With a marked increase in the use of farm-saved seed potatoes in recent years, growers attending this year’s Potatoes in Practice will hear of the need for some extra safeguards to avoid turning this money-saving approach into a costly mistake.

While ware growers can legally use farm-saved seed from crops grown using certified seed for a single generation – ie to produce a final ware crop – SAC demonstration plots at the event will highlight the importance of taking additional care in the husbandry of home-grown crops intended for use as the following year’s seed:

“Rather than simply utilising smalls off the ware crop, growers using farm-saved seed need to dedicate a specific area to this end – and effectively treat the potatoes grown there as you would a seed crop,” Dr Kyran Maloney, SAC’s senior potato consultant, told The Scottish Farmer.

MORE ARABLE NEWS | New fertiliser facility at Port of Tyne

MORE ARABLE NEWS | Global crops hit by weather patterns, pests, and war

He said that special care should be taken not only with disease and pest control, but also in planning the location of crops intended for use as seed.

On pests and diseases, Dr Maloney said that the problems extended further than blight and Potato Cyst Nematode (PCN).

“There is a big focus on aphid vectored virus diseases at the moment – and to fail to control these in crops subsequently saved for seed would not only leave the following crop open to failure but could also pose the wider risk of damaging the Scottish reputation for low virus levels.”

Damage inflicted by herbicide drift from neighbouring crops was another danger which could threaten farm-saved seed. Mr Maloney said that depending on when contamination occurred, there might be little or no sign of harm to either the parent crop or the potatoes in storage – and the damage could remain hidden until after the following crop had been planted:

“It’s not new, but every year we see a number of cases where crops have suffered following glyphosate drift to the parent stock.”

Plots at the event had been sprayed with different levels of glyphosate, from a full dose down to around 1000th of the normal rate to show crop sensitivity.

But Dr Maloney stressed that the flow of information at the event was a two-way street.

Stating that growers should be quite firm in making their views known he said:

“The industry is facing a huge number of challenges and it’s crucial that research and development into new techniques and technologies is aimed clearly at areas which will be of real benefit to those working in the sector.”