The potato field next to my house has this strip that goes around the whole field where the farmer topped off or sprayed the potatoes long before topping the rest. This dead strip was done several weeks ago when the plants were in full leaf, the rest were topped last week. We thought they’d take the potatoes up but they haven’t been touched and now the stalks are rotting. Why? I’m sure there’s a farming reason and I’m curious to find out!
by VegetableWorry1492
14 comments
I was told many years ago that they do this to help prevent the spread of pests and diseases. They can’t spread through the dead crops and therefore can’t reach the healthy ones.
It’s a sacrifice to Demeter to guarantee a good harvest
Potato tops are destroyed to:
1. Achieve better skin set
2. Make lifting flow more easily
3. Reduce chance of blight on the foliage, which can become tuber blight and rot in store.
Just waiting to be lifted, probably waiting for dry enough soil.
Those are the evil potatoes
Is normal, called topping and is just part of the harvesting process
No idea but a farmer near me claims to have pulled up over 20 tonnes of potatoes per acre. I had no idea one could get that many,
You could ask the farmer but it is more than likely a that strip has been topped and left to die.
You wait 2 or 3 weeks after the top has died to harvest. This gives thicker skin. Perfect for jacket potatoes and longer shelf life.
Kaleb did that bit
Sacrificial spuds for the Spud God.
Ok so I’m not a spud farmer but know a little about it. More than likely they have been sprayed off/ topped before the rest as they will be harvested first. It is correct what others have said that killing the tops of them off makes the tubers get a hard skin on, which protects them during harvest, storage, travel things like that.
This is on what we call a headland run so will probably run all the way round the outside of the field so will be a fair amount of potatoes. Some farms will only harvest so many tonnes a day, take them back to the farm, bag them in 25kg bags and then load straight onto a wagon to go to wherever they distribute them. So this could be the reason they are only look to be killing them in stages.
Fun fact also is that the uk potato harvest has only started in the last couple of months, so up until till then the ones we have been buying at the supermarket have been coming out of a cold store could have possibly been harvested this time last year and kept fresh in very clever temperature controlled stores.
Oh also, with the weather being as wet as it is harvest is a real struggle for many this year so if you see a load of mud being dragged out onto the roads just know it’s not through not caring, the harvest just has to come off then no matter what.
Could be a different variety that matures earlier than the centre of the field. The outsides are always lifted first. Or the headlands (the bits around the field) are really heavy soil so want to be sure they can be lifted befor this rain hits.
They could have also gone in and topped then realised the middle just wasn’t ready so have waited for the spuds to put on more weight
Finally we in r/Ireland are getting our revenge!
Sometimes a guard row will be planted to protect the others. Might be a different variety
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