03/02/06 Potato winter grow out

For years Idaho potato seed growers have taken seed lots to southern California where they were planted and then evaluated for potential problems. NOLTE "Specifically potato leaf roll virus and potato mosaic virus and these are diseases that wouldn't necessarily have shown up during the growing season because they may have come into the field very, very late before there would be a chance a symptom would show up." University of Idaho's Phil Nolte says their long time San Diego county growing site has been lost to a higher bidder. Because of that some growers have turned to Hawaii for their grow out tests. NOLTE "Idaho is right now kind of in limbo I think looking for exactly how we want to run these winter tests." Idaho growers haven't jumped on the Hawaiian bandwagon and they feel a second California location near Oxnard isn't ideal because it's a couple of weeks behind San Diego plant growth. Nolte says timing is everything. NOLTE "Whether or not the seed lots they are considering either for sale or for use on their own farms to increase another year will pass the winter test inspection." Some Idaho growers recently used a geothermally heated greenhouse to conduct their winter grow out. More about that in our next report. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott