small want to make their seed go furtherdropping will minimize that drop heightseed pieces you might grow a plant, but because they just dont have that muchto less than an inch. Hopefully, thats nottheyre not going to theyre not going seed around. But weve seen in a lotgoing to put any bruise on that cut seedto pay for themselves. Its important to of trials over a lot of years that smalleras its moving through the cutting andfrequently take samples of your seed seed pieces with more cut edges andloading process, which is terrific. profile during cutting to ensure that smaller overall size do have a lowerSet cutter disinfection is a big storyyoure meeting your targeted average yield potential, a higher risk of non- that weve talked about in recent years,seed piece size while keeping as tight of a emergence, and they generally dont payparticularly as we see some moredistribution on size as possible. for themselves. So, what is the sweet spotaggressive strains of blackleg around. for cutting seed size? Growers face a variety of seed-borne Larger seed piece size is generallydisease issues, such as soft rot, BRR associated with better yield. In general,and other bacterial diseases, and fungal cut seed pieces under one and a halfdiseases like Fusarium. So, seed cutter ounces they struggle to produce a viabledisinfection is a very important. plant or if they do, theyre more at risk ofWhen it comes to set cutterFor more information on seed potato prep visit disease. Keeping your average seed sizemaintenance and calibration, make surehttps://spudsmart.com/prepping-your-potato-to 2.3 to 2.5 ounces is usually about theyour rollers are on the right sizes. Adjustseed-for-spring-webinar-and-podcast/ and watch sweet spot for most varieties. Dependingthose flow volumes to ensure that youveour latest webinar about it.SPUDSMART.COM Spring 202347'