Raising Potato Storage Standards Through Education and Knowledge Sharing
The North American Potato Storage Organization (NAPSO) successfully hosted its third webinar in a series of educational events aimed at improving seed potato storage and disease prevention. The webinar was titled “Storage for Success: Protecting Seed Potatoes and Preventing Disease,” and was attended by 120 participants from across North America and internationally.
The webinar was moderated by Emily Merck, NAPSO Communications Coordinator, and featured keynote speakers:
- Kasia Duellman (Seed Potato Specialist, University of Idaho) – shared knowledge about tuber-borne diseases and storage considerations.
- James Alford (Alford Custom Ag/Premier Seed LLC) – presented practical methods for receiving, processing and storing potatoes.
Key topics of the webinar - Methods of storing seed potatoes to maintain quality.
- Handling and transporting tubers to reduce the risk of damage.
- The effect of physiological age of seeds on yield.
- Trimming, processing and hilling seed potatoes to prevent diseases.
- Controlling temperature and humidity in storage to prevent losses.
- Fungicide treatments and disease control methods.
- Healing of tuber injuries as a key factor in the viability of seed potatoes.
- Common storage problems such as frost damage, mechanical damage (bruising) and ventilation.
Importance of NAPSO webinars for the industry
The event provided valuable practical recommendations for farmers, agronomists and storage managers, helping them to apply science-based strategies to improve the quality of seed potatoes.
All webinar presentations are available to download in PDF format, and the video recording will soon be available on the NAPSO website.
Despite the high engagement of the audience, NAPSO continues to expand the reach of the webinars and invites more producers and industry professionals to join the educational initiatives.
“The more professionals who have access to this knowledge, the more resilient and productive the industry will be. Joint training and sharing of experiences will help minimize losses and improve the quality of potato storage,” NAPSO representatives noted.
NAPSO’s Future Events and Plans
The organization’s next, fourth webinar, is scheduled for March-June 2025. It will focus on long-term storage strategies that will help minimize losses, risks, and diseases.
In addition, NAPSO has announced its participation in the PAA Symposium in Madison, Wisconsin (July 27-31, 2025). The event will feature a panel discussion and a presentation by an international expert from Belgium, who will talk about modern storage methods after the abandonment of CIPC.
We encourage industry professionals to participate
NAPSO encourages producers, storage specialists and agronomists to actively participate in future events, share information with colleagues and apply the acquired knowledge in practice.
All educational materials, presentations and webinar recordings are available on the website www.napso.info.
Which of the presented storage methods do you consider the most effective? Share your opinion in the comments!
