b'2020 Harvest is in the Booksby Ted Kreis, NPPGA Marketing and Communications Directorhardcaked-overtoplayerofsoil.When this top layer is broken throughfor digging potatoes, hard dirt lumpsarecreated.Thisproblemismoreprevalent in clay-rich soils.Ingeneral,butnotexclusively,thenorthern valley fared better weather-wiseinboth2019and2020.Unfortunatelysomeofthesamegrowers were hit by prevented plant-ing both years, too wet in 2019 andtoodryin2020butthesameendresult,potatoesleftinthefieldatfreeze-up.Growerswerewishingfordrierhar- Growers on both ends of the Red Rivervest conditions this year after relent- Valley also experienced some losses toless rain and snow caused about 30% drown-out earlier in the growing sea-ofthefreshcroptobeleftinthe son when heavy rain fell the last weekofJuneintothefirstweekofJuly. Greg Campbell shows off a box of B-ground in 2019.This fall those wishes size reds at the Campbell Farms plantcametrue,butgoodharvestcondi- Reports of 10 to 15 inches of rain in in Grafton on September 23rd.tionsgraduallydeterioratedasthe that time frame were recorded at somelocations.Butsummerrainsand year. In fact fresh crop losses due toharvest season progressed. The North thunderstorms are spotty; some grow- weatherin2020areexpectedtobeDakotaAgWeatherNetwork ers benefitted greatly from that week closerto10%whichisnotagood(NDAWN)stationlocatedatthe of wet weather. numberbutmuchbetterthantheNPPGAResearchFarmjustsouthof 30% we saw last year. Also fresh grow-Grand Forks recorded only 0.36 inch- All in all, it was actually a pretty good ers are also seeing growth cracks showesofraintheentiremonthofSeptember,andmostofthatfellonSeptember 2nd.Those of you not familiar with potatofarming may be asking, "How can it betoo dry to harvest potatoes?"Growersactuallyneedsomemoistureinthesoil in order to dig potatoes withoutbruising.Bruising is caused by harddirt lumps mixing in with potatoes asthey are dug and moved into storage.Dirt lumps are formed when previous-lywetgrounddriesoutcreatinga Folson Farms was busy harvesting on September 8th before dry soil became aproblem.4 POTATO GROWER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020'