The start of the potato growing season is going according to plan in large parts of the country, unlike last year. In large parts of the country, by far most of the acreage has been planted under good conditions, including in the Flevopolder where 60mm of rain fell locally last week.
This is evident from figures from Aviko Potato. Almost all potatoes have been planted on the South Holland islands, CZAV sales manager Emiel Noordermeer confirms. The earliest potatoes that were planted in mid-March are now above the ground. “But it probably won’t make much of a difference this year, whether you planted early or waited a long time, because of the cold April month.”
Until now, the most rain fell along the North Sea coast in Zeeland and South Holland, up to more than 20 millimeters. But in the arable farming area in West Brabant, only a few millimeters of rain has fallen since last week and drought has gradually started, says Noordermeer.
Great start in the Northern Netherlands
Most planting has also been done along the Wadden coast. According to arable farming team leader Arjen Bijlsma of crop protection and seed supplier Hoogland BV, Groningen is slightly ahead of Friesland. Aviko Potato assumes that 85 percent of the growers affiliated with this organization have planted. Bijlsma: „A lot of work has been done in recent weeks. When most of the work has been done around April 30, you cannot really speak of a late spring here in the North. ” This also applies to the whole of the Netherlands, the figures of Aviko Potato show. In 2014 and 2015 in particular, the start of the growing season was later than this year.
This weekend they worked with all their might in Groningen:
Bijlsma: „The start this year is fine in contrast to last year, with 15-30 mm of rain in the backs. Last year the seedlings were inaccessible to dry out between the clods. The payment price of the seed potatoes in 2020 may be better than expected, but the yield in the North was disappointing due to the drought last year. Now the start looks good. ”
The rainfall scheduled for next week may cause problems for the growers in the Flevopolder who received rain last week. However, the growers affiliated with Aviko Potato planted 95 percent in the Eastern and Southern Flevopolder.
Especially in the south more rain is very welcome. After the rain in the middle of last week passed these regions, the rainy first two days of May also yielded little rain in these regions, in contrast to the provinces of Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe, where 20 mm of rain fell locally in recent days. .
Thunderstorms this weekend
In the coming week, tens of millimeters of rain could fall throughout the Netherlands. Today and tomorrow there will almost certainly be 5-15 millimeters of rain throughout the Netherlands. More rain is expected in the course of the week, especially in the south of the Netherlands, at far below average maximum temperatures that barely reach 10⁰C. After that, unstable warm air is pushed up from France and the first thunderstorms of this season will appear from Sunday. Then it suddenly becomes sultry weather from prolonged cool weather in a few days.
