[AT] Info on potato growing and crop insurance - was RE: OT Happy white easter

Thu Apr 12 08:03:44 PDT 2012

Charlie, I would not describe this as having crop problems, rather as the ups and downs of farming! We will be appying a little extra fertilizer to the potatoes to help them, but the Squash and Cucumbers that got frost damage will simply either not make it (very likely) or have reduced and late yields. That is just the way it is. One note that you may not realize is that in practical terms the disaster relief and crop insurance programs simply do not exist for most California vegetable growing operations, especially an operation like I have. The reasons are that the programs are designed primarily for what I would call monocrop farms. The programs all presume one planting date per season, rather than our situation of year round planting times. They also presume that there is one harvest time per type of crop (such as Grain Corn or Soybeans are harvested in the late summer or fall.) The programs also presume that waht I would call clean up harvests (such as the cutting of the Spinach after the hailstorms we had this year and last - another item that used to be exceedingly rare, but seems not to be now) do not occur. We have to do those clean up harvests to return to the market ASAP after a weather event or else we would lose our customers, just as the other California produce operations need to do. Remember we market fresh vegetables all year long from our fields here in Californis's Central Coastal region. Crop insurance is also offered only for some crops (most of ours are not on the list) and it does not account for premium quality prices - we sell most of our products to restaurants because of of the quality and despite our being an organic farm, many of those sales are because our products taste better and have less waste than the chemically grown producers. The buyers buy based on flavor, looks and nutrition which is very, very unusual - most farms' wholesale customers do not even consider flavor or level of nutrient content (except animal feed buyers and TDN, % protein and moisture content!) The last reason the programs don't help us is that if we lose less than 50% of the yield for all plantings of that vegetable for the year, then there is no payment. 
     I consider myself only a so-so potato grower as although I can grow perfect potatoes everytime in the garden (as long as they are not hit by frost!), that in the fields we are still very much fine-tuning the process and we are working on improving yields as this area has not been a significant potato area since the 1940's. There are two basic rules for potato fertilization that a gardener needs to follow (I presume you are asking about gardening). First, don't short the plants early on nitrogen and other nutrients and second, monitor the plants to see if they are happy.
     The BIG commercial growers use massive amounts of either chemical or organic nitrogen fertilizer and in a sense they are correct, potatoes use a large amount of nitrogen. However, if you are using chemical fertilizer for your nutrients, there are huge hazards physiologically for the plants that have to be guarded against. Disclosure here that I think everyone knows on the list that I AM an organic farmer, but I did farm with chemicals decades ago and am knowledgeable about many of the practices that are used today still in that field. Potato yields are typically limited by two nutrients - Nitrogen and Calcium, although they use significant levels of all sorts of elements. The more nitrogen applied to the soil or plant, the more likely imbalances involving Calcium and other nutrients become. So if you are using Chemical fertilizer you need to test for the nutrients that are not contained in the fertilizer because remember that nearly all Chemical Fertilizers contain only usable N, P and K. Calcium, Sulfur, Zinc, Magnesium and many other elements are critical to the processes of a potato plant and the microbes that surround it in the soil. But whatever the source of nutrients, potatoes are unhappy if there is not a pretty large amount of usable Nitrogen in the soil before Tuber formation. 
    The way I make that happen in a garden (or my fields) is by applying a slightly higher than usual amount of compost (versus other crops) before planting, working it into the soil well so that most of it is at or below the depth of where I will plant the seed potato. Then when the potato plants are setting tubers, if indicated I sidedress added fertilizer in the field. In the garden I have found it quite effective to plant potatoes after a legume crop such as winter peas, Fava Beans or a cover crop of vetch or clover because they start to release the nitrogen from breakdown at the perfect time for the potatoes. In the garden I rarely need to sidedress as a result, but if I do I use a well composted manure or feather meal. In the field I use feather meal.
     One thing that is critical for potatoes to do well, irrespective of the specifically applied fertilizers is to make sure that they are hilled multiple times during growth. This is important to limit the amount of weeding (the hilling covers weeds before they become a problem) and also to cover enough potential nodes for tuber setting to allow a large yield. It also reduces the water stress of the plants as if they do not have enough of the lower sections of the plants covered with soil, then they are slightly weaker and also transpirate more moisture out of the leaves. In our climate with the low rainfall and need to irrigate most crops, this is really important Right now we have potatoes ranging from just emerging from the soil to about 18" tall, with the last planting to occur this season in June. I have planted potatoes as late as July 15 successfully in a favorable year.
     Good luck! Also, being in the Southeast as you are, it is necessary to plant varieties that are heat adapted, unlike most of the varieties that I grow that are happiest in cool to warm temperatures. One of my favorites is Kerr's Pink a potato from Ireland that loves coolish weather and heavy soil. For North Carolina, the university extension has a really terrific website with info about adapted varieties that I looked at a few years ago.
         Grant Brians
         Hollister,California Vegetable, Nuts and Fruit farmer

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com]On Behalf Of charlie hill
Sent: Monday, April 09, 2012 1:28 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] OT Happy white easter

Grant,  sorry to hear you are having crop problems.  I hope the frost damage 
isn’t as bad as you fear.

If you don't mind, would you give me/us a quick lesson on how to properly 
fertilize potatoes.  I know that if you put too much to them they will not 
turn out well.  I'd like to know how you do it or for that matter how anyone 
on the list does as long as you are a successful potato grower.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: Grant Brians
Sent: Monday, April 09, 2012 12:52 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] OT Happy white easter

Here in the Santa Clara Valley of California we just had three days with
frost in a row! This is unheard of and was deadly for the Squash and
Cucumbers! The Potatoes (1st planting not the smaller subsequent plantings)
have a modest level of frost damage, I am hoping that with an extra
application of fertilizer they will still yield at a very good level. The
Tomatoes appear to have made it through with only slow growth and perhaps
modest yield effects. The last four years have yielded 3 years of the lowest
low temperatures in April we have had since records started around 1800.
Previously we have usually not had frost after mid-February almost every
year. Many years there woulf not be frost in February even. On the other
hand, as mentioned by people on the list and weather folk, the high
temperatures in February and March across much of the country (including
here) were very unseasonable too. We normally do get highs in the 60s in
February and march at least part of the time, but they were in the 70s much
more than usual. Climate change is real.
     We lost more root crops than usual to early flowering with the weather
this year, yet we were colder than usual part of the time too. I'm hoping
that the warm season crops end up not having the problems with lack of heat
that the last several years presented.
           Grant Brians

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com]On Behalf Of Ralph Goff
Sent: Saturday, April 07, 2012 11:54 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] OT Happy white easter

On 4/7/2012 12:19 PM, Richard Fink Sr wrote:
> Ralph they are calling for snow flurries here on Tuesday and
Wednesday,hope
> nothing like you got.
> R Fink
> PA
>
>
Richard, its nothing new for us. We could get another spring blizzard
like this a month from now and it would not be unheard of. In the hammer
mill video I posted yesterday you can see the beautiful weather we had
with sunshine and temps in the high 60s. Thats why today is such a
contrast. I'm not touching the snow shovel though. At 30 degrees I think
it will be melting if I have a little patience. Just sit back and listen
to the gas furnace running, wishing I still had that wood stove.

Ralph in Sask.

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