CULTIVATION AND TECHNOLOGY Planting in 2016: more than just putting tubers into the ground Planting machines are increasingly equipped with gadgets nowadays. How far do you go along with this as a grower/ contractor and is it as wonderful as it seems? That’s a question that crop grower and contractor Pieter Evenhuis in Giethoorn also regularly struggles with. t’s the beginning of March, and the spring activities haven’t yet started so, Evenhuis and his workforce still have time for a last check of the planting machinery. Today, this involves quite a bit more than simply tightening the cup feeding system and lubricating the ridging discs. At many potato farms, planting is no longer a matter of just putting tubers into the soil. In 2015, feeding, medicating and possibly even a beauty treatment are included in one work passage. To be able to do this, Evenhuis’ two planting machines are equipped with a granulate spreader plus a complete unit for administering liquid manure or chemicals for tuber and soil treatment. The equipment needs to work properly at times when it’s most needed. I Transport plays an important role Evenhuis currently grows over 250 hectares of French-fry potatoes every year. That’s quite a big area which requires meticulous planning if he wants to effectively utilise the number of workable days during the planting period in March and April. Most of his many leased plots, with heavy sandy and sandy peat soils are up to a distance of 25 kilometres around his farm. So Evenhuis not only needs the time for planting but also for transport. It’s this transport that plays an important role in the effective utilisation of the extra technology on the planter, appears from the interview with the crop farmer. To give a good idea of the developments over the years, he sketches a brief history of the cultivation of potatoes on his farm. ‘About 20 years ago, we were still exclusively cultivating industrial potatoes. The first planting machine already had a gadget. It was used to treat seed with powder against Rhizoctonia. Later, the granulate spreader was added, which we use to control potato cyst nematodes. The investment costs were still reasonably low, the technology uncomplicated and the transport was no problem either. Bags of powder and granulate were easy to transport to the various plots.’ From industrial to consumption potatoes Over the years, Evenhuis slowly started to specialise in potato cultivation. Year after year the acreage increased, with the share of industrial potatoes decreasing and that of French-fry potatoes increasing. ‘With that shift, we also got other potato varieties, including those with resistance to potato cyst nematode. So the need to spray against nematodes disappeared. In 2015, feeding, medicating and possibly even a beauty treatment are included in one work passage as much as possible. For this purpose, the two planting machines of Pieter Evenhuis are both provided with the necessary equipment. What we got back, though, were wireworms. As we spread the same granulate for wireworms, the spreader remained as standard on the planting machine. Our oldest planter is fitted with Gandy spreaders (Zibo) and the latest model has two Horstine spreaders.’ Rhizoctonia requires both tuber and soil treatment In addition to wireworms, Rhizoctonia is a dreadful potato pest in the Giethoorn polder, which requires a strict control regime around the planting period. ‘The risk of infection has increased in recent years due to intermittent structural damage’, Evenhuis tells us. In plots where the structure is bad, Rhizoctonia causes damage in the shape of small holes in the skin. This phenomenon is called ‘dry core’, Evenhuis explains. As the crop grower wants to prevent his French-fry potatoes from being infected, he treats the seed preventively against the fungus as best he can. The powder applicators on the planting machines for the treatment against Rhizoctonia are now gone. ‘We’re now handling the tubers ourselves with a liquid treat40 Potato World 2016 • number 1 Pagina 39
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