Avoid planting potatoes in the fall in Alabama, says Alabama Extension vegetable specialist Joe Kemble.
Alabama farmers and gardeners have planted or are currently planting their fall vegetable crops. One crop that Joe Kemble, Alabama Extension vegetable specialist, says producers need to avoid are fall potatoes. They simply don’t do well in any part of the state, due to the high soil temperatures.
“Fall potatoes in Alabama do not do well at all. The reason is potatoes are really sensitive to temperatures again,” Kemble said. “They get a condition called heat necrosis where the vascular tissue in the tubers will get an off color. They’ll actually almost look like they’ve been cooked inside. Usually the stands are pretty bad. You will get some production. But they are cool season plants, they do not like hot weather.
“We only grow varieties that mature by early seasons. They all tend to be early season varieties like Atlantic or Potomac or any of the red potatoes or Yukon Golds. They all tend to be early maturing varieties. Varieties like the Fingerling varieties, those tend to be mid-season to late-season varieties; those tend to be a little bit hit and miss because they may take too long to mature and then you end up with all kinds of weird problems on the tubers because the soil temperatures got too warm. Fall potatoes don’t work well in Alabama.”
Kemble said producers grow a lot of Irish potatoes in Alabama. But normally in the southern part of the state, the growers will sew them around Christmas time. Farmers in northern Alabama will plant them a little bit later. A little light frost does not hurt.
Florida potato farmers are one commodity group that benefited from last week’s USDA’s revision to the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP).
Potatoes were one of seven eligible commodities added to Category 1. The USDA found these commodities had a 5% or greater price decline between mid-January and mid-April because of the coronavirus pandemic. Originally, these commodities were only eligible for marketing adjustments.
Kam Quarles, National Potato Council
“We were cautiously optimistic that they were going to get to this point. Clearly (last week’s) announcement, they’re moving in the right direction. They made potatoes eligible for all of the categories under the relief program. Now, what we want to do is work with them to get the payment levels up across the board to a level that’s meaningful to any farmer who has suffered an injury due to the crisis,” said Kam Quarles, Chief Executive Officer of the National Potato Council. “Some of them are a little low. Others are where they need to be. We want to work with them going forward to see if we can’t get them all up to the right spot.
“We basically canvased the whole industry and the conclusion that everyone came to was if a producer can get four cents a pound for whatever type of injury they suffered; the three categories spell out the types of injures; price loss, did you lose your customers after you shipped your product, did you lose your customers and your potatoes stayed on your farm; each one of those has a payment associated with it. If we can get each one of those to a minimum of four cents a pound, that will keep producers able to be solvent until next year. Hopefully, we’ll be out of this in another year from now.”
Quarles expressed concern that funding may not be available to cover the expenses that accompany the additional commodities. “The money that they have is going to run out for this current CFAP. Congress is going to have to get involved, at a minimum to provide them with more money and then also extend the timeframes out at least through the end of this year. When they do that, we want to talk, both with USDA and with Congress about getting those payment levels up where they need to be,” Quarles said.
Like other commodities, the potato industry has been hurt by COVID-19.
The National Potato Council and state grower organizations wrote Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue recently to talk about potatoes that have nowhere to go for processing.
The Hagstrom Report says the council noted more than “1.5 billion pounds of fresh potatoes for processing and potato products are trapped in the supply chain with no likely customers.” Mountains of potatoes were being given away or left to cow feed as surplus crops are piling up despite government efforts to distribute the potatoes as part of food boxes being given to needy families.
The potato industry feels like the USDA’s new Farmers to Families Food Box program, as well as other initiatives, aren’t enough to dent the losses in a sector that depends heavily on foodservice sales.
Kam Quarles (Quarrels), CEO of the National Potato Council, says, “It was clear the people who were doing well in retail could probably take more advantage of this than the impaired side of the business, which is food service.” The NPC sent a letter to USDA saying, “This oversupply has impacted both the 2019 and 2020 crop for U.S. family farms that grow potatoes. Some of these farms will have no ability to sell their 2019 or 2020 crop.”
The industry suggested several enhancements regarding eligibility and payment rate adjustments that will help USDA help the industry.
(From the National Association of Farm Broadcasters)
There are a variety of nematodes that damage Florida potatoes. These plant-parasitic nematodes are small, microscopic roundworms that feed on plant tissue, causing severe damage to growers’ crops.
Pictured are potatoes.
To combat nematode populations, researchers at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) have been testing new nematicide products.
ONGOING FIELD TRIALS
Nematicide application is one of the main management strategies available to growers in potato production. Zane Grabau, assistant professor of nematology at UF, is one of the researchers experimenting with new nematicide products at the UF/IFAS Hastings Research Station.
“Most of our nematode research continues to center on testing new nematicide products. Growers rely heavily on a few nematicides, so new chemistries are always useful,” Grabau says.
There are two field trials taking place at the research station, one of which is testing Nimitz, a newer, liquid nematicide that contains the active ingredient fluensulfone. According to Grabau, they have done a lot of work with Nimitz over the past few years.
“Nimitz is a little bit different as it is a non-fumigant, so it’s put out as a liquid, making it a little bit easier for growers to work with,” Grabau says.
Over the past three years of working with Nimitz, Grabau’s results showed that the nematicide performed at or near the level of the one most common fumigants, Telone II, for managing sting nematode. It’s one of the most problematic and common nematodes in the area.
In addition, they’re also experimenting with Majestene, a bionematicide to control nematode populations. Majestene is a certified organic product, formulated of dead bacteria that produce chemicals toxic to nematodes. In terms of application, Majestene is very similar to a chemical nematicide as it is biologically based.
“Since it’s our first year testing it, we don’t really have any data yet, but we’re hoping to be able to see how it performs. For this year, the way we’re looking at it is as a potential supplement to a fumigation application,” Grabau says.
ADDITIONAL MANAGEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS
Although nematicide applications are the most effective way to manage nematodes, there are additional management strategies. Crop rotation of less susceptible crops, cultural and tillage practices, and use of nematode-free seed potatoes are additional strategies for growers to consider on top of nematicide applications.
“One of the big things we encourage growers to do is to try and practice crop rotation when they can,” Grabau says. “This could either be with cash crops or cover crops. It’s just important that they are considered a poor host for nematodes or not a host at all.”
Submitted by Gene McAvoy, Regional Vegetable Extension Agent IV Emeritus with UF/IFAS
“Up to the end of Feb our growers were having a banner year and it looked like this season would be one of those homeruns that come around every 5-6 years.”
Here is a report that I prepared on the state of S Florida ag and shared with officials. (Long read but may shed some light on how COVID-19 is impacting agriculture in our area.)
Markets
On Tuesday, March 24, a local broker says, everything changed. From brokers, orders stopped and everything got quiet. On Wednesday, March 25, it got super quiet.
Since then tomato volumes are down 85%, green beans are like 50% and cabbage is like 50%.
R.C. Hatton has plowed under 100 acres of green beans, around 2 million pounds, and 60 acres of cabbage, or 5 million pounds.
Florida’s tomato growers target 80% of their production to restaurants and other food service companies, rather than to supermarkets. In this sector, growers are walking away from big portions of their crop.
Tony DiMare estimates that by the end of the growing season, about 10 million pounds of his tomatoes will go unpicked.
Some crops like potatoes and oranges are faring well, whileother produce isn’t selling like it used to.
With a lot of people staying home and buying mostly comfort foods, products like peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers have actually slowed down incrementally,” said Chuck Weisinger, president of Weis-Buy Farms, Inc.
“The biggest challenge we have right now is getting the stores to start buying,” said John Stanford, farm manager at Frey Farms.
As you know. produce is highly perishable and three weeks into this, many companies around Immokalee, Florida have already had to empty their coolers and dump produce. One dumped 20,000 pounds a day last week, let that sink in… 20,000 pounds of tomatoes a day. They dumped a total of 100,000 pounds so far. This is from one farm.
Three weeks in, most farms have exercised triage dumping and emptying coolers and are terminating fields for which they have no foreseeable markets. They are concentrating on maintaining fields that they still have demand for, unfortunately, depending on the crop – this is only 20-50% of the total planted.
Impacts on Ranchers
The cash market and futures prices are lower than anyone can remember. One local rancher sold calves this week and averaged $250 per head at the Arcadia auction barn. A few weeks ago he would have received $450 per head average, and that constitutes below breakeven.
In normal times, strategy would be to hold calves until the crisis is over, and hope prices will take an upswing. But there is huge uncertainty about how long this will last. A major compounding problem is the dry conditions, and lack of reserve forage. These weather patterns would normally dictate early weaning of calves. Hay costs, when available, and low market prices are a formula for hardship.
The extended impact on ranchers will be the cows not breeding back on schedule. Holding calves longer in hot and dry conditions puts a strain on a cow’s reproductive system. This has been well-documented by University of Florida researchers.
Many growers are exploring alternative methods of moving product.
Sam S. Accursio and Sons Farms’ in Homestead packing house opened direct sales to consumers, selling boxes at $10 in each of the past two weekends. They had cars stretched for half a mile in front of the packing house and were able to move 120,000 pounds of Redland-raised squash, tomatoes, beans and cukes. They also partnered with a farmer out of Mount Dora, Florida who had 30,000 flats of unsold blueberries and sold these at 12 pints for $20. Similar efforts were conducted by Alderman Farms in Bonita Beach, Florida, Farmers Alliance in Immokalee and others.
Martin County, Florida opened a pop-up drive-thru market that saw 500 cars in one day. Traditional commercial farms in South Florida have been overwhelmed by the support for the sales at their packinghouses – all fruit that would have otherwise gone unsold if waiting on traditional markets to purchase.
Growers are still concerned that a large amount of produce seen in the supermarket comes from Mexico.
According to Bill Braswell, since March 1, the start of the Florida blueberry season, Florida has produced 6.1 million pounds through last Thursday April 2. In that same time period, Mexico has imported 17.4 million pounds into the U.S., according to a USDA report. Mexico market price is $12 for a 6-ounce flat delivered to Chicago which translates to $2.60 per pound.
Labor
Growers are taking aggressive steps to protect workers from COVID-19, including keeping truckers separate from on-farm labor.
They have been taking advantage of training resources and posters supplied by IFAS Extension and others.
Agents have also shared information on essential services exemption and supplying growers with template essential services exemption letters to facilitate movement of their essential staff and labor.
Labor shortages – reports indicate that COVID-19 has delayed the U.S. government’s processing of H-2A work visas. This will impact growers in central and north Florida and up the coast.
Food banks
Last week, growers in Immokalee alone donated more than 3 million pounds of vegetables to Harry Chapin food bank, overwhelming their ability to store, transport and distribute the produce – they had to call a halt.
Farm Share, which partners with more than 2,000 food pantries, churches, schools and other nonprofits throughout Florida, is running at maximum capacity, despite having 25 refrigerated trucks, six warehouses of between 10,000 to 35,000 square feet and 40 to 50 drop sites from Jacksonville, Florida to Florida City, Florida. They usually help more than seven million pounds of food reach the hungry and now are faced with moving a lot more.
Over the past two weeks, Wish Farms has donated 220,000 pounds of fresh strawberries — equivalent to 241 pallets or nine semi-trailer loads — to feeding Tampa Bay.
Growers are having a tough time adapting because everything is happening so quick. Faced with a highly perishable product, growers are struggling to survive right now, with picking, packing and shipping everything that they can. Because of the coronavirus, things have changed. Buyers are demanding tight security, heavier sanitation, distancing and more.
We have heard many ideas and suggestions from the public and even local officials – what many people fail to realize is that picking, packing, cooling, storing and transporting vegetables costs money, and growers who have already lost millions of dollars are understandably reluctant to throw good money after bad. It also costs money to maintain fields with no hope of sales in sight. Growers are disking up fields and maintaining just what they feel they have markets for. Unfortunately, this is only about 20% to 30% of the total acreage. Each acre of tomatoes costs $10,000 to $12,000 to grow and $5,000 to $6,000 to pick and pack. Unmaintained fields rapidly succumb to pests and diseases and soon become a breeding ground threatening the health of nearby fields that growers are trying to save for their remaining markets.
It is not only veggies, as of yesterday about 7.7 pounds of milk has been dumped by one Central Florida co-op (there are a few in Florida). Milk is sold by the pound so that is 900,000 gallons.
While I don’t have the exact amount from the other co-op I would expect their numbers to match ours in north Central Florida and South Georgia. Unfortunately, we can easily say that 10 million pounds of milk has been dumped throughout Florida.
There are efforts to help farmers all over our state. In the dairy industry, there is a grassroots group of passionate producers, processors, promotion people, school representatives and Extension agents trying to get more milk moving. This group includes people from Florida and Georgia, that in normal times might view each other as the competition (different co-ops and different promotion boards). These efforts range from delivering school lunches, buying and delivering milk to food banks and those in need; contacting schools to increase their milk in each meal, contacting legislators to allow whole milk in school lunches (we need help with this), and asking stores to stop limiting the purchase of milk.
People really have no concept of the amount of food we are taking about – Immokalee alone ships approximately 400 to 500 semis of vegetables a day from March through mid-May. This is 15,750,000 pounds of vegetables headed to market every day. Add to this Belle Glade, Palm Beach Co, Homestead and the amounts are staggering. I know of one grower in Belle Glade who is disking up 1 million pounds of green beans every three days.
South Florida vegetable growers supply more than 150 million people in the eastern U.S., from Miami to Chicago, from late October to mid-May.
Here is a resource a producer may be interested in sharing – this is a clearing house for finding food – donating food etc.
(HCCGA) — FDACS has created the attached form for producers to fill out with their product availability. Once submitted, FDACS will utilize to forward to their Fresh From Florida contacts, as well as the Florida Department of Corrections, food banks and make connections with other State Departments of Agriculture in hopes of providing market opportunities to move product during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Potato infected with late blight. Photo by Scott Bauer
By Clint Thompson
Potato and tomato producers in Florida need to be wary of the discovery of Phytophthroa infestans, the causual agent for potato and tomato late blight. Gary England, RSA/Director for the Hastings Ag Extension Center in Hastings, Florida, confirmed that samples collected from the Extension Center site tested positive.
He scouted the rest of the affected portion of the farm on Saturday but did not see further spread of the disease. Still, England wants to make other farmers aware to be on the lookout.
“It’s nothing bad right now, but anytime it gets in the area, we always let everybody know. With the weather we had with rain and cooler temperatures (this week) it is more capable for late blight. Hot and dry (temperatures), it’s not all that favorable for development,” England said. “The growers definitely need to be looking for late blight.”
He said farmers in the Live Oak, Florida area need to be made aware since a bulk of potatoes are produced there. Producers need to be proactive in preparing for and managing this disease, considering the destruction it can have on a potato field.
“It’ll totally destroy the potato vines before potatoes mature. That disease, you’ve heard of the Great Irish Potato Famine, it’s the same disease,” England said. “Back in those days, they didn’t have any fungicides to put on them.
“Hopefully, it doesn’t show up on any of the local farms but if we see it in the area, we definitely get the word out so everybody can step up their scouting.”
According to University of Florida, symptoms of late blight may begin as dark green water soaking that may be associated with chlorosis or necrosis, depending upon the age of the lesion and the weather conditions. Under relative humidity in excess of 80%, lesions may appear purple to black with white sporangial growth. Under hotter and drier conditions, the lesions turn brown, dry out, and appear papery.
