07/15/08 Researching organic spud production

To help Idaho potato growers meet the market demand for organic spuds two University of Idaho ag scientists are evaluating seven potato varieties under organic production methods. Nora Olsen says they're using a one acre plot to look at Russet Burbank, Alturas, Defender, Yukon Gold, Dark Red Norland, Norkotah and Norkotah-8. OLSEN "Amber Moore is kind of looking at the fertility requirements. What are some of the issues you can handle with growing organic potatoes but with not synthetic fertilizers? We're also looking at different varieties maybe trying to get and idea what varieties work may better for a grower or which ones do we need to kind of watch out for, maybe they're slow to emerge therefore they may have a little more weed pressure and so forth." What issues do growers face when they transition out of traditional farming to an organic system? What about weed pressure and plant nutrients? Lots of unknowns. They will expand the project next year. OLSEN "We're trying to get a cost estimate on growing organic potatoes and also then to look at yield and what kind of economic return you can get from that yield." Two years ago there were 157 acres of organic potatoes grown in Idaho. This year growers are producing nearly 12 hundred organic acres. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott