b"Potatoes going into storage at Sunrise Potato Storage.The Long HaulThree potato experts share some tips on how toachieve storage success.BY: MARK HALSALLPETER VANDERZAAG, co-owner of Sunrise Potato Storage Ltd. in Alliston, Ont.What is your fan capacity? What is your humidification indication ability? Is and a prominent Canadian potato scientist, learned a valuable lesson aboutit the right fit and design, both for the area that youre farming and for the kind of storing spuds from his father, one of his mentors for growing potatoes. potatoes that are going into the bin? Having that specific knowledge about things Potatoes, he was told, should look as good coming out of the bin as whenlike this for each storage is very important.theyre freshly harvested. The reason being the price farmers pay if theyre not.Once potatoes are ready to go into the bin, our experts agreed that ensuring If you dont do the storage properly, you have nothing but cattle feed, and thatproper ventilation, humidification and temperature settings in a storage facility doesn't pay anything, says VanderZaag.will not only help keep the tubers in good physiological condition, it will prevent or Marlon Kuhl of Southern Potato Co. in Winkler, Man., agrees that long-termreduce disease in the pile.potato storage can be a high-stakes game.The most important reason to have the right storage environment would beDIFFERENT CHARACTERISTICSthat youve got a lot of money invested into that crop at that point, he says. With more than 2,000 acres of potato production, Southern Potato Co. is one of When potatoes go into storage, they can be a long time frame away fromManitobas largest potato farms and has an extensive storage system in place for marketing. Thats why its so important that theyre stored well, and the storage isholding its hefty crop of chipping, table and seed potatoes.managed properly, until they get marketed. This is to ensure the quality of the cropKuhl says because different characteristics are sought out by different for the customer theyre being sold to and also the profitability back to the farmer. markets, the optimal environmental conditions and best practices for storing fresh, As potato growers know, maintaining that quality over the course of a longprocessing and seed potatoes will differ as well. storage season, however, is a long way from easy. Nora Olsen, a noted potato re- The kind of potatoes youre storing, whether its fresh potatoes or processing searcher at the University of Idaho, along with VanderZaag and Kuhl, were asked topotatoes, is going to change the management practices, he says. The ultimate share some tips for growers that could provide the best chance of storage success.goal is to get the best quality into the hands of your customers. Disease control Olsen believes a good first step for potato farmers is to have a firm under- is part of it. Fry quality is part of it for processing potatoes. For any potato really, standing of what their storage facilities can and cant do. moisture loss and pressure bruising are a big thing for sure.A really important concept is knowing the pros and cons of your storages,VanderZaags Sunrise Potato operation grows primarily chipping potatoes but because they all have their capabilities and limitations, she says.also table and some seed potatoes. Its state-of-the-art storage facilities feature 22 SPUDSMART.COM FALL 2019"