WSU Potato Field Day Set For Thursday

The 2017 WSU Potato Field Day gets underway Thursday at the Washington State University Research station in Othello.  WSU researcher Tim Waters told the Washington Ag Network this year’s field day will include many of the staples growers have come to expect over the years, such as nutrient management, but there’s several things that are new.

“There’s some discussion on the Innate Potato which is the genetically modified potatoes that have been deregulated by Simplot, some stuff on remote sensing with pivots and stuff like that  new technology is always interesting for people to learn about.”

Waters added most of the WSU potato researchers will b in Othello Thursday, so it’ll will be a good opportunity for growers to have specific questions answered.

“Or things that they are concerned about, they know they’ll be able to find those people there and maybe get some of those questions answered.”

Thursday’s Field Day starts with registration, coffee and donuts at 8:30 a.m.  at 1471 West Cox Rd. in Othello.

Pesticide re-certification credits have been applied for Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

Here is the schedule for Thursday's Field Day:

8:30–8:55 am  Coffee and donuts

9:00–10:00      Commercial Seed Lot Trial Disease Results and Viewing, Mark Pavek – WSU Pullman

Concurrent Session I:          Potato Cultural Practices Field Tour

10:00               Enhancing French Fry Yields by Manipulating Tuber Size Distribution & Shape

Cody Dean, Lisa Knowles and Rick Knowles– WSU, Pullman

10:10               Can Planting Date Affect Storability & Process Quality?

Lisa Knowles, Graham Ellis and Rick Knowles– WSU, Pullman

10:20               Factors Affecting Durable Retention of Cold Sweetening Resistance

Graham Ellis, Lisa Knowles and Rick Knowles– WSU, Pullman

10:30               Innate Update: What the Traits Mean for Growers and Which Lines Have Been Deregulated John Pierre – Simplot Plant Sciences, Boise

10:45               Upgrading Potato Evapotranspiration Crop Coefficients, Strategic H₂O Deficits on Potato, Scrutinizing Alternative Agricultural Inputs, F Gonzalez, M Pavek, Z Holden – WSU, Pullman

11:00               Remotely Managing, Monitoring, and Controlling your VRI System through FieldNET

                        Chuck Powell and Josh Egan – Lindsay Corporation

11:15               Makah Ozette Fingerling Potato

Joann Reckling of Tranquil Farms– Tranquil Farms, Oregon City, Oregon

11:30               What’s in a Potato and its Relationship to Human Nutrition and Disease Resistance in the Potato Plant    Roy Navarre, Chuck Brown, and Kylie Swisher, – USDA-ARS Prosser

11:45               Refining Cultural Management to Match Modern Potato Production Needs

                        M Pavek, Z Holden, R Garza, J Rodriguez, F Atilano – WSU, Pullman & Othello

11:45 pm – 1:00 pm                                        HOSTED LUNCH

Concurrent Session II:         Potato Pest Management Field Tour

10:00               WSU Potato Pest Alerts - What are We Expecting this Season?

                        Carrie Wohleb – WSU, Grant/Adams Counties

10:15               Populations of Verticillium dahliae that Infect Potato and Rotation Crops                                                 David Wheeler, D. Johnson, and T. Cummings – WSU, Pullman

10:25               Update on the Current and Expected Potato Disease Situation in the Columbia Basin

                        Dennis A. Johnson – WSU, Pullman

10:35               A Diverse Population of Colletotrichum (cause of black dot) Infects Potato with Varying Results in the Columbia Basin

                        Daniel Farber and Dennis Johnson – WSU, Pullman

10:45               Insecticide Selection for Managing Insect Pests of Potato

Tim Waters – WSU, Benton/Franklin Counties

11.00               Effects of PVY Strains on Tubers in Storage

Alex Karasev, M. Andros, L. Woodell, Ken Frost, and Nora Olsen – Univ. of Idaho and OSU

11:15               Pale Cyst Nematode: Implications for the Potato Industry

L.M. Dandurand, M. Morra, C. Brown, P. Hutchinson – Univ. of Idaho and USDA

11:30               New Technology Allows Growers to Monitor and Record Pesticide Chemigation Applications Electronically in Lieu of Human Observation Bryan J. Gran – Surefire Ag Systems

11:45 pm – 1:00 pm                                        HOSTED LUNCH

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