b"HotAFTER A DELAYED, WET, and cold #plant22 for some in Canada, the warm and dry conditions of spring 2023 were a welcome reprieve. Growers were able to get their crop in fast with relatively few headaches. Things went well, conditions were pretty good across theHotcountry to get in (potatoes). And it went in, in fact, quickly actually, especially compared to last yearbut then it got hot and dry, Victoria Stamper, general manager of the United Potato Growers of Canada, explains in a phone interview. She adds while those in the west are still facing hot dry conditions, those further east from Ontario through to Prince Edward Island have received a goodHot amount of rain over the past few weeks as of June 20, 2023.As the story usually goes, conditions did vary across Canada during planting. In Alberta, growers were held back from getting into the fields due to cold, wet weather. However, the script quickly flipped with growers now praying for rain. We had some decent rains last spring, but it hasn't rained since thenit's just that simple. We didn't have a lot of snowmelt runoff, so we had limited springtime snowmelt runoff and our irrigation A relatively smooth, reservoirs rely on runoff to recharge, Terence Hochstein, executive fast planting seasondirector of the Potato Growers of Alberta, explains in a phone interview. We've had thunder showers go through the province, but is being followedwe have not had a normal soaking rain.by hot, dry weather,The hot, dry weather has allowed for potato growth to catch up following its late start, but Hochstein says the plants need rain or leaving spudselse a wreck could happen. In the southern portion of the province, withering out in fields.some irrigation districts are already on allocation, while in the north, non-irrigated seed fields need rain before their crop progress starts BY: ASHLEY ROBINSON going backwardsa three-inch accumulation of rain did fall in the region during the week of June 18 helping seed fields out.Nobody's talking extraordinary crop right now, we're the fifteenth of June, you can get a hailstorm, you can get all kinds of things. Right now, were sitting in an OK spot, but theres a whole lot of the season yet to come in front of us, Hochstein adds.In Manitoba, potato fields are being scorched with temperatures 125 per cent hotter this spring and only 25 to 40 per cent of normal rain amounts having fallen, Manitoba Agricultures Vikram Bisht wrote in a June 15 crop report.16SPUDSMART.COMSummer 2023"