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A significant deterioration in ground conditions over the past three weeks has prevented potato growers from making progress with this year’s maincrop harvest. While some growers are digging limited tonnages to supply markets, nationally it is estimated that less than 20% of the maincrop area is harvested.
Despite average tuber numbers per plant being back, yields are so far reported to be around average, helped by good tuber size.
Storage issues
Conditions during the growing seasons in the south were very dry but despite this, quality has remained good.
However, of the limited tonnages harvested so far, there have been some reports of issues with skin set and storage due to the wet and mild conditions at harvest.
Potato maincrop area in southern Ireland has remained broadly similar to 2018 area, at around 7,270ha.
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