y CU LTIVATION AND TECHNOLOGY Investing in storage is still necessary, also after Brexit built. Yet, the Durdy cousins decided to wait a while before starting with long-term storage. ‘We wanted to gain the necessary experience first and make the investment step-by-step. Not only to acquire some knowledge about storage, but also to wait for the consequences of Brexit. Nobody can shed any light on that yet’, Durdy thinks. ‘Only then will we decide whether we’ll install mechanical cooling, possibly with an air humidification system and/or whether we’ll use new sprout inhibitors such as 1,4 DMN (1,4 SIGHT) or Smartblock. The reason why we hope to use these particular sprout inhibitors is that we want to keep the new storehouse free from Chloro-IPC. And also because customers such as McCain have said that they’ll only buy residue-free potatoes in the long term. We also intend to store cereals in the storehouse for brief periods, like we’ve been doing in the old storehouse. It goes without saying that there shouldn’t be any CIPC traces’, Durdy explains. Adjusting the storage regime Durdy Jr and his cousin have already found out in recent months that ‘gaining experience first’ wasn’t a bad idea. ‘There’s quite a bit of Phytophthora in the tubers’, pointing to a few rotten potatoes in storage unit 2. ‘That’s why we’ve started the delivery process a little bit earlier than intended’, he explains. Royal and Markies are both long-storage varieties, but the Durdys put them into storage without sprout inhibitors. A healthy product of these slow-sprouting varieties can usually be successfully stored without sprouting until early April. The remaining Markies that are still stored in unit 2 in mid-March aren’t showing any sprouts yet. The reason that they need to leave earlier is due to a few nests of rotten Phytophthora tubers in the middle of the heap, which couldn’t be kept dry any longer. ‘That’s still something we need to gain control over’, says Durdy with a hopeful smile. If we get Phytophthora infections again next season, the first important thing is to store as few infected and/or rotten tubers as possible and to keep the bad sections in the field separate, Durdy has learned. But we may also be able to make some improvements to the storage regime, adds storage y-step. Not only to acquire the necessary knowledge about storage, but also to wait James Durdy (r) thinks. A wooden partition has been placed at the end of the pressure room. This has three closable apertures, one above the other, with a big ventilator behind each aperture. Depending on the capacity needed, one, two or three ventilators blow the necessary air into the pressure room. Potato World 2017 • number 4 35 Pagina 34
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