The storage season offers a plethora of potential challenges for potato growers. These challenges can include shrink, sprouting, bruising and rot. Although the doors may be closed on the storage, these concerns reduce potato quality and a grower’s return on investment.
Ragen Darrington, an applicator at Industrial Ventilation Inc. in southern Idaho, shares the goal of helping growers “have fresh, clean potatoes all year long to supply to their customers.” To accomplish this, Darrington recommends 1,4SIGHT® to growers to help minimize bruising in storage. Applying 1,4SIGHT® immediately after door closure helps potatoes absorb the product, allowing them to preserve water, reduce respiration, and minimize bruise.
“We have more growers calling us every year asking for 1,4SIGHT®, and they seem to be really seeing results. Several sheds have shown me multiple years’ worth of data that proves they are seeing a significant decline in load rejections, and it’s showing in their bottom line and what they are able to return to the grower. All signs point back to when they started using the 1,4SIGHT® product,” Darrington said.
1,4SIGHT® “relaxes and de-stresses the potato to where it cools down and wants to come into a natural state of dormancy rather than perspiring a lot of moisture out … which can cause pressure bruises,” Darrington said. He also recommends the biocontrol when growers have problems with black spot bruising. Research has shown 1,4SIGHT® works on a genetic level by reducing the biosynthesis of phenylalanine, a key component in bruising, causing the color formations to be less visible.
1,4GROUP and Industrial Ventilation have completed trials with 1,4SIGHT® to test effectiveness of bruise reduction and prevention in storage and transit, and report that results have been positive. In fact, they saw about a 30% reduction in bruising when it was applied shortly before growers delivered spuds to the packing shed. “We’ve also had growers use it for processors, where they grade their own bruise, and even there we’ve been able to help growers score higher bruise-free averages than what they were expecting or what they had before in same store, same field, etc.,” Darrington said.
In addition to reduced bruising, Michael Campbell, Ph.D. of Penn State University, The Behrend College, has shown tubers treated with 1,4SIGHT® demonstrate resistance to fungal disease. As fungal growth is lessened, other non-pathogenic microbes and fungi are allowed to flourish, leading to a healthier potato. Darrington’s storage experience confirms that the fungistatic properties of 1,4SIGHT® slow down or reduce the disease to the point where a simple disinfectant takes care of the remainder of the fungus.
Dr. Campbell is studying multiple gene expression changes present in potatoes with the application of 1,4SIGHT®. His prior research has shown a reduction in the biosynthesis of phenylalanine. While he notes that the changes are present, further collaboration with 1,4GROUP is ongoing to determine how 1,4SIGHT®’s effect on gene expression results in reduced bruise for the grower.
“This is the thing about science, the best way to look at good science is when you see it replicated in other avenues,” Dr. Campbell said. He would like to see growers share data about how tubers are responding to 1,4SIGHT® treatments, specifically their observations of bruising and fungal activity resulting in rot. “Growers can be citizen scientists. We’d like to know what they see to help direct our research.”
Since he began recommending 1,4SIGHT®, Darrington and his growers have seen big changes in quality over the last several years. “The average quality of potatoes is significantly better,” Darrington said.
1,4GROUP, Inc sales representatives consider the length of storage program, other chemistries being applied, variety of potato and growing conditions to advise growers on the best application schedule for their specific needs, including sprout inhibition, bruise reduction and improved fungal resistance.
