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EU pesticide regulation moves closer to reality
EU plans to slash the number of pesticides used in farming moved a step closer on June 24th as European agriculture ministers voted in favour of new proposals. Read more about the implications.
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Cereal farmers urged to take care spraying glyphosate
Potato growers are appealing to neighbouring cereal farmers to take extra care when spraying glyphosate this summer. Undetectable levels of drift can casue serious damage to potato crops, especially those grown for seed.
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Quell Flo is approved for potatoes
With the continuing global problems in the production and supply of Dithane and other blight fungicides, Interfarm UK Ltd are offering UK potato growers an alternative solution in the form of Quell Flo. Quell Flo is a suspension concentrate of mancozeb and is registered for the same crop range as Dithane products.
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Free ethylene advice service
In response to growing demand for residue-free potato storage techniques, Biofresh and Air Products have joined forces to launch a new advice service to help growers and packers answer any questions surrounding the use of ethylene.
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Increased interest in organic manures
Increasing interest in organic manures as a source of nutrients for potato crops and a means of off-setting the cost of manufactured fertiliser has prompted some detailed research into how they can be introduced most effectively.
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PCN GM potato trial destroyed by activists
A trial to develop a genetically modified potato that could save the UK potato industry £50 million a year through the control of PCN and benefit farmers worldwide has been destroyed by activists.
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Potato blight control merits closer sprays
Last year's difficulties in controlling blight and the emergence of new potentially more damaging strains have led some advisers to urge producers to adopt tighter spray intervals.
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Irish join forces on potato blight
Research teams from both parts of Ireland have got together to tackle potato blight, a disease that devastated much of the country more than 150 years ago.
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Odyssey of the Potato exhibition
A Lincolnshire potato grower teamed up with Peruvian ambassador Ricardo Luna in London, to open the Odyssey of the Potato exhibition on the UK leg of its European tour.
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Potatoes are 'more nutritious than pasta'
Farmers have launched a campaign to encourage young people to eat less pasta and more potatoes. The trend for pasta as a replacement for potatoes coincided with many younger people missing out on vital nutrients like iron and potassium
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Crop progress
Late June
The Potato Council's first estimate of plantings for 2008 is 130,500 hecatres, just 0.3% down on last year plantings of 130,800 ha's.
In maincrops top growth is looking good, tuber numbers are low. Warmer conditions are needed to promote bulking and enhance further growth and increase dry matter levels. Irrigation has started in the east. Total clearance of earlies is estimated to be 1500 ha, with ware crops harvested at 16-32 t/ha and salads are 12-22 t/ha.
Blight spraying is well underway with advice being to keep spray intervals tight. Nearly 30 Blight infections have been confirmed in crops in the East, Kent, Lincolnshire, Cornwall and Pembrokeshire whilst blight in outgrade piles has been found in 9 locations. A run of Smith Periods indicates increasing blight risk. Growers are being advised to maintain a robust fungicide progarmme.
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