PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — After an unseasonably cold and wet start to the growing season, followed by equally unusual warmth in September, fall’s potato harvest has yielded good results in all areas of The County.
“Yields this year are better than average, with exceptional quality,” said Tim Hobbs, director of development and grower relations for the Maine Potato Board. He reported that as of Oct. 20 more than 90 percent of the crop was out of the ground, particularly in northern Aroostook, with an estimated 8-10 percent still to be harvested.
“If you look at where everybody got 6-7 inches of rain, you can draw a line right there,” he said, adding that the first two weeks of harvest in September were good, then conditions got sloppy, particularly in southern areas. “But we [in central/northern Aroostook] got about 2 inches, and we can absorb that.”
Early harvesting began back in August, with some growers digging to go directly to Frito-Lay and other processors. Hobbs described the majority of the harvest as being Russet Burbank and similar varieties.
Though acreage is down a bit statewide, with approximately 50,000 acres planted this year in comparison to 2014’s 54,000 acres, production was actually higher than last year because yields were better, Hobbs explained.
Though a bit unusual, the weather actually proved beneficial for one aspect of farming: late blight.
According to the University of Maine Cooperative Extension’s “Late Blight” publication, the fungus-like organism Phytophthora infestans is responsible for the disease. It was late blight that created the Irish potato famine in 1845-47; crops fell hard to blight after an extended period of wet conditions. But science has come a long way in helping growers deal with the problem.
“To have it really be an issue, it has to be really wet and not dry out at all,” Hobbs continued. “We didn’t have that this year. It was just not a good late-blight-conducive year.”
Although there were “a couple of spots,” Hobbs commented, “the fact that I can’t remember where they are tells you it wasn’t a huge issue. The industry has learned a lot in the last few years about late blight, the way we react and the way we take a proactive approach. It’s not the huge issue it has been in the past.”
With help from the Cooperative Extension, the industry has a game plan for dealing with blight. “It’s still in the back of our mind, and we’re very diligent and aware. It’s not conquered, but the industry addresses it in a way that is much more effective,” Hobbs noted.
He credited the extension and local area crops specialist Steve Johnson with putting together a forecasting tool and developing a prophylactic spray program which, though not curative, is highly preventative. He said Johnson worked out a formula based on a number of factors to keep growers apprised of ongoing blight conditions.
“If late blight is present, you would spray more often than if not present,” said Hobbs. “The extension has helped us work this out over the last few years and there’s more of an awareness of the disease. … As a growing area, we’re doing a better job of being aware of it and taking appropriate actions.”
Area farmers have been positive about the season as well.
Joel Oliver of Hodgdon said this year’s harvest went extremely well, but it did get off to a shaky start. Oliver started harvesting around Sept. 15, which is about normal, he said.
“The ground was great, conditions were great, but then the summer temperatures returned,” Oliver said. “We could only dig until about noon and once it got up to the high 70s-low 80s we stopped. It was just too warm.”
He explained when harvesting potatoes, cooler temperatures are desired because it helps preserve the spuds.
“When you put them in storage when it’s 80 degrees, you can’t get enough cool air on them and that’s when you get all kinds of problems,” he said.
The ideal situation is to have 45-degree air on the harvested crops in the evening. If the temperature is too high, it increases the risk of disease spreading. If the potato has any sort of ding or nick, it serves as an entry point for pathogens to get in.
“Sometimes they will melt on you,” he said. “I’ve had it happen to me. You have to be careful those first few days.”
Oliver has been harvesting potatoes for the past 17 years in the Hodgdon area. He employs about 12 people and farms 425 acres. Out of that total, 160 acres are devoted to seed potatoes. The remainder is grains, clover and vegetables.
The extreme rain that hit Aroostook County was a first for Oliver in that such a large amount of rain fell in such a short period of time. He said other farmers that he spoke with told him tales of having to use a canoe to get out to their fields because the ground was so wet.
“It was unusual for sure,” he said. “In Hodgdon we had almost eight inches of rain in a 24-hour period. It was wet for a long time after that. It slowed things down, for sure. We could only go at about half-capacity for a few days. It wasn’t fun.”
Oliver said he is probably the most southern farmer of potatoes in Aroostook County. Prior to that heavy rain, it had actually been a pretty dry summer, he said, which had him thinking the yield would be down. But that did not prove to be the case, at least for him, as some of his fields produced record yields.
“I don’t know how or why, but overall the yields were up and the crop looked great,” he said. “There was no disease. It was a nice, clean crop that was easy to dig and store.”
Presque Isle Star Herald writers Joseph Cyr and Christopher Bouchard contributed to this report.