GREAT FALLS, Mont. - Move over Idaho! According to Farmers Union President Walter Schweitzer, Montana is “world famous” for quality of our seed potatoes. Spring is finally here and you might spend some time gardening, below he shares some important tips for anyone looking to plant potatoes.
“Montana is world renowned for the quality of our seed potatoes. It’s disease free, insect free, because our winters in Montana we kill off the insects and diseases from one year to the next. It’s also because our Montana Seed Potato Growers Association has a very strict requirement for all of their seed growers. It’s foundation seed for the potato industry in the United States and it can be put at risk by gardeners planting their own potatoes back or by gardeners bringing in potatoes from other states. They can bring in diseases that can infect the seed potato fields in the state of Montana so I beg of you if you have an already planted your garden with potatoes please get Montana’s certified seed potatoes. Protect our industry,” Schweitzer said.
If you wish to grow your own potatoes, gardeners or farmers don't necessarily need certified seeds.
“Potatoes grow from the tuber so your seed is actually just the potatoes that you you eat, and they cut them up because there’s little eyes and that’s where it grows from,” Schweitzer said.
You can simply place one in the ground, then water and take care of it for about 80-100 days, but there’s an important step you should take first in the grocery store. When buying a whole potato, look to see where that spud was grown to make sure it isn't harmful to your whole garden.
"They can bring the disease that was from the plant that they grew in Colorado, or Minnesota, or Wisconsin, and bring those diseases to our Montana seed growers,” Schweitzer said.
Potatoes can be noxious weed super-spreaders, the kind that take over small or large gardening or farming spaces, so it's important to buy seeds approved by the state Seed Growers Association, or assure the potato you plant was grown in Montana.
“Certified seed means that it’s been certified by the state of Montana State Seed Growers Association. This means that it’s noxious weed free and you know they have some disease requirements as well, but it’s mostly guaranteeing that you’re planting seed that the state of Montana has certified as safe to be planted in Montana. There’s certified seed from other states and certified seed from other countries, but to be on the safe side you should try to plant certified seed. For you vegetable garden growers, the major seed supplier or seed catalog, that seed is generally pretty safe to except for seed potatoes,” Schweitzer said.
Our cold winters help kill insects and diseases. This is all to improve overall garden health, and cut down the time you spend pulling out or getting rid of weeds. If a potato does have a disease, the spud is not harmful to consume, but may make a tangled mess in your garden that could be expensive to clear.
“These diseases are not bad for consumers; they’re bad for production of the potato. If a potato is infected with potato leaf blight, or leaf roll, or PVY (Potato Virus Y), Potato Virus X, it drastically reduces the yields that the potato farmers get, and so Montana has PVY, PVX-free, potato leaf roll virus- free, so the potato growers in Idaho, Washington, even then Canada get by Montana seed and know they’re not going to be bringing diseases to their farm as well. And they can start with a clean plant.”
May 12, 2021 at 09:07PM
https://ift.tt/3uM4mhp
How to grow the perfect “world famous” Montana potato - KULR-TV
https://ift.tt/2rh4zOj
Potato
No comments:
Post a Comment