The wet spring and the now persistent heat are causing quite a few headaches for farmers. Because sowing was late this year, farmer Simon from Anna Paulowna even had to cancel his spring holiday. Anything for his potatoes. “Last year we sowed in March, this year only at the beginning of May,” says Simon.
Simon grows onions and potatoes. So both were sown and planted late this year, but for the potatoes that can sometimes affect our fries, for example.
New legislation obliges farmers to harvest the potatoes before October 1, otherwise they may use less manure.
Small potatoes
“Because of the late planting, you will see that the potatoes will be much smaller on October 1, and our harvest will therefore be less. This will affect the size and quantity of the harvest. And for fries, for example, the industry needs large potatoes.” he explains.
According to him, this year is the ideal example that the idea of politics does not work.
Cooperation with nature
Simon also sees that the month of October is often still a very good month for potatoes to grow. “Previous years have shown that potatoes absorb a lot of nitrogen from the soil in that month. We don’t just take measurements and fertilize just like that. Just let the farmer do his job in collaboration with nature. A farmer knows what his crop needs has,” said Simon.