Understanding potato crop growth stages

Understanding potato crop growth stages PR16 Agronomists, potato business employees, supply chain employees, farm managers and farmers An intermediate course best suited to those who are able to demonstrate some practical experience A half day classroom-based course TBC Sarah Roberts, Potato Physiology Research Specialist, Niab

Classroom module 1 (half day):

• Link between crop management and potato growth and development
• Characteristics of potatoes (e.g. clonal, perishable)
• Growth keys (e.g. BBCH)
• Seed (dormancy, apical dominance, physiological and chronological age, sprouting, storage temperature, pathology, size, cutting)
• Emergence (soil temperature, planting depth, pathology)
• Above-ground morphology (main stems, branches, flowering)
• Below-ground morphology (roots, stolons, tubers)
• Root growth (soil conditions, variety)
• Leaf appearance (temperature, variety, nutrition)
• Tuber initiation (definitions, timing, duration, variety)
• Crop cover (leaf area index, ground cover)
• Dry matter accumulation (radiation use efficiency, water, pathology)
• Partitioning of dry matter (nitrogen, variety, time, harvest index)
• Development of yield (rate of bulking, factors affecting)
• Tuber dry matter concentration (variety, nutrients, change with time)
• Tuber populations (relation with stem population, variety, environment)
• Tuber size distributions (mean tuber size, uniformity, marketable yield)
• Senescence and harvesting (haulm destruction, skinset, bruising)
• Storage (suberisation, weight loss, pathology, biochemical changes)

At the end of this course will understand:

•    Key aspects of potato growth and development
•    How to use knowledge of crop growth to guide agronomic decisions including seed rates and fertiliser requirements
•    Factors limiting crop productivity and quality