March 26, 2025 • 37 mins
This week on the War Against Weeds Podcast we have Dr. Andy Robinson on to chat about all things potatoes. He covers weed management, planting, harvesting and where you can find most of our potato production here in the states!
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Episode Transcript
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Joe Ikley (00:06):
Welcome back to the war against weeds Podcast. I'm
Joe Ikley, extension weedspecialist at North Dakota State
University. My co host today isAlyssa Essman at The Ohio State
how's it going Alyssa?
Alyssa Essman (00:20):
Pretty good, Joe, we got a week of 60s and 70s out
here. So I think people arestarting to get antsy.
Joe Ikley (00:25):
Yeah, the day of recording, we're going to be mid
60s, not quite flirting with 70,but it should be single digits
by tonight. So march in thenorthern plains. But our guest
today, we're going to be talkingabout potatoes. So we brought on
Dr Andy Robinson, also fromNDSU. So Andy, welcome to the
(00:46):
podcast. And why don't you tellall the folks out there what you
do here?
Andy Robinson (00:50):
Yeah, great. So, yeah, my name is Andy Robinson.
I am a associate professor andpotato Extension Agronomist for
North Dakota State University,and I hold a joint appointment
with University of Minnesota.
Joe Ikley (01:02):
All right, And since you live and breathe all things
potato, we thought we'd have youon so most of our guests are
certainly used to row crops andbuying some seed planted in the
ground and then going fromthere. So we figured we should
probably take a little bit of astep back and talk a little bit
about potato agronomy first, asthat's kind of the first
question. And what are some ofthe major production differences
(01:23):
between potatoes? And when youthink about your typical seeded
row crops,
Andy Robinson (01:29):
yeah, so there's a lot, there's a lot of
differences, and there's alsoquite a few similarities. But
probably the big thing to firststart out with on potatoes is we
asexually reproduce them,because they are tetraploid, so
they're very difficult to crosstwo plants and get a seed that
is exactly what you want. So weactually will take tissue, we
cut it, we grow tubers in theground. We harvest those, we
(01:50):
replant them. So that makes theprocess a lot different than row
crops, instead of just crossinga couple hybrids and getting the
seed right and planting it. Sobecause of that, that does
change. As far as herbicides, wehave a lot of pre emergent
herbicides that can be utilizedbecause you have a large tuber
that has a lot of energy. Alsoit changes also our rotation
(02:13):
tube, because there's a lot ofsoil borne pathogens that can
affect potatoes, as well asviruses. And so we're typically
on long rotations, maybe once inevery three or four years, and
seed might be once in every fiveor six years in the field. So
big rotations, seeds, a lotdifferent. It is a crop that
actually has a high nutritionalvalue and very low cost. So lot
(02:34):
of value that way too. And it'sgrown in more most countries in
the world. So it's, it's peoplethink about potatoes a lot,
because acres in North Americaare probably less than 2
million, but the production isquite high because of the amount
of water that potatoes hold.
Joe Ikley (02:51):
just sticking with the kind of more the agronomy or
maybe even the marketing side.But you know, a lot of people
think when they hear potatoes,or think Idaho, when it comes to
the US, but we have quite a fewaround here, and so maybe it
also be good to go through justsome major potato growing
regions. Maybe we'll stick withjust the US on that one and
different varieties marketclasses that are out there.
Andy Robinson (03:12):
Sure. Yeah. So most of our potatoes are grown
in the states that borderCanada, in the northern us,
because potatoes are cool seasoncrop, and also it helps us store
them through the winter. Themajority of potatoes are
actually grown in the PacificNorthwest. It'd be Idaho,
Washington and Oregon. That'sprobably over 60% of our potato
production. And then as you workyour way across to the east,
(03:34):
you've got production acrossmost of those states, and it
varies based on where you're at.As far as market types go.
There's more or less three majormarkets that potatoes are grown
for. You've got processed,frozen process, which would be
like your french fries, yourhash browns, those kinds of
materials that are made in afactory and frozen. And that's
going to be about two thirds ofthe US production. And then
(03:55):
there's a chipping potatoes thatare made for chips. You know
when you buy in the store inbags. I don't know the exact
percent off the top of my head.And then the other big market is
going to be our fresh potatoes.Those are the ones you see in
the grocery store that you goand buy, or they're sold to food
service industries, you know, torestaurants and and whatnot. So
those are your three mainindustries you're growing for
(04:15):
seed. Seed is kind of anindustry because of this asexual
reproduction that we do, becauseyou'll grow seed usually for
three or four years before itgoes commercial. So it's kind of
got its own little, I guess,niche. And then we do have some
dehydrated potatoes, but that'stypically for potatoes that may
not make grade, and also for, Iguess there are some grown for
that specifically, but we doexport a lot of dehydrated
(04:36):
potatoes, and there's a lot ofdehydrated potatoes put in food
products like soups and things.So yeah, there's a lot of
potatoes are very versatile, Iguess, and there's a lot of uses
for them. So
Joe Ikley (04:45):
maybe going just a little bit more explanation than
making great things when beingfrom Maryland, when I hear that,
I think about crabs and crabsizes and number ones versus
number twos, etc. Is it similarwith potatoes? So you dig up a
whole field at the end of theyear, and you. Based on the size
that comes out of the ground caninfluence the market quality.
Andy Robinson (05:05):
Yep, yep. So yeah, you're paid on quality and
quantity. So you got to be ableto either process that potato
into the product that you wantat the end of the day, or it's
got to look really nice whenthey have it in the grocery
store for someone to buy it,right? So yes, we do, depends on
the variety and depends on whatyou're doing. But you may only
(05:27):
sell 80% of what you harvest or90% of what you harvest, just as
a rough estimate, but there istypically some culling of
potatoes, or you have other wehave grades, us, one, us two,
and you do get paid differentamounts for the quality of your
potato. So, yeah, it it isreally important. Quality is a
really important thing forpotatoes. And so like, when
somebody comes and says, Oh, Igot this product, we can
(05:49):
increase your yield by 10 or 20%that's great. But are you going
to make more money at the end ofthe day, you know? Or is that
going to reflect the quality ofthe potatoes? And that's a
really important thing that wehave to deal with in potatoes.
It's not just, it's just, notjust total yield.
Joe Ikley (06:02):
I'm assuming weed competition, weed pressure is
one thing that can decrease thequality make for smaller
potatoes.
Andy Robinson (06:10):
Definitely. Yes, yeah, weed pressure is, is
important for production size.But also weeds are interesting
in potatoes too, becausepotatoes are a solanaceae crop.
So when you get your nightshadesin the field, they can also
harbor some diseases that areproblematic to potatoes, or also
be a host for some of theinsects that also prey on
(06:32):
potatoes. So weeds areproblematic in different ways in
potatoes,
Joe Ikley (06:38):
and today, we'll use that as our transition. So what
are, and this probably alsovaries by region, so we'll focus
within your region. So what arethe major weed issues? You
mentioned night shades. So whatelse?
Andy Robinson (06:50):
Yep yeah, hairy nightshade, Eastern black
nightshade are certainly quiteproblematic, because you're
trained to control them, but nothurt the potatoes, right? So
trying to kill a cousin off, butnot kill your major crop off,
right? With the herbicide. Sothat's always a challenge,
right? So yeah, night shades arebig issue, but it's gonna be
similar to a lot of other cropproduction. Or pigweed species
(07:11):
are a challenge. Our lambsquarters are a challenge. Those
are probably the main ones wedeal with. Sometimes, some weeds
can be problematic too, likenutsedge, they can actually grow
in the tuber, which then makesthat tuber non sellable. It's
not as common, but, yeah, it'sit's the pigweeds, the
lambsquarters and night shades.I'd say those are our big
issues. And then, as we getinto, like, some of these
(07:32):
rotational fields, because we'reoften renting land from other
growers to get our rotations,where you're having no till,
we're starting to have a littlebit more trouble with some of
the giant ragweed and commonragweed, because most of our our
chemical portfolio, we justdon't have a product that
controls them well. So some ofthese larger seeded, broad
leaves do cause problems for usbecause we have no tools except
iron.
Joe Ikley (07:52):
Just thinking, if I remember my history correctly,
quack grass is another thingthat can also grow straight
through the tuber. Luckily, wedon't have too much quack grass
in agronomic crops anymore atleast.
Andy Robinson (08:05):
Yeah and the nice thing is, we have our group ones
that work really well, typicallypotatoes, so we're usually able
to clean our grasses up quitewell.
Alyssa Essman (08:14):
So curious how I think being more familiar with
row crops folks are probablymore familiar with, kind of the
different stages of weedmanagement. Could you walk us
through, like, a season of weedmanagement and potatoes and what
that looks like?
Andy Robinson (08:29):
Yeah. So what's cool about potatoes, and, you
know, my background is in rowcrops. When I did my PhD at
Purdue, so I worked in soybeansand corn so, and I grew up on a
farm, so, you know, I've beenaround it my whole life. But
what's interesting in potatoes,I think, and it's a good maybe
it's a good model. And I oftentalk about this when I'm talking
to different groups about weedcontrol and potatoes, but we use
a nice integrated, I think, anice integrated weed management
(08:51):
in potatoes. And like I said,one of the things that starts
with is that rotation, whenyou're on a four year rotation,
that's actually quite nice,because you can have other crops
in rotation that you might beable to use different herbicides
to clean up some problematicweeds. And then once we get into
potatoes, we we do use a fairbit of tillage in our potato
production, just because thatsoil, we usually Deep Rip the
(09:12):
soil because it needs to be alittle bit looser to allow those
potato roots to grow and thetubers to grow. And then also,
when we're planting, we actuallywill form these little ridged
hills. You know, you know youever see these triangular Hills
out in the field? That'sintentional, because if a potato
tuber gets too wet, it's reallyprone to get bacterial rot, and
that's not good. And so it helpswith the air movement. And so
(09:32):
when we plant, we're actuallyforming this hill. We're
disturbing the soil. And then,typically after planting, we
will come back and reshape thathill, just to make it a little
bit, maybe broader and bigger,because we don't want the tubers
to actually stick out of thehill, because they'll turn green
and then they become notsuitable to eat because they get
Glycoalkaloids in them, whichcould make you sick. But also,
(09:55):
prior to that healing, weusually fertilize. We'll put a
dry fertilizer on prettycommonly, and then. After that,
we rely on a pre emergentherbicides. And our pre emergent
herbicide portfolio in potatoesis much larger than our post
emergent herbicide options. So Idon't remember how many we have
labeled somewhere probablybetween 15 and 18 herbicides,
and only two of them are usedfor post emergence. So we rely
(10:16):
heavily on our pre emergentproducts. And so products like
metolachlor, metribuzin,dimethenamid-p, pendamathalin,
those are all very commonly usedin potatoes and and kind of the
general rule of thumb, like, Ilike to give people one
herbicides, okay, two is good,but three is excellent. So we're
really big on on tank, mixingmultiple pre emergent
(10:39):
herbicides, especially trying tohit different modes of action.
Sometimes we'll put in a we'llput in, like a PPO inhibitor,
like, like a reflex (fomesafen)or flumioxazin. We call it
chateau, not valor, but it's,there's a label we have, but so
depending on your weeds andstuff. But yeah, we're usually
trying to get two to three preemergent herbicide options down,
and that's right after we do thefinal hilling and then, usually
(11:02):
with potatoes being a seed tothey grow quite rapidly once
they get out of the ground andget growing. We can usually
close row and about three toabout four weeks, four to five
weeks, depending on the year andthe variety. But if we get that
row closure, that helps a lotwith weed management, and then
we try to clean up any weedspost emergence, we have two
options. It's metribuzin andrimsulfuron. So those are our
(11:22):
two post emergence options, andsome varieties you can't even
put Metribuzin on, becausethey're sensitive to it. So you
get really beautiful Veinalchlorosis from metribuzin on
some of these, like, typically,like on our yellow whites and
red potatoes, they don't handlemetribuzin Very well, generally,
just the russets do. And so youget really great symptomology.
(11:44):
But yeah, I mean, that's kind ofwhat we do. We don't have,
because a lot of options. Andthen often Tim, I guess, at the
end of the year too. The otherthing to at the end of the year,
we often desiccate, usually withdiquat at the end of the year,
which helps our actually helpsthe quality of the tubers, helps
us the skin, the cells on theskin dry down and they harden so
they don't get damaged as muchthrough harvest. So it's kind of
the program, heavy on the pres,clean up with a post one or two
(12:07):
treatments if you need, and thenend of the year we'll desiccate,
and that's what we do. And weuse a lot of tillage in between
and large, long rotations. Andit's a long answer, but yeah,
it's a general book kind ofpractice that we have for
potatoes. So
Alyssa Essman (12:23):
So you said something there that I was
thinking about, as you weretalking the differences in
varieties and maybe herbicidesensitivity. Are there also
differences in, like, maybecompetitive ability, or how
well, or how quickly they closerows, or anything like that.
Andy Robinson (12:37):
Oh there is, yeah, certainly, yeah, some
Yeah. Potatoes are reallycomplex. That's why I think
there's a person hired tospecifically work in potatoes.
Your seed size can vary on howfast they grow, your
temperature, your variety, youcut your seed, you have a whole
seed piece. So there's a lot ofdifferent things, and it's
physiological age, when is thatsprout going to start growing?
(12:58):
So there's a lot of things inplace, certainly. And so it is
tricky. And one of the bigthings with potatoes too, from a
cult or agronomy or cultivationstandpoint, we can't go out and
plant like 1000s of acres oreven hundreds of acres in a day.
It's a slow planting process.You might get 8200 acres in a
planter in one day, maybe, ifyou're lucky, same with a
harvester, well, something likethat. But the point is, is we
(13:21):
often plant into conditions. Weprobably shouldn't be planting
into maybe too cool of soil, butyou have to to get everything
planted in the ground in time,especially as the farms get
larger and they're planting, youknow, more and more acres of
potatoes. So and that makes weedmanagement more challenging,
too, because then sometimes alittle slower to grow if they're
putting cooler soil, right So,or we run into every few years,
(13:45):
especially up here in the upperMidwest, we'll run into
chloroacidomide injury becauseit's so cool the plants can't
metabolize the compounds like,you know, the Outlook or the
dual are the common ones we seeissues with. So we see that,
Joe Ikley (13:58):
I would kind of hope, though, having a slower planter
means higher chance of catchingthat planter with your residual
herbicides, because it's on therow crops. Man, we can put crop
in the ground fast and just go24/7, and can't keep the
sprayers caught up. So maybe youbenefit there, yeah.
Andy Robinson (14:15):
I mean, there is, I mean, it is true. I mean, the
biggest thing, I think, isweather, though, that we're
always dealing with, right? Imean, you get in, you start
planting, and then it startsraining. It starts raining or
something, right? And that's thechallenge with our pres, is you
plant, and then you're followingthat up with your fertilization,
your hilling, and then you're inyour pre we try to put our pre
on after that final hilling,just to kind of get that next
(14:36):
blanket coverage, right. Butsometimes, a challenge we run
into, if it gets warm or youcan't get in the field, all of a
sudden, those potatoes willstart falling. Start popping up.
And then some compounds. It'sthere are some labels like, I
mean, like Prowl, you can put onover top, right? But it's not
going to control any weeds thathave emerged, but we have to
worry about issues with withother herbicides, right? If the
potatoes have emerged. So it's achallenge. And a lot of labels
(14:57):
might say two inch sprout has tobe two inches under the soil
too, just for that crop safetyaspect. So yeah, it's there's
not night, it's not never anideal world, but you do the best
you can.
Joe Ikley (15:08):
So will your weed control program change? If it's
seed potato versus potatoes goin the market?
Andy Robinson (15:15):
Yeah, it does, especially the first generation
of seed that comes from agreenhouse. We call them mini
tubers. Are smaller. They're notas vigorous. And so we we do
use, typically, to use cutrates. You know, you might take
mix two or three compounds, butyou may only be using, say, a
half to three quarters of arate, just to be on the safe
side, because those are veryexpensive. When you're paying 60
(15:36):
cents for each seed piece, youknow, you multiply that out over
an acre, or half an acre, orwhatever it is that's there's a
lot of money there, if you'replanning on it, say, 20 to
30,000 plants per acre, right?So, so you have to be very
careful. And then on thecommercial side too, especially
we export potatoes, we have tobe careful too. Sometimes it has
(15:58):
to be an MRL established,especially for newer compounds.
So, but generally that's not abig issue. But yeah, the later
generations see this bigger andstronger. It can usually
withstand the full rates ofherbicides. But we do have funny
things like matrix. Rimsulfuronyou can't put it on the first
year seed in the field, becauseit's so sensitive. And I've
(16:18):
seen, I've seen injury from itbefore in the field, where it
was actually a pivot and itoverlapped, they were putting
the herbicide on and overlappedin a small section, and, oh boy,
it was ugly.
Joe Ikley (16:30):
Thinking back towards the desiccation some so you
mentioned, it's kind of alsoaffecting the skin, but I guess
I'd always thought it was moreor primarily, to kind of get
those vines dried down andassist with the harvest
operations. But
Andy Robinson (16:44):
no harvesters are built. They can, they can dig
green vines. It's not a bigdeal. It's it's all about
quality. It's all about tuberquality, especially you'll see
it in the Red River Valley alot, because most of the
potatoes grown in the Red RiverValley are grown from the fresh
market. And I didn't mentionthat earlier too. Most of our
potatoes are actually grownunder irrigation, because they
(17:04):
are a crop that is verysensitive, and the quality will
go off really fast if they gettoo stressed. So it's really
only here in North Dakota,Minnesota, in the Red River
Valley and Maine are the twoareas where you grow potatoes
without irrigation. In the US,pretty much everywhere else it's
going to be under irrigation.Again, it you're looking at for
commercial crop. You're lookingat $5,000 an acre production
(17:26):
cost, roughly. So it's, again,it's not a cheap crop to grow,
so you really have to take goodcare of it and babysit it if you
want, if you want to make goodmoney on it. And
Joe Ikley (17:35):
that, that may be a good transition kind of the
other. It's the last preparedquestion I had on here, just
because we've compared notes inthe past about, you know, some
of the issues of off targetmovement when that happens for a
potato production field. And Iguess there's a couple ways to
peel that onion layer back forfor what issues it'll cause you,
(17:57):
but things just worth, kind ofgetting into that. And you kind
of mentioned the cost of a peracre, but what other
considerations come into playwhen there's an accident?
Andy Robinson (18:07):
Oh, yeah, to start out with, the not good
thing about when you have aherbicide off target injury
issue is nobody wins, right? Andthat that sometimes may what so
a typical, say, row crop growermay not realize the cost of
production of potatoes, right?And, and most states have a
(18:28):
minimum insurance if you're a ifyou're a sprayer, you know
that's being contracted, right?You have to have minimum
insurance. But that get, thatwould get eaten up really,
really fast in potatoes, justwith the cost of production
issues with Dr so starting outwith seed potatoes, this is what
I first actually run into. Myfirst major problem. When I
started here in 2012 we had abunch of seed that wasn't
(18:51):
growing properly, and had tofigure out what was going on
with it, and it was actuallyglyphosate drift. So in seed
potatoes, if potatoes getdrifted on again, that seeds
harvested it's stored, it'sreplanted the next year. And
what those tubers do is theyactually will they're a storage
organ, right? It's just aswollen stem that is storing up
nutrients and energy so it canregrow the next year. But
(19:12):
translocating herbicides willalso get stored in that tuber,
and they're just hanging outthere all winter, waiting, and
then when it gets planted back,they take effect as that plant
starts to grow and so on. Seedpotatoes, herbicides are a major
issue because it can affect yourseed quality. It really can
affect that early growth anddevelopment. And so that's a
major problem. And so we haveseed certification. Every state
(19:34):
that has seed grown has acertification agency. They
actually will test it during thewinter as well as the summer
months. They go out and walkfields, mainly for diseases, but
herbicides have become certainlyan issue that they test for too.
And so if there is a herbicideissue in a seed field that state
certifying agency often will notrecertify it to be grown as seed
because there's too much riskinvolved. And so that, again,
(19:54):
becomes a big issue. The otherthing is, it can also cause
those tubers to become mouth.Formed, they get really ugly.
They can get big cracking onthem because they that stress
they get. And so herbicides canreally disrupt that growth that
puts a big stress on the plant.And so that could happen to a
seed crop as well as acommercial crop, and then all of
a sudden, you become off agrade, right? But the bigger
(20:16):
issue is actually, becausepotatoes are a direct
consumption crop, all of asudden, now you've got herbicide
residues in the crop. And can itbe used for food or for feed?
And you know, the EPA does havelevels set for a lot of
herbicides, but not every one islisted. So some of them, if you
get it on there, there's a zerotolerance, and it's an immediate
loss. Others there are, I mean,again, like life says, got a
(20:39):
level, it's pretty low, but itdoes cause problems from food
safety, because even when thesepotatoes go to a processing
plant and get processed, they dopull random samples, and they do
have to do food quality testing.And so it's not just herbicides,
but there's a whole portfolio ofcompounds that they're checking
for to make sure they're safefor human consumption. So that's
a big issue, too. As far as youknow, the drift or off target.
(21:00):
Movement goes but and one of thethings we deal with this time of
year a lot, too, is people arelooking at pieces of land to
grow potatoes in. So I get callsfrom time to time because
they're looking at whatherbicides have been using the
last one to three years, and canwe plant potatoes there? Can we
not? Because they don't wantagain, it's an expensive crop to
grow. Us a lot of risk ifthere's a potential herbicide
(21:21):
residue carryover. So one of thethings to kind of full circle
back to the seed growers. One ofthe things we did with our
extension work early on, when weidentified the glyphosate in the
seed potatoes, we learned that alot of our seed growers were
using the same sprayer that theywould use for their potatoes, as
well as their soybeans or corn,whatever other crops they were
growing. One thing we did isreally educated them about this
(21:42):
and encouraged them to get it bya separate sprayer. And so
that's what most of them havedone. They have a separate
sprayer now for their potatoesand a sprayer for all their
other crops. That way, you don'taccidentally leave a little bit
of, you know, you leave a fewgallons of glyphosate in the
tank that's enough to causeproblems and potatoes a very low
amount. But a lot of them havenow, most of them, I'd say,
yeah, they have their ownseparate sprayer just for their
seed potatoes, and theytypically do their own spraying.
(22:04):
It just reduces the risks. Andthey're also very careful where
they put their seed potatofields, and they communicate
with their neighbors, because,again, nobody wants to have an
issue with a herbicide problem.Unfortunately, you do everything
you can, and there still areproblems almost every year I
deal with, but it's very minorcompared to what I've seen in
(22:25):
the past. So I think we've hadsuccess in our extension
education, as far as that goes.
Joe Ikley (22:29):
And so I guess, you know, then for, you know,
growing potatoes, it's kind ofin many regards, there is still
this cash rent system where it'snot just like this is once a
potato field, always a potatofield, you can still kind of go
into different areas, or arethey the good ground for
potatoes? And sometimes there'sjust someone rents the ground
(22:50):
out, puts a crop on and has along residual herbicide
application.
Andy Robinson (22:55):
Most potato most potato growers will have they're
kind of using their neighboringpartners they work with, right?
So it may not even be cash, itmay just be swapping land.
Simply say, hey, you've got allthese acres right next to my
potatoes. Okay, I'll swap youthese fields, you know? So
you're going to grow dry beanson there this year, and I'll put
potatoes on there next year, andthen I'll have potatoes on my
(23:16):
field next year. You can have itand put your dry beans on and
you figure out a rotation,right? So there's a lot of land
swapping that goes on like that.So that happens. And then we do
have the cases where growers arelooking for an extra field or
two, or some more land to growpotatoes on, but part of their
due diligence is they they needto know the herbicides that have
been applied there the last fewyears. And some growers may be
(23:38):
hesitant to share that, but theyneed to understand the
importance of sharing thatinformation, because you don't
want to plant a potato crop inground knowingly that there's
been, say, a long residualherbicide that could severely
affect the growth and productionthat potato. And so it's
actually really important thatthat shared, because, I mean,
the growers are fine, and theyjust want to know, because
(23:58):
nobody wants to have theproblem, because it just gets,
you know, it gets messy and itgets expensive, and, you know,
we all want everyone to succeed.So, yeah, there's a lot of
products out there that can lastquite a few years. Most are,
most of row crop products,typically, that we use are a one
to two year type, you know,rotation. But there are a few,
(24:19):
yeah, certainly they can pushthree to four years, and then
sometimes we have issues withlike drift from some of our
right away type applications.And those can, those can cause
serious problems in thepotatoes. They don't typically
carry over too much, because therates that drift aren't too bad,
you know, they're pretty lowamounts, but, but, yeah, so it
(24:39):
is an issue. And every year,every year again, it's something
usually we see, we see it, oryou just see a very little bit
of it, you know, in the field.So you wonder how much is taken
off the top of the yield.Because even even sometimes,
there's labels that will say Xamount of time, and you've met
that, but you still see injuryfor various reasons. So kind of
an interesting project where.Working on right now is looking
(25:01):
at the effects we fumigate a lotour soils, to kill off soil
borne diseases. And aninteresting research project
we're looking at because we feellike some of these herbicides
last longer, and I think becauseof fumigation, it kills the
microbes that break down theherbicide, and so it causes that
herbicide to last longer. And sowe're in the second year of a
project that we're looking atthe effects of fumigation and
herbicides carry over. So got agratitude working on that. So
(25:25):
hopefully we'll have someinformation in the next year or
two to share
Joe Ikley (25:29):
that that makes a lot of sense to me with how many
microbes we rely on to degradeherbicides. And we'll see it
occasionally. Feel like we'll wecan see the summer once a year
up here in the northern plainsof a corn crop the year before,
and then soybeans next year. Andyou can basically see the
anhydrous lines the next yearbecause of clopiro lid
(25:50):
carryover. We're basically onthe hand, hydrous lines where we
had some, probably killed offsome microbes or something. And
anyways, that's where theclopird carryover will show up
on occasion,
Andy Robinson (26:01):
that's interesting, yeah,
Joe Ikley (26:04):
yeah, that the previous question was more, I
think I've gotten one potatocall since I've been here, and I
forget the exact product, butthey basically mentioned a long
lived als residual herbicide.And I kind of told them, yeah,
that sticks around for a while.And their only answer was crap.
And then they hung up the phoneand probably called you next,
I'm guessing.
Andy Robinson (26:24):
Maybe, I don't know, I'll give somebody those.
I mean, the big thing is, thebig thing is, is it's better to
err on the side of caution whenit comes to soil residual
herbicides and potatoes, becausepotatoes are growing in the
ground, right? They're likesugar beets or carrots or
onions. You know, a lot of thesecrops can be very sensitive,
right? To soil born or soilresidual herbicides, right? So
it's just best to err on theside of caution, is what I would
(26:46):
say.
Joe Ikley (26:47):
Alyssa, do you have any other lingering questions?
Alyssa Essman (26:51):
I think the only other thing I've been bouncing
around my mind is we'vementioned some of the like,
typical management programs. Arethere any like alternative or
non traditional types of weedcontrol, or some of these new
technologies that are coming outthat have an interest in
potatoes. It's a very differentsystem. So I just trying to
think through if any of thosewould be practical for use in
(27:13):
potatoes.
Andy Robinson (27:15):
Yeah. I mean, I'd love to see more of those in
potatoes. But typically withpotatoes, with the acres in the
US being less than a million,most products are not developed
for potatoes. They're going tofocus on the large acreage
crops. You know, your corn, yoursoybean, your wheat, things like
that, right? Because you havethe most potential to make the
most money back. And it's thesame with a lot of the
herbicides. They're notdeveloped for potatoes. They're
(27:37):
going to be developed for othercrops, and then they're going to
come to potatoes to see ifthey're fit. So, yes, what I
like? Yeah, we don't have muchof that going on right now. As
far as new technologies, itwould be cool, because even when
we do put herbicides onpotatoes, it does, I mean, you
do have a yield penalty, right,but it's a risk, reward
situation, right? Versus maybeyou lose half a percent of yield
(27:59):
because that plants got tometabolize that herbicide,
versus if you leave the weedsgoing, you might lose 20% yield,
right? So it makes sense to dothat, right? So, yeah, if we
could get some of these tools,and that'd be cool. So
alternative methods, so we'llsay, like organic farming,
they're going to typically relyon tillage a lot more. They're
going to go through and run alot of iron through the field.
(28:21):
Traditionally, there's been somethey call drag off. It's
basically they just have theselittle they just kind of just go
on the side of the hill and justkind of cut or run some rollers
across it, just to break thesoil up, you know, to control
weeds. The downside to thatmean, we're trying to reduce the
amount of passage through thefield for compaction and
greenhouse gas emissions,because that's a big thing for
us with our our potatoes, we'rereally getting pushed on
(28:47):
sustainability greenhouse gas.So we're trying to reduce our
fertilizers. We're trying toreduce our gas use, right? So
that's why we're not goingthrough the fields as much
anymore. And you also pruneroots, which isn't good either,
but yeah, using a lot of tillagehas been used in the past. Still
does in organic, I say you stilluse a lot of tillage. You still
can today, if you need to. Butas far as other alternative
(29:08):
methods, sometimes in research,what we do, we'll put this in
research. Sometimes we'll pushherbicides as pre or some
products that typically use preto see how far you can make them
work on a post, like barelyemerged plants, because you
always have those situationsright where, like I saying
earlier, you plan on puttingthis pre package down, but
something happens, and all of asudden the potatoes are popping
out of the ground. What do youdo? Right? So understanding what
(29:30):
their tolerance might be, eventhough it's not labeled for it.
So we do some work on that fromtime to time. But yeah, I think
that's probably what I'd sayright now for that. Yeah,
Joe Ikley (29:41):
I was thinking through some of the other things
we've talked about, and didn'tsound like much opportunity for
like the weed Zapper. If youonly have four so weeks till
canopy closure, and you need adefinite height difference for
the weeds versus the crop toreally make that system work.
Andy Robinson (29:56):
And if you're like this up and down, or.
Right? Even, even drones, likegrowers, try to use drones just
gonna stand count. But it justdoesn't work very well, because
our emergence typically is overmaybe about a week period, and
every seed piece has a differentamount of stems that come out of
it, based on the eye number andthe physiological age. But you
(30:17):
might have one stem here, rightnext to it. You might have one,
four or five stems. So how doyou fly that and figure out what
your stand count is kind ofdifficult to do. I mean, we do
space them about 10 to 12 inchesapart, depending on the variety,
but, but again, it's, it's, it'sa little bit different system
than your typical row crop andand again, it's not typically
(30:37):
the it's typically cutting yourmid size comp, mid to smaller
size companies, if one's goingto focus on potato, you know,
they see that as an opportunity.Or very large companies out
there, at companies, they don'ttypically have potatoes their
main focus because, again,they're going to focus on the
large acreage crops. And, Imean, they often do have a
potato group, but it's usually,you know, something down the
road, typically for us, it seemslike,
Joe Ikley (31:01):
so it's not really a new or exciting technology, but
I got to thinking through justherbicide banding, as you were,
as we were talking through thesethings. And could there be a
difference between, like bandingin between the rows or over top
of the hills on could it open upsome different product
portfolios, or is it just kindof too risky of a of a system?
Andy Robinson (31:22):
Dual actually has that label. So that's not
totally core. You can actuallyban that one, but it is a
challenge because, again, theygrow so fast. Your Windows
pretty short, right? And I knowsome growers that have done it,
and I've seen it, so yeah, youcan do that. It works, but, but
yeah. Again, I don't know. It'snot highly common. It's not a
(31:43):
commonly used practice, is whatI'd say.
Joe Ikley (31:46):
yeah because I was thinking of get out there at the
hood or something in between therows. But like you said, it just
grows so fast, it's probably
Andy Robinson (31:54):
well, and that's the thing, if you can get a good
pre emergent program down andget it activated, right? That's
the key. And if you, if you havea good program, like said, maybe
using three different modes ofaction, full rate on all three.
You know, some take more waterthan others, but you get it
activated, and those plants comeup out of the ground. Sometimes
(32:16):
you can get away with just that,and that's the only herbicide
you need. Sometimes you don't,sometimes you got to come back a
couple of times, maybe with somenew rimsulfuron and clean it up.
But, yeah, it's, I don't knowit's, it's farming, right? You
never know from year to yearwhat you're going to get. So, I
mean, we do have other ways wedeal with like buckwheat, which
(32:37):
is a pain in the neck, becauseit can, I think I read a paper
once it can emerge from 11inches down anytime of the year.
And we don't have good controloptions for that, right? Or, you
know, we have wild cucumbersfloating around. You've probably
seen those sometimes, especiallyby tree lines. What do you do?
What do you do? Right? It'slike, get the shovel out, get
the whole out, go to work.
Joe Ikley (32:58):
Well, I think I just have one question left. I didn't
prepare you for so we'll seeyour potato knowledge goes, Why
is Good Friday mark thebeginning of potato planting?
Andy Robinson (33:10):
I don't know. It's probably not a good place
to plant potatoes here, though,at that time of year,
Joe Ikley (33:16):
that's always, always here. Good Friday time to plant
my potatoes.
Andy Robinson (33:20):
Well it probably just is based on the time of
year and the temperature andwhatnot. But like, if you're a
home gardener or something likethat, realistically, you want,
you want your soil temperatureto be about 50 degrees where you
put the seed piece, which isoften five or six inches down.
So it's not going to if you'rebelow 50 degrees, it just
doesn't develop very fast. Andit's going to get inundated,
(33:41):
usually, with diseases, and it'sgoing to cause problems, because
you want to emerge, really, youwant it to merge in two to three
weeks. So warm temperaturesdrive emergence, and cool
temperatures are tend to staywetter in the soil. It drives
disease and rotting. So itprobably has to do with that.
Joe Ikley (33:59):
Yeah, not too often we have 50 degree soil temps on
Good Friday in the northernplains.
Andy Robinson (34:05):
Nope. I've seen in Minnesota down, down, just by
St Cloud. We've had years. Therewe have, we've got potatoes in
the ground pretty early, likethat. But it's not common. It's
rare, I would say on commercialpotato acres,
Joe Ikley (34:21):
which does, all right, one, one last question.
Then I popped in my head, doesmake me think about frost risk?
Then, because we're almostguaranteed to have a frost
sometime in the second half ofMay up here. And so being in
broadleaf is it, you know, assusceptible as others, or being
that tuber system, can theyrecover a little bit better?
Andy Robinson (34:41):
Yeah, no, they're susceptible. Just like any other
crop, they'll get burned up.I've seen plenty of crispy black
potato leaves, but having thatbig seed piece, yes, they'll
just, they'll regrow. You know?They'll, they'll push up a new
sprout, and they'll regrow.Depends on where it gets killed
at right? It's usually anaxillary STEM is going to grow
off of that. Main stem, orthey'll regrow from the eye. But
(35:03):
it does. It does cause yieldloss, right? Because you're
setting the plant back maybe aweek or two. So it does, yeah,
it does affect them, just like aherbicide injury, right? Like I
said, if you've got a quarter ofa seat of my injury, it's going
to set the plant back. So, yeah,yeah. So potatoes are
interesting. You really want thetemperatures between 45-50 to 85
(35:24):
degrees. It's kind of a sweetspot for potatoes. And much
above that, they're not going togrow. Much below that, they're
not going to grow. They're goingto be sensitive to frost and
killing and, you know, andthey're also sensitive to too
much heat too because, again,they don't grow. They'll get
elongated. They'll get we callsugar ends on them, so they get
kind of jelly instead of starch.It doesn't convert over, which
isn't good. So yeah, potatoeshave this really little, narrow
(35:48):
window of happiness that we tryto give them, but we can't do
everything when it comes totemperatures, right and
rainfall, so you do the best youcan based on the knowledge you
have and hope for the best,
Joe Ikley (35:58):
narrow window of happiness. That sounds like a
lot of weed control programs,regardless of the crop, all
Andy Robinson (36:07):
right? Well, and then the funny thing about
potato talking on, you know,being the weed scientist and
talking with you guys, mostcrops, what do people spend the
most money on for control is forherbicides, right? Not so in
potatoes, we we spend a ton ofmoney on fungicides because
they're so susceptible to somany diseases. So if you're a
plant pathologist, potato isyour dream. For we scientists,
(36:28):
it's, you know, it's still fun,but I do a lot of other things
because I'm an agronomist, so wedo a lot of other stuff, but,
but, yeah, we still do a littlebit of weed science work, but
not a time.
Joe Ikley (36:38):
So with that, Alyssa, any final questions for Andy?
Alyssa Essman (36:42):
I think I'm good today. Thanks, Joe.
Joe Ikley (36:44):
All right, and Andy, the last question we'll ask for
you is, any online resources youwant to point us towards. We can
put in the show notes, anysocial media or website or
online resources?
Andy Robinson (36:57):
Yeah, you can follow me. Yeah, sure. You can
follow me at sputology is myhandle on x and Instagram too.
So, but yeah, we put some stuffup from time to time, but we
don't use it a lot. But yeah,but yeah, just make sure you go
eat some potatoes today.
Joe Ikley (37:17):
All right, we'll make sure there's some during lunch.
With that. Andy, want to thankyou for coming on. I want to
thank the listeners as alwaysfor tuning in and check out next
week's war against weeds.
As always, we thank you forlistening to the war against
(37:39):
weeds podcast. Just anotherreminder, you can find our
podcast hosted on the CropProtection Network, or CPN, for
short. So this is another greatresource that's driven by
extension scientists atdifferent universities for pest
management. And with that, wewill see you next week on the
war against weeds podcast. You.
Welcome back to the war against weeds Podcast. I'm
Joe Ikley, extension weedspecialist at North Dakota State
University. My co host today isAlyssa Essman at The Ohio State
how's it going Alyssa?
Alyssa Essman (00:20):
Pretty good, Joe, we got a week of 60s and 70s out
here. So I think people arestarting to get antsy.
Joe Ikley (00:25):
Yeah, the day of recording, we're going to be mid
60s, not quite flirting with 70,but it should be single digits
by tonight. So march in thenorthern plains. But our guest
today, we're going to be talkingabout potatoes. So we brought on
Dr Andy Robinson, also fromNDSU. So Andy, welcome to the
(00:46):
podcast. And why don't you tellall the folks out there what you
do here?
Andy Robinson (00:50):
Yeah, great. So, yeah, my name is Andy Robinson.
I am a associate professor andpotato Extension Agronomist for
North Dakota State University,and I hold a joint appointment
with University of Minnesota.
Joe Ikley (01:02):
All right, And since you live and breathe all things
potato, we thought we'd have youon so most of our guests are
certainly used to row crops andbuying some seed planted in the
ground and then going fromthere. So we figured we should
probably take a little bit of astep back and talk a little bit
about potato agronomy first, asthat's kind of the first
question. And what are some ofthe major production differences
(01:23):
between potatoes? And when youthink about your typical seeded
row crops,
Andy Robinson (01:29):
yeah, so there's a lot, there's a lot of
differences, and there's alsoquite a few similarities. But
probably the big thing to firststart out with on potatoes is we
asexually reproduce them,because they are tetraploid, so
they're very difficult to crosstwo plants and get a seed that
is exactly what you want. So weactually will take tissue, we
cut it, we grow tubers in theground. We harvest those, we
(01:50):
replant them. So that makes theprocess a lot different than row
crops, instead of just crossinga couple hybrids and getting the
seed right and planting it. Sobecause of that, that does
change. As far as herbicides, wehave a lot of pre emergent
herbicides that can be utilizedbecause you have a large tuber
that has a lot of energy. Alsoit changes also our rotation
(02:13):
tube, because there's a lot ofsoil borne pathogens that can
affect potatoes, as well asviruses. And so we're typically
on long rotations, maybe once inevery three or four years, and
seed might be once in every fiveor six years in the field. So
big rotations, seeds, a lotdifferent. It is a crop that
actually has a high nutritionalvalue and very low cost. So lot
(02:34):
of value that way too. And it'sgrown in more most countries in
the world. So it's, it's peoplethink about potatoes a lot,
because acres in North Americaare probably less than 2
million, but the production isquite high because of the amount
of water that potatoes hold.
Joe Ikley (02:51):
just sticking with the kind of more the agronomy or
maybe even the marketing side.But you know, a lot of people
think when they hear potatoes,or think Idaho, when it comes to
the US, but we have quite a fewaround here, and so maybe it
also be good to go through justsome major potato growing
regions. Maybe we'll stick withjust the US on that one and
different varieties marketclasses that are out there.
Andy Robinson (03:12):
Sure. Yeah. So most of our potatoes are grown
in the states that borderCanada, in the northern us,
because potatoes are cool seasoncrop, and also it helps us store
them through the winter. Themajority of potatoes are
actually grown in the PacificNorthwest. It'd be Idaho,
Washington and Oregon. That'sprobably over 60% of our potato
production. And then as you workyour way across to the east,
(03:34):
you've got production acrossmost of those states, and it
varies based on where you're at.As far as market types go.
There's more or less three majormarkets that potatoes are grown
for. You've got processed,frozen process, which would be
like your french fries, yourhash browns, those kinds of
materials that are made in afactory and frozen. And that's
going to be about two thirds ofthe US production. And then
(03:55):
there's a chipping potatoes thatare made for chips. You know
when you buy in the store inbags. I don't know the exact
percent off the top of my head.And then the other big market is
going to be our fresh potatoes.Those are the ones you see in
the grocery store that you goand buy, or they're sold to food
service industries, you know, torestaurants and and whatnot. So
those are your three mainindustries you're growing for
(04:15):
seed. Seed is kind of anindustry because of this asexual
reproduction that we do, becauseyou'll grow seed usually for
three or four years before itgoes commercial. So it's kind of
got its own little, I guess,niche. And then we do have some
dehydrated potatoes, but that'stypically for potatoes that may
not make grade, and also for, Iguess there are some grown for
that specifically, but we doexport a lot of dehydrated
(04:36):
potatoes, and there's a lot ofdehydrated potatoes put in food
products like soups and things.So yeah, there's a lot of
potatoes are very versatile, Iguess, and there's a lot of uses
for them. So
Joe Ikley (04:45):
maybe going just a little bit more explanation than
making great things when beingfrom Maryland, when I hear that,
I think about crabs and crabsizes and number ones versus
number twos, etc. Is it similarwith potatoes? So you dig up a
whole field at the end of theyear, and you. Based on the size
that comes out of the ground caninfluence the market quality.
Andy Robinson (05:05):
Yep, yep. So yeah, you're paid on quality and
quantity. So you got to be ableto either process that potato
into the product that you wantat the end of the day, or it's
got to look really nice whenthey have it in the grocery
store for someone to buy it,right? So yes, we do, depends on
the variety and depends on whatyou're doing. But you may only
(05:27):
sell 80% of what you harvest or90% of what you harvest, just as
a rough estimate, but there istypically some culling of
potatoes, or you have other wehave grades, us, one, us two,
and you do get paid differentamounts for the quality of your
potato. So, yeah, it it isreally important. Quality is a
really important thing forpotatoes. And so like, when
somebody comes and says, Oh, Igot this product, we can
(05:49):
increase your yield by 10 or 20%that's great. But are you going
to make more money at the end ofthe day, you know? Or is that
going to reflect the quality ofthe potatoes? And that's a
really important thing that wehave to deal with in potatoes.
It's not just, it's just, notjust total yield.
Joe Ikley (06:02):
I'm assuming weed competition, weed pressure is
one thing that can decrease thequality make for smaller
potatoes.
Andy Robinson (06:10):
Definitely. Yes, yeah, weed pressure is, is
important for production size.But also weeds are interesting
in potatoes too, becausepotatoes are a solanaceae crop.
So when you get your nightshadesin the field, they can also
harbor some diseases that areproblematic to potatoes, or also
be a host for some of theinsects that also prey on
(06:32):
potatoes. So weeds areproblematic in different ways in
potatoes,
Joe Ikley (06:38):
and today, we'll use that as our transition. So what
are, and this probably alsovaries by region, so we'll focus
within your region. So what arethe major weed issues? You
mentioned night shades. So whatelse?
Andy Robinson (06:50):
Yep yeah, hairy nightshade, Eastern black
nightshade are certainly quiteproblematic, because you're
trained to control them, but nothurt the potatoes, right? So
trying to kill a cousin off, butnot kill your major crop off,
right? With the herbicide. Sothat's always a challenge,
right? So yeah, night shades arebig issue, but it's gonna be
similar to a lot of other cropproduction. Or pigweed species
(07:11):
are a challenge. Our lambsquarters are a challenge. Those
are probably the main ones wedeal with. Sometimes, some weeds
can be problematic too, likenutsedge, they can actually grow
in the tuber, which then makesthat tuber non sellable. It's
not as common, but, yeah, it'sit's the pigweeds, the
lambsquarters and night shades.I'd say those are our big
issues. And then, as we getinto, like, some of these
(07:32):
rotational fields, because we'reoften renting land from other
growers to get our rotations,where you're having no till,
we're starting to have a littlebit more trouble with some of
the giant ragweed and commonragweed, because most of our our
chemical portfolio, we justdon't have a product that
controls them well. So some ofthese larger seeded, broad
leaves do cause problems for usbecause we have no tools except
iron.
Joe Ikley (07:52):
Just thinking, if I remember my history correctly,
quack grass is another thingthat can also grow straight
through the tuber. Luckily, wedon't have too much quack grass
in agronomic crops anymore atleast.
Andy Robinson (08:05):
Yeah and the nice thing is, we have our group ones
that work really well, typicallypotatoes, so we're usually able
to clean our grasses up quitewell.
Alyssa Essman (08:14):
So curious how I think being more familiar with
row crops folks are probablymore familiar with, kind of the
different stages of weedmanagement. Could you walk us
through, like, a season of weedmanagement and potatoes and what
that looks like?
Andy Robinson (08:29):
Yeah. So what's cool about potatoes, and, you
know, my background is in rowcrops. When I did my PhD at
Purdue, so I worked in soybeansand corn so, and I grew up on a
farm, so, you know, I've beenaround it my whole life. But
what's interesting in potatoes,I think, and it's a good maybe
it's a good model. And I oftentalk about this when I'm talking
to different groups about weedcontrol and potatoes, but we use
a nice integrated, I think, anice integrated weed management
(08:51):
in potatoes. And like I said,one of the things that starts
with is that rotation, whenyou're on a four year rotation,
that's actually quite nice,because you can have other crops
in rotation that you might beable to use different herbicides
to clean up some problematicweeds. And then once we get into
potatoes, we we do use a fairbit of tillage in our potato
production, just because thatsoil, we usually Deep Rip the
(09:12):
soil because it needs to be alittle bit looser to allow those
potato roots to grow and thetubers to grow. And then also,
when we're planting, we actuallywill form these little ridged
hills. You know, you know youever see these triangular Hills
out in the field? That'sintentional, because if a potato
tuber gets too wet, it's reallyprone to get bacterial rot, and
that's not good. And so it helpswith the air movement. And so
(09:32):
when we plant, we're actuallyforming this hill. We're
disturbing the soil. And then,typically after planting, we
will come back and reshape thathill, just to make it a little
bit, maybe broader and bigger,because we don't want the tubers
to actually stick out of thehill, because they'll turn green
and then they become notsuitable to eat because they get
Glycoalkaloids in them, whichcould make you sick. But also,
(09:55):
prior to that healing, weusually fertilize. We'll put a
dry fertilizer on prettycommonly, and then. After that,
we rely on a pre emergentherbicides. And our pre emergent
herbicide portfolio in potatoesis much larger than our post
emergent herbicide options. So Idon't remember how many we have
labeled somewhere probablybetween 15 and 18 herbicides,
and only two of them are usedfor post emergence. So we rely
(10:16):
heavily on our pre emergentproducts. And so products like
metolachlor, metribuzin,dimethenamid-p, pendamathalin,
those are all very commonly usedin potatoes and and kind of the
general rule of thumb, like, Ilike to give people one
herbicides, okay, two is good,but three is excellent. So we're
really big on on tank, mixingmultiple pre emergent
(10:39):
herbicides, especially trying tohit different modes of action.
Sometimes we'll put in a we'llput in, like a PPO inhibitor,
like, like a reflex (fomesafen)or flumioxazin. We call it
chateau, not valor, but it's,there's a label we have, but so
depending on your weeds andstuff. But yeah, we're usually
trying to get two to three preemergent herbicide options down,
and that's right after we do thefinal hilling and then, usually
(11:02):
with potatoes being a seed tothey grow quite rapidly once
they get out of the ground andget growing. We can usually
close row and about three toabout four weeks, four to five
weeks, depending on the year andthe variety. But if we get that
row closure, that helps a lotwith weed management, and then
we try to clean up any weedspost emergence, we have two
options. It's metribuzin andrimsulfuron. So those are our
(11:22):
two post emergence options, andsome varieties you can't even
put Metribuzin on, becausethey're sensitive to it. So you
get really beautiful Veinalchlorosis from metribuzin on
some of these, like, typically,like on our yellow whites and
red potatoes, they don't handlemetribuzin Very well, generally,
just the russets do. And so youget really great symptomology.
(11:44):
But yeah, I mean, that's kind ofwhat we do. We don't have,
because a lot of options. Andthen often Tim, I guess, at the
end of the year too. The otherthing to at the end of the year,
we often desiccate, usually withdiquat at the end of the year,
which helps our actually helpsthe quality of the tubers, helps
us the skin, the cells on theskin dry down and they harden so
they don't get damaged as muchthrough harvest. So it's kind of
the program, heavy on the pres,clean up with a post one or two
(12:07):
treatments if you need, and thenend of the year we'll desiccate,
and that's what we do. And weuse a lot of tillage in between
and large, long rotations. Andit's a long answer, but yeah,
it's a general book kind ofpractice that we have for
potatoes. So
Alyssa Essman (12:23):
So you said something there that I was
thinking about, as you weretalking the differences in
varieties and maybe herbicidesensitivity. Are there also
differences in, like, maybecompetitive ability, or how
well, or how quickly they closerows, or anything like that.
Andy Robinson (12:37):
Oh there is, yeah, certainly, yeah, some
Yeah. Potatoes are reallycomplex. That's why I think
there's a person hired tospecifically work in potatoes.
Your seed size can vary on howfast they grow, your
temperature, your variety, youcut your seed, you have a whole
seed piece. So there's a lot ofdifferent things, and it's
physiological age, when is thatsprout going to start growing?
(12:58):
So there's a lot of things inplace, certainly. And so it is
tricky. And one of the bigthings with potatoes too, from a
cult or agronomy or cultivationstandpoint, we can't go out and
plant like 1000s of acres oreven hundreds of acres in a day.
It's a slow planting process.You might get 8200 acres in a
planter in one day, maybe, ifyou're lucky, same with a
harvester, well, something likethat. But the point is, is we
(13:21):
often plant into conditions. Weprobably shouldn't be planting
into maybe too cool of soil, butyou have to to get everything
planted in the ground in time,especially as the farms get
larger and they're planting, youknow, more and more acres of
potatoes. So and that makes weedmanagement more challenging,
too, because then sometimes alittle slower to grow if they're
putting cooler soil, right So,or we run into every few years,
(13:45):
especially up here in the upperMidwest, we'll run into
chloroacidomide injury becauseit's so cool the plants can't
metabolize the compounds like,you know, the Outlook or the
dual are the common ones we seeissues with. So we see that,
Joe Ikley (13:58):
I would kind of hope, though, having a slower planter
means higher chance of catchingthat planter with your residual
herbicides, because it's on therow crops. Man, we can put crop
in the ground fast and just go24/7, and can't keep the
sprayers caught up. So maybe youbenefit there, yeah.
Andy Robinson (14:15):
I mean, there is, I mean, it is true. I mean, the
biggest thing, I think, isweather, though, that we're
always dealing with, right? Imean, you get in, you start
planting, and then it startsraining. It starts raining or
something, right? And that's thechallenge with our pres, is you
plant, and then you're followingthat up with your fertilization,
your hilling, and then you're inyour pre we try to put our pre
on after that final hilling,just to kind of get that next
(14:36):
blanket coverage, right. Butsometimes, a challenge we run
into, if it gets warm or youcan't get in the field, all of a
sudden, those potatoes willstart falling. Start popping up.
And then some compounds. It'sthere are some labels like, I
mean, like Prowl, you can put onover top, right? But it's not
going to control any weeds thathave emerged, but we have to
worry about issues with withother herbicides, right? If the
potatoes have emerged. So it's achallenge. And a lot of labels
(14:57):
might say two inch sprout has tobe two inches under the soil
too, just for that crop safetyaspect. So yeah, it's there's
not night, it's not never anideal world, but you do the best
you can.
Joe Ikley (15:08):
So will your weed control program change? If it's
seed potato versus potatoes goin the market?
Andy Robinson (15:15):
Yeah, it does, especially the first generation
of seed that comes from agreenhouse. We call them mini
tubers. Are smaller. They're notas vigorous. And so we we do
use, typically, to use cutrates. You know, you might take
mix two or three compounds, butyou may only be using, say, a
half to three quarters of arate, just to be on the safe
side, because those are veryexpensive. When you're paying 60
(15:36):
cents for each seed piece, youknow, you multiply that out over
an acre, or half an acre, orwhatever it is that's there's a
lot of money there, if you'replanning on it, say, 20 to
30,000 plants per acre, right?So, so you have to be very
careful. And then on thecommercial side too, especially
we export potatoes, we have tobe careful too. Sometimes it has
(15:58):
to be an MRL established,especially for newer compounds.
So, but generally that's not abig issue. But yeah, the later
generations see this bigger andstronger. It can usually
withstand the full rates ofherbicides. But we do have funny
things like matrix. Rimsulfuronyou can't put it on the first
year seed in the field, becauseit's so sensitive. And I've
(16:18):
seen, I've seen injury from itbefore in the field, where it
was actually a pivot and itoverlapped, they were putting
the herbicide on and overlappedin a small section, and, oh boy,
it was ugly.
Joe Ikley (16:30):
Thinking back towards the desiccation some so you
mentioned, it's kind of alsoaffecting the skin, but I guess
I'd always thought it was moreor primarily, to kind of get
those vines dried down andassist with the harvest
operations. But
Andy Robinson (16:44):
no harvesters are built. They can, they can dig
green vines. It's not a bigdeal. It's it's all about
quality. It's all about tuberquality, especially you'll see
it in the Red River Valley alot, because most of the
potatoes grown in the Red RiverValley are grown from the fresh
market. And I didn't mentionthat earlier too. Most of our
potatoes are actually grownunder irrigation, because they
(17:04):
are a crop that is verysensitive, and the quality will
go off really fast if they gettoo stressed. So it's really
only here in North Dakota,Minnesota, in the Red River
Valley and Maine are the twoareas where you grow potatoes
without irrigation. In the US,pretty much everywhere else it's
going to be under irrigation.Again, it you're looking at for
commercial crop. You're lookingat $5,000 an acre production
(17:26):
cost, roughly. So it's, again,it's not a cheap crop to grow,
so you really have to take goodcare of it and babysit it if you
want, if you want to make goodmoney on it. And
Joe Ikley (17:35):
that, that may be a good transition kind of the
other. It's the last preparedquestion I had on here, just
because we've compared notes inthe past about, you know, some
of the issues of off targetmovement when that happens for a
potato production field. And Iguess there's a couple ways to
peel that onion layer back forfor what issues it'll cause you,
(17:57):
but things just worth, kind ofgetting into that. And you kind
of mentioned the cost of a peracre, but what other
considerations come into playwhen there's an accident?
Andy Robinson (18:07):
Oh, yeah, to start out with, the not good
thing about when you have aherbicide off target injury
issue is nobody wins, right? Andthat that sometimes may what so
a typical, say, row crop growermay not realize the cost of
production of potatoes, right?And, and most states have a
(18:28):
minimum insurance if you're a ifyou're a sprayer, you know
that's being contracted, right?You have to have minimum
insurance. But that get, thatwould get eaten up really,
really fast in potatoes, justwith the cost of production
issues with Dr so starting outwith seed potatoes, this is what
I first actually run into. Myfirst major problem. When I
started here in 2012 we had abunch of seed that wasn't
(18:51):
growing properly, and had tofigure out what was going on
with it, and it was actuallyglyphosate drift. So in seed
potatoes, if potatoes getdrifted on again, that seeds
harvested it's stored, it'sreplanted the next year. And
what those tubers do is theyactually will they're a storage
organ, right? It's just aswollen stem that is storing up
nutrients and energy so it canregrow the next year. But
(19:12):
translocating herbicides willalso get stored in that tuber,
and they're just hanging outthere all winter, waiting, and
then when it gets planted back,they take effect as that plant
starts to grow and so on. Seedpotatoes, herbicides are a major
issue because it can affect yourseed quality. It really can
affect that early growth anddevelopment. And so that's a
major problem. And so we haveseed certification. Every state
(19:34):
that has seed grown has acertification agency. They
actually will test it during thewinter as well as the summer
months. They go out and walkfields, mainly for diseases, but
herbicides have become certainlyan issue that they test for too.
And so if there is a herbicideissue in a seed field that state
certifying agency often will notrecertify it to be grown as seed
because there's too much riskinvolved. And so that, again,
(19:54):
becomes a big issue. The otherthing is, it can also cause
those tubers to become mouth.Formed, they get really ugly.
They can get big cracking onthem because they that stress
they get. And so herbicides canreally disrupt that growth that
puts a big stress on the plant.And so that could happen to a
seed crop as well as acommercial crop, and then all of
a sudden, you become off agrade, right? But the bigger
(20:16):
issue is actually, becausepotatoes are a direct
consumption crop, all of asudden, now you've got herbicide
residues in the crop. And can itbe used for food or for feed?
And you know, the EPA does havelevels set for a lot of
herbicides, but not every one islisted. So some of them, if you
get it on there, there's a zerotolerance, and it's an immediate
loss. Others there are, I mean,again, like life says, got a
(20:39):
level, it's pretty low, but itdoes cause problems from food
safety, because even when thesepotatoes go to a processing
plant and get processed, they dopull random samples, and they do
have to do food quality testing.And so it's not just herbicides,
but there's a whole portfolio ofcompounds that they're checking
for to make sure they're safefor human consumption. So that's
a big issue, too. As far as youknow, the drift or off target.
(21:00):
Movement goes but and one of thethings we deal with this time of
year a lot, too, is people arelooking at pieces of land to
grow potatoes in. So I get callsfrom time to time because
they're looking at whatherbicides have been using the
last one to three years, and canwe plant potatoes there? Can we
not? Because they don't wantagain, it's an expensive crop to
grow. Us a lot of risk ifthere's a potential herbicide
(21:21):
residue carryover. So one of thethings to kind of full circle
back to the seed growers. One ofthe things we did with our
extension work early on, when weidentified the glyphosate in the
seed potatoes, we learned that alot of our seed growers were
using the same sprayer that theywould use for their potatoes, as
well as their soybeans or corn,whatever other crops they were
growing. One thing we did isreally educated them about this
(21:42):
and encouraged them to get it bya separate sprayer. And so
that's what most of them havedone. They have a separate
sprayer now for their potatoesand a sprayer for all their
other crops. That way, you don'taccidentally leave a little bit
of, you know, you leave a fewgallons of glyphosate in the
tank that's enough to causeproblems and potatoes a very low
amount. But a lot of them havenow, most of them, I'd say,
yeah, they have their ownseparate sprayer just for their
seed potatoes, and theytypically do their own spraying.
(22:04):
It just reduces the risks. Andthey're also very careful where
they put their seed potatofields, and they communicate
with their neighbors, because,again, nobody wants to have an
issue with a herbicide problem.Unfortunately, you do everything
you can, and there still areproblems almost every year I
deal with, but it's very minorcompared to what I've seen in
(22:25):
the past. So I think we've hadsuccess in our extension
education, as far as that goes.
Joe Ikley (22:29):
And so I guess, you know, then for, you know,
growing potatoes, it's kind ofin many regards, there is still
this cash rent system where it'snot just like this is once a
potato field, always a potatofield, you can still kind of go
into different areas, or arethey the good ground for
potatoes? And sometimes there'sjust someone rents the ground
(22:50):
out, puts a crop on and has along residual herbicide
application.
Andy Robinson (22:55):
Most potato most potato growers will have they're
kind of using their neighboringpartners they work with, right?
So it may not even be cash, itmay just be swapping land.
Simply say, hey, you've got allthese acres right next to my
potatoes. Okay, I'll swap youthese fields, you know? So
you're going to grow dry beanson there this year, and I'll put
potatoes on there next year, andthen I'll have potatoes on my
(23:16):
field next year. You can have itand put your dry beans on and
you figure out a rotation,right? So there's a lot of land
swapping that goes on like that.So that happens. And then we do
have the cases where growers arelooking for an extra field or
two, or some more land to growpotatoes on, but part of their
due diligence is they they needto know the herbicides that have
been applied there the last fewyears. And some growers may be
(23:38):
hesitant to share that, but theyneed to understand the
importance of sharing thatinformation, because you don't
want to plant a potato crop inground knowingly that there's
been, say, a long residualherbicide that could severely
affect the growth and productionthat potato. And so it's
actually really important thatthat shared, because, I mean,
the growers are fine, and theyjust want to know, because
(23:58):
nobody wants to have theproblem, because it just gets,
you know, it gets messy and itgets expensive, and, you know,
we all want everyone to succeed.So, yeah, there's a lot of
products out there that can lastquite a few years. Most are,
most of row crop products,typically, that we use are a one
to two year type, you know,rotation. But there are a few,
(24:19):
yeah, certainly they can pushthree to four years, and then
sometimes we have issues withlike drift from some of our
right away type applications.And those can, those can cause
serious problems in thepotatoes. They don't typically
carry over too much, because therates that drift aren't too bad,
you know, they're pretty lowamounts, but, but, yeah, so it
(24:39):
is an issue. And every year,every year again, it's something
usually we see, we see it, oryou just see a very little bit
of it, you know, in the field.So you wonder how much is taken
off the top of the yield.Because even even sometimes,
there's labels that will say Xamount of time, and you've met
that, but you still see injuryfor various reasons. So kind of
an interesting project where.Working on right now is looking
(25:01):
at the effects we fumigate a lotour soils, to kill off soil
borne diseases. And aninteresting research project
we're looking at because we feellike some of these herbicides
last longer, and I think becauseof fumigation, it kills the
microbes that break down theherbicide, and so it causes that
herbicide to last longer. And sowe're in the second year of a
project that we're looking atthe effects of fumigation and
herbicides carry over. So got agratitude working on that. So
(25:25):
hopefully we'll have someinformation in the next year or
two to share
Joe Ikley (25:29):
that that makes a lot of sense to me with how many
microbes we rely on to degradeherbicides. And we'll see it
occasionally. Feel like we'll wecan see the summer once a year
up here in the northern plainsof a corn crop the year before,
and then soybeans next year. Andyou can basically see the
anhydrous lines the next yearbecause of clopiro lid
(25:50):
carryover. We're basically onthe hand, hydrous lines where we
had some, probably killed offsome microbes or something. And
anyways, that's where theclopird carryover will show up
on occasion,
Andy Robinson (26:01):
that's interesting, yeah,
Joe Ikley (26:04):
yeah, that the previous question was more, I
think I've gotten one potatocall since I've been here, and I
forget the exact product, butthey basically mentioned a long
lived als residual herbicide.And I kind of told them, yeah,
that sticks around for a while.And their only answer was crap.
And then they hung up the phoneand probably called you next,
I'm guessing.
Andy Robinson (26:24):
Maybe, I don't know, I'll give somebody those.
I mean, the big thing is, thebig thing is, is it's better to
err on the side of caution whenit comes to soil residual
herbicides and potatoes, becausepotatoes are growing in the
ground, right? They're likesugar beets or carrots or
onions. You know, a lot of thesecrops can be very sensitive,
right? To soil born or soilresidual herbicides, right? So
it's just best to err on theside of caution, is what I would
(26:46):
say.
Joe Ikley (26:47):
Alyssa, do you have any other lingering questions?
Alyssa Essman (26:51):
I think the only other thing I've been bouncing
around my mind is we'vementioned some of the like,
typical management programs. Arethere any like alternative or
non traditional types of weedcontrol, or some of these new
technologies that are coming outthat have an interest in
potatoes. It's a very differentsystem. So I just trying to
think through if any of thosewould be practical for use in
(27:13):
potatoes.
Andy Robinson (27:15):
Yeah. I mean, I'd love to see more of those in
potatoes. But typically withpotatoes, with the acres in the
US being less than a million,most products are not developed
for potatoes. They're going tofocus on the large acreage
crops. You know, your corn, yoursoybean, your wheat, things like
that, right? Because you havethe most potential to make the
most money back. And it's thesame with a lot of the
herbicides. They're notdeveloped for potatoes. They're
(27:37):
going to be developed for othercrops, and then they're going to
come to potatoes to see ifthey're fit. So, yes, what I
like? Yeah, we don't have muchof that going on right now. As
far as new technologies, itwould be cool, because even when
we do put herbicides onpotatoes, it does, I mean, you
do have a yield penalty, right,but it's a risk, reward
situation, right? Versus maybeyou lose half a percent of yield
(27:59):
because that plants got tometabolize that herbicide,
versus if you leave the weedsgoing, you might lose 20% yield,
right? So it makes sense to dothat, right? So, yeah, if we
could get some of these tools,and that'd be cool. So
alternative methods, so we'llsay, like organic farming,
they're going to typically relyon tillage a lot more. They're
going to go through and run alot of iron through the field.
(28:21):
Traditionally, there's been somethey call drag off. It's
basically they just have theselittle they just kind of just go
on the side of the hill and justkind of cut or run some rollers
across it, just to break thesoil up, you know, to control
weeds. The downside to thatmean, we're trying to reduce the
amount of passage through thefield for compaction and
greenhouse gas emissions,because that's a big thing for
us with our our potatoes, we'rereally getting pushed on
(28:47):
sustainability greenhouse gas.So we're trying to reduce our
fertilizers. We're trying toreduce our gas use, right? So
that's why we're not goingthrough the fields as much
anymore. And you also pruneroots, which isn't good either,
but yeah, using a lot of tillagehas been used in the past. Still
does in organic, I say you stilluse a lot of tillage. You still
can today, if you need to. Butas far as other alternative
(29:08):
methods, sometimes in research,what we do, we'll put this in
research. Sometimes we'll pushherbicides as pre or some
products that typically use preto see how far you can make them
work on a post, like barelyemerged plants, because you
always have those situationsright where, like I saying
earlier, you plan on puttingthis pre package down, but
something happens, and all of asudden the potatoes are popping
out of the ground. What do youdo? Right? So understanding what
(29:30):
their tolerance might be, eventhough it's not labeled for it.
So we do some work on that fromtime to time. But yeah, I think
that's probably what I'd sayright now for that. Yeah,
Joe Ikley (29:41):
I was thinking through some of the other things
we've talked about, and didn'tsound like much opportunity for
like the weed Zapper. If youonly have four so weeks till
canopy closure, and you need adefinite height difference for
the weeds versus the crop toreally make that system work.
Andy Robinson (29:56):
And if you're like this up and down, or.
Right? Even, even drones, likegrowers, try to use drones just
gonna stand count. But it justdoesn't work very well, because
our emergence typically is overmaybe about a week period, and
every seed piece has a differentamount of stems that come out of
it, based on the eye number andthe physiological age. But you
(30:17):
might have one stem here, rightnext to it. You might have one,
four or five stems. So how doyou fly that and figure out what
your stand count is kind ofdifficult to do. I mean, we do
space them about 10 to 12 inchesapart, depending on the variety,
but, but again, it's, it's, it'sa little bit different system
than your typical row crop andand again, it's not typically
(30:37):
the it's typically cutting yourmid size comp, mid to smaller
size companies, if one's goingto focus on potato, you know,
they see that as an opportunity.Or very large companies out
there, at companies, they don'ttypically have potatoes their
main focus because, again,they're going to focus on the
large acreage crops. And, Imean, they often do have a
potato group, but it's usually,you know, something down the
road, typically for us, it seemslike,
Joe Ikley (31:01):
so it's not really a new or exciting technology, but
I got to thinking through justherbicide banding, as you were,
as we were talking through thesethings. And could there be a
difference between, like bandingin between the rows or over top
of the hills on could it open upsome different product
portfolios, or is it just kindof too risky of a of a system?
Andy Robinson (31:22):
Dual actually has that label. So that's not
totally core. You can actuallyban that one, but it is a
challenge because, again, theygrow so fast. Your Windows
pretty short, right? And I knowsome growers that have done it,
and I've seen it, so yeah, youcan do that. It works, but, but
yeah. Again, I don't know. It'snot highly common. It's not a
(31:43):
commonly used practice, is whatI'd say.
Joe Ikley (31:46):
yeah because I was thinking of get out there at the
hood or something in between therows. But like you said, it just
grows so fast, it's probably
Andy Robinson (31:54):
well, and that's the thing, if you can get a good
pre emergent program down andget it activated, right? That's
the key. And if you, if you havea good program, like said, maybe
using three different modes ofaction, full rate on all three.
You know, some take more waterthan others, but you get it
activated, and those plants comeup out of the ground. Sometimes
(32:16):
you can get away with just that,and that's the only herbicide
you need. Sometimes you don't,sometimes you got to come back a
couple of times, maybe with somenew rimsulfuron and clean it up.
But, yeah, it's, I don't knowit's, it's farming, right? You
never know from year to yearwhat you're going to get. So, I
mean, we do have other ways wedeal with like buckwheat, which
(32:37):
is a pain in the neck, becauseit can, I think I read a paper
once it can emerge from 11inches down anytime of the year.
And we don't have good controloptions for that, right? Or, you
know, we have wild cucumbersfloating around. You've probably
seen those sometimes, especiallyby tree lines. What do you do?
What do you do? Right? It'slike, get the shovel out, get
the whole out, go to work.
Joe Ikley (32:58):
Well, I think I just have one question left. I didn't
prepare you for so we'll seeyour potato knowledge goes, Why
is Good Friday mark thebeginning of potato planting?
Andy Robinson (33:10):
I don't know. It's probably not a good place
to plant potatoes here, though,at that time of year,
Joe Ikley (33:16):
that's always, always here. Good Friday time to plant
my potatoes.
Andy Robinson (33:20):
Well it probably just is based on the time of
year and the temperature andwhatnot. But like, if you're a
home gardener or something likethat, realistically, you want,
you want your soil temperatureto be about 50 degrees where you
put the seed piece, which isoften five or six inches down.
So it's not going to if you'rebelow 50 degrees, it just
doesn't develop very fast. Andit's going to get inundated,
(33:41):
usually, with diseases, and it'sgoing to cause problems, because
you want to emerge, really, youwant it to merge in two to three
weeks. So warm temperaturesdrive emergence, and cool
temperatures are tend to staywetter in the soil. It drives
disease and rotting. So itprobably has to do with that.
Joe Ikley (33:59):
Yeah, not too often we have 50 degree soil temps on
Good Friday in the northernplains.
Andy Robinson (34:05):
Nope. I've seen in Minnesota down, down, just by
St Cloud. We've had years. Therewe have, we've got potatoes in
the ground pretty early, likethat. But it's not common. It's
rare, I would say on commercialpotato acres,
Joe Ikley (34:21):
which does, all right, one, one last question.
Then I popped in my head, doesmake me think about frost risk?
Then, because we're almostguaranteed to have a frost
sometime in the second half ofMay up here. And so being in
broadleaf is it, you know, assusceptible as others, or being
that tuber system, can theyrecover a little bit better?
Andy Robinson (34:41):
Yeah, no, they're susceptible. Just like any other
crop, they'll get burned up.I've seen plenty of crispy black
potato leaves, but having thatbig seed piece, yes, they'll
just, they'll regrow. You know?They'll, they'll push up a new
sprout, and they'll regrow.Depends on where it gets killed
at right? It's usually anaxillary STEM is going to grow
off of that. Main stem, orthey'll regrow from the eye. But
(35:03):
it does. It does cause yieldloss, right? Because you're
setting the plant back maybe aweek or two. So it does, yeah,
it does affect them, just like aherbicide injury, right? Like I
said, if you've got a quarter ofa seat of my injury, it's going
to set the plant back. So, yeah,yeah. So potatoes are
interesting. You really want thetemperatures between 45-50 to 85
(35:24):
degrees. It's kind of a sweetspot for potatoes. And much
above that, they're not going togrow. Much below that, they're
not going to grow. They're goingto be sensitive to frost and
killing and, you know, andthey're also sensitive to too
much heat too because, again,they don't grow. They'll get
elongated. They'll get we callsugar ends on them, so they get
kind of jelly instead of starch.It doesn't convert over, which
isn't good. So yeah, potatoeshave this really little, narrow
(35:48):
window of happiness that we tryto give them, but we can't do
everything when it comes totemperatures, right and
rainfall, so you do the best youcan based on the knowledge you
have and hope for the best,
Joe Ikley (35:58):
narrow window of happiness. That sounds like a
lot of weed control programs,regardless of the crop, all
Andy Robinson (36:07):
right? Well, and then the funny thing about
potato talking on, you know,being the weed scientist and
talking with you guys, mostcrops, what do people spend the
most money on for control is forherbicides, right? Not so in
potatoes, we we spend a ton ofmoney on fungicides because
they're so susceptible to somany diseases. So if you're a
plant pathologist, potato isyour dream. For we scientists,
(36:28):
it's, you know, it's still fun,but I do a lot of other things
because I'm an agronomist, so wedo a lot of other stuff, but,
but, yeah, we still do a littlebit of weed science work, but
not a time.
Joe Ikley (36:38):
So with that, Alyssa, any final questions for Andy?
Alyssa Essman (36:42):
I think I'm good today. Thanks, Joe.
Joe Ikley (36:44):
All right, and Andy, the last question we'll ask for
you is, any online resources youwant to point us towards. We can
put in the show notes, anysocial media or website or
online resources?
Andy Robinson (36:57):
Yeah, you can follow me. Yeah, sure. You can
follow me at sputology is myhandle on x and Instagram too.
So, but yeah, we put some stuffup from time to time, but we
don't use it a lot. But yeah,but yeah, just make sure you go
eat some potatoes today.
Joe Ikley (37:17):
All right, we'll make sure there's some during lunch.
With that. Andy, want to thankyou for coming on. I want to
thank the listeners as alwaysfor tuning in and check out next
week's war against weeds.
As always, we thank you forlistening to the war against
(37:39):
weeds podcast. Just anotherreminder, you can find our
podcast hosted on the CropProtection Network, or CPN, for
short. So this is another greatresource that's driven by
extension scientists atdifferent universities for pest
management. And with that, wewill see you next week on the
war against weeds podcast. You.
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