N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 8 4 POTATO GROWER 4 POTATO GROWER Unwanted Snow May Have Saved Most Unharvested Potatoes by Ted Kreis, NPPGA Marketing and Communications Director On October 10th the potato harvest in the Red River Valley was about three-quarters completed when the region received 6 to 17 inches of snow followed by temperatures that dipped to as low as 9 degrees in Grand Forks the following morning. Snowfall and low temperature records were shattered. Over the next week, temperatures dipping into the mid to low 20's at night were common. Most growers and potato industry experts agreed that the remaining 4,400 acres of the fresh potato crop still in the ground may have been lost. But over the next week, tempera- tures returned to more fall-like norms and the rain and snow stayed away for the most part. Potato growers, always the optimists, took their harvesters to the fields to see what could be salvaged. Many were pleasantly surprised as the harvest resumed with good results. Jeff Lazur, who sells potatoes for Associated Potato Growers was not as surprised as some. He recalls a similar event in 2001 when he was still growing potatoes on his farm near Reynolds, North Dakota. Jeff remembers that a late October storm dumped 10 to 14 inches of snow on his unharvested potatoes, and the temperatures fell into the single dig- its. But about a week later the har- vesters were back in the fields according to Lazur, “I remember our harvest that year finished on November 21st, several days after the Red River Valley Potato Growers Association’s Annual Meeting, which in those days was held in Fargo in mid November.” Just like 17 years ago, this snow- storm dumped enough of the heavy wet stuff to create an insulating blanket for potatoes still buried beneath the rich soil of the Red River Valley. The rapidly melting snow was quickly absorbed into the still unfrozen ground adding soil moisture that further protected the potatoes until they were dug. By November 1st, fewer than five percent of potatoes planted in the Snow still remained on an NDSU research plot near Larimore 5 days after the snowstorm. This plot was successfully harvested with some minor frost dam- age.