Tips To Lowering Bruise Rates – It’s A Full Season Process

Before Planting

• Select fields that are best suited for growing potatoes and are free from excessive rocks. Investigate the soil conditioning technics presently adopted throughout Europe, if unavoidable.

• Avoid tillage practices that create clods that will not break down during the growing season. Rotary tillage methods prevent clods in clod prone soils.

During the Growing Season

• Use a balanced fertility program to keep vines green until shortly before top-kill.

Pre-harvest Preparation

• Train all harvest personnel about bruise prevention.

• Install padded chains on harvesting and handling equipment, and replace when worn.

• Adjust harvester chain conveyor speed in relation to ground speed to maintain a full, uniform flow of potatoes on each conveyor.

• Install padding on the harvester at points where potatoes may be bruised.

• Adjust digger blade height on harvesters and windrowers so potatoes do not bump into the front of the primary chain.

Top-Killing

• Kill the vines fourteen to twenty-one days before harvest to allow the skins to properly mature.

• Use mechanical toppers for stubborn – hard to kill vines.

• Apply a pre-harvest irrigation at least one week before digging to soften clods and rehydrate tubers.

Harvesting

• Harvest potatoes only when tuber pulp temperatures are 8°C to 20°C (45°F to 65°F).

• Keep drops to a minimum, adjust web transfers for optimal drop level.

• Avoid using web shakers to separate soil and clods on windrower & harvester.

• Check potato touched areas within harvester and ensure all controllable bruise points are changed (hex bolt heads to round head bolts, exposed guard edges etc.)

• Keep harvester boom close to the pile on the truck.

• Do not walk on potatoes while putting on the tarp.

At the Storage

• Pile potatoes in a stair-step manner to prevent roll down on the pile face.

• Keep drops to a minimum.

• Maintain high humidity in storage unless drying is required to control rot problems such as late blight

or water rot.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Paul Smith is the owner of Northern Equipment Solutions and based in Central Ontario, Canada. Providing Quality Potato Equipment, Precision Agriculture and Other Advanced Equipment, Northern Equipment Solutions ensures that your profits and yields are maximized. www.northernequipment.ca or sales@northernequipment.ca

Comment

You need to be a member of Ontario Agriculture to add comments!

Join Ontario Agriculture

Comment by Iain Robson on December 20, 2012 at 11:30pm: That makes perfect sense. I am not sure how my in-laws do it. I think they use herbicide primarily, but I will definitely ask them about something like the GKB.

Comment by Paul Smith on December 20, 2012 at 4:01pm: The secret with it is to be proactive and work the soil before roots have set for the weeds

Comment by Iain Robson on December 20, 2012 at 11:22am: I just realized that I talked to you on twitter as well. That is too funny.

Nice videos on the channel. I checked them out.

I wonder how that GKB would work in weedier areas.

Comment by Paul Smith on December 20, 2012 at 10:00am: You mechanically weed the soil by disturbing the side of the seed hills just after emergance of the plant but before closure of the canopy, I have a video of a Baselier GKB mechanical weeder on my youtube page www.youtube.com/ontpotatoequip, along with a few other pretty cool potato equipment videos I think you may like

Seeing how this is done is easy then trying to explain it

Comment by Iain Robson on December 19, 2012 at 11:13pm: I understand chemical control of weeds, but how would you control weeds mechanically without harming the potatoes in this case?

Comment by Paul Smith on December 19, 2012 at 2:59pm: I would suggest a good weed control program either chemical or mechanical. By reducing the competition for nutrients from the weeds, quality and yield will improve as well as profits. Topping would only ease issues during harvest, which to me would be too late.

Grimme Single row harvesters dont like weeds and that would make harvest very difficult, if the weeds can be controlled it would help out many things.

Comment by Iain Robson on December 18, 2012 at 11:41pm

I shall mention topping to my in-laws and see what they have to say about it.

Here are some facts about their farm:

200 acre farm 25 of which are potatoes
they have many weeds in their fields
they have a sprayer that attaches to the back of a tractor
they have a grimi single row harvester

Now that you have a bit more information, what are your thoughts on them using topping?

Comment by Paul Smith on December 18, 2012 at 10:29am: Topping can always be an option, its just a matter of economics, as to if it is the correct solution for them. Items like farm size, harvest method, type of harvester, wether they have their own sprayer all come into effect, so it is a difficult question to answer without full details of the operation

Comment by Iain Robson on December 17, 2012 at 11:28pm: Interesting. My in-laws don't harvest them green then. They usually do it around Thanksgiving. However, they sell their potatoes to the market. Would topping still be an option for them?

Comment by Paul Smith on December 17, 2012 at 2:35pm: Baselier is by far the best topper available, which originates in Europe. They are the only ones who have dynamically balanced shafts and are more robust then others on the market.

Toppers are fairly cheap compared to the cost per acre of Reglone if multiple passes are needed for vine kill

Harvesting green is primarily used for very early market potatoes and for whats called field fry process potatoes which is direct from field frying potatoes. These potatoes are usually harvested before the full the tops can be properly killed off, thats why the call it harvesting them green.

‹ Previous
1
2
Next ›

RSS

Welcome to
Ontario Agriculture

Sign Up
or Sign In

Agriculture Headlines from Farms.com Canada East News - click on title for full story

Steady Ontario Planting Progress

Ontario producers continued to make steady planting progress over the past week, although intermittent rainfall and uneven field conditions are still creating a patchwork of advancement across the province. Corn planting reached 86% complete as of Wednesday, according to Grain Farmers of Ontario’s weekly field observations report on Thursday. That is up from 74% a week earlier. Progress varies widely by region, with some areas wrapping up seeding while others remain delayed due to rainfall differences, heavier soils, and lingering wet field conditions. Corn development remains in its early stages, ranging from emergence to the two-leaf stage, but warm temperatures forecast this week are expected to support rapid crop growth. As planting windows narrow, some producers are beginning to shift intended corn acres into soybeans, the report said. Soybean planting also accelerated during the week, reaching 61% complete compared to 39% previously. However, heavy-clay regions remain behin

Canadian Farm Debt Rises in 2025, but at Slower Pace

Canadian farm debt continued to increase in 2025, although at a slower pace. A Statistics Canada farm income report released earlier this week pegged total nationwide farm debt at the end of last year at $179.1 billion. That is still a 7.5% increase from the previous year but well down from the 14.1% increase in debt that farmers took on in 2024 compared to 2023. Meanwhile, StatsCan data shows farm interest expenses reached $9.19 billion in 2025, up $90.99 million from $9.1 billion in 2024, representing a modest year-over-year increase of about 1%. The increase in 2025 interest expenses followed a much steeper jump in 2024, when annual farm interest expenses surged by roughly $2.02 billion to $9.1 billion — an increase of 28.6%. That sharp rise in 2024 interest expenses reflected the impact of higher interest rates across the economy, which significantly increased borrowing costs for producers at a time when many farms were already facing elevated expenses for inputs, machinery,

Chicago Close: Weaker into Weekend as Crude Falls

Losses in crude oil weighed on crop futures Friday, as easing geopolitical tensions and improving crop prospects combined to pressured into the weekend. Wheat led the declines as traders removed weather and geopolitical risk premium from the market. Benchmark Chicago wheat fell for the sixth time in seven sessions amid improving weather conditions across key production regions. Losses in crude oil, due to growing expectations the U.S. and Iran could move closer to a peace agreement, added to the downside. July Chicago dropped 13 ½ cents to $6.10 ½, and July Kansas City dropped 15 ½ cents to $6.49 ¾. July Hard Red Spring tumbled 36 ½ cents to $6.72 ¼, and July Minneapolis lost 13 ½ cents to $6.63 ¾. Corn futures also moved lower as traders reduced risk exposure ahead of the weekend. Export demand offered limited support, with USDA reporting 1.015 million tonnes of old-crop export sales for 2025-26, near the lower end of expectations and down sharply from the previous week. However,

At Olds College Smart Farm, everything is new

If you take Alberta’s Highway 2 south from Edmonton toward Calgary, the landscape is pure prairie. The highway bisects fields that unfold endlessly toward a horizon that most evenings is a pastel blend of mauve and sherbet orange. There’s little else along this stretch of rural paradise, save for rest stops and the occasional lonely highway casino, their parking lots full of F-150s. Driving this route between Alberta’s major cities can become so routine that the only way to tell you’re actually moving is to count the passing farms that dot the landscape. One of those farms is distinctly not like the others. Just 45 minutes shy of Red Deer, in Olds, Alta., sits the Olds College Smart Farm. The 3,300 acres on which this part of a century-old post-secondary institution sits look like most other farms in the area. The fields rotate with the seasons between green, canola yellow, and gold. Its herd of purebred Red Angus cattle and flocks of sheep graze leisurely in the feedlot. But l

Lamb 'too costly' for some Muslims in Manitoba ahead of Eid al-Adha celebrations

A halal grocery store owner in Winnipeg says the rising cost of lamb has made it difficult for some Muslims to buy the animal or meat ahead of Eid al-Adha on Wednesday. The Festival of Sacrifice is an Islamic holiday that celebrates the prophet Ibrahim's obedience and loyalty to Allah, reminding Muslims of community and to practise gratitude and selflessness. On this day, it's traditional to have a lamb slaughtered — a practice known as Qurbani — and share its meat with family, friends and those in need. Khaldoun Majani said the price of lamb has nearly doubled to $28.50 per kilogram at his store since he started running Alsham Food Market in Winnipeg more than a decade ago. A lot of people want to buy lamb for Eid al-Adha, "but at the same time, they feel like it's out of budget," he said. "That makes it [a] little bit hard for some people." The Manitoba Islamic Association expects some community members, especially newcomers, to find alternatives to slaughtering a lamb themselv

More…

Badges | Report an Issue | Terms of Service