Oakes Irrigation Research Site
Carrington Research Extension Center * North Dakota State University
P.O. Box 531, Oakes, ND 58474-0531, Voice: (701) 742-2189, FAX: (701) 742-2700, email: rgreenla@ndsuext.nodak.edu

 

EFFECTS OF PREVIOUS CROPS ON POTATO, 2001

Richard Greenland


Materials and Methods

Table 57. Potato stand and weed ratings

Table 58. Soil N Spring 2001, potato yield, and quality of potatoes

Results summary


          To reduce disease problems and maintain potato quality, potato should be planted in a field only once every three or four years. The crops grown the other two or three years can affect the yield and quality of potatoes and the economic viability of the farming system. Presently, farmers earn money the year they plant potato (or rent their land for potato production), then have two or three lean years until they can plant potato again. This tempts many to shorten the rotation interval, resulting in increased possibility of crop failure, or yield and quality reduction when they do plant potato. Producers are requesting information concerning rotations involving potato. One alternative is to grow vegetables such as carrot, cabbage, onion, or sweet corn in rotation with potato. These are high value crops that require irrigation and could increase farmer income substantially in years when potato is not grown. However, little information is available on the effects of vegetable crops planted in rotation with potato. Research indicates that some crops in the brassica family (of which cabbage is a member) reduce disease in potato planted the following year. Carrots may increase deleterious nematode numbers in some areas but this doesn’t seem to be a problem in North Dakota. Standard rotations involving potato need to be developed. Given 10 crops with three or four year rotations, there are almost a thousand different rotations possible that include potato. By determining which crops potato does well or poorly after, the number of possibilities can be reduced. This study compares vegetable and other crops planted the year before potato and their effects on potato planted the subsequent year.

          In 2000, ten crops (cabbage, carrot, field corn, sweet corn, edible bean, onion, pepper, soybean, sugar beet, wheat) were planted on the study area. These crops were managed according to standard production practices for each crop and were harvested in late summer or fall of 2000. Potato was planted in the spring of 2001 following the materials and methods below.


MATERIALS AND METHODS


Soil:

(year 2000 values)

Gardena loam, Embden loam, Embden sandy loam or Maddock Sandy Loam; pH=7.1; 2.2 % organic matter; soil-P and soil-K were very high; soil-S was high.

Previous crop:

2000 - see treatments; 1999 - field corn; 1998 - onion, squash, potato, carrot, tomato and cabbage.

Seedbed preparation:

Disked on April 28. Multiweeded (field cultivated) May 10.

Planting:

‘Russet Burbank’ potato seed pieces were planted 1 ft apart in rows 3 ft wide on May 10 and May 11.

Plots:

Plots were 80 ft long by 21 ft (6 rows with a 1.5 foot buffer on each side) wide. There were 4 reps.

Fertilizer:

On April 19, broadcast 10 lbs N/acre and 50 lbs P2O5/acre as 10-50-0 and 18 lbs N/acre and 20 lbs S/acre as 21-0-0-24. Sprayed 70 lbs of N/acre as 28-0-0 on May 10. Fertigated 35 lbs N/acre on June 26, 30 lbs N/acre on July 10, and 25 lbs N/acre on July 23 as 28-0-0.

Irrigation:

Sprinkler irrigation as needed.

Pest control:

Dragged off on May 25. Hilled on June 12. Sprayed Dual II + Prowl (1.5 pt +1.5 pt/acre on June 18), Matrix (1 oz/acre on July 2), rototilling between plots, and hand weeding for weed control. Seed pieces were treated with Genesis ½ gal/cwt and Maxim dust 25 lb/cwt. Sprayed Bravo (1.5 pt/acre on July 17 and 2 pt/acre on Aug 6), Ridomil MZ72 (2.5 lb/acre on July 24 and Aug 16), and Rovral (2 pt/acre on Aug 27) for disease control.

Harvest:

Harvested an 8 foot section of the center two rows Sept 26 to Oct 1.


RESULTS


          Hairy nightshade and foxtail growth in potato was greatest following sugar beet. Sow thistle was worse following wheat. This was probably due to the difficultly we had in controlling these weeds in sugar beet and wheat the previous year. Wheat was the only crop giving a problem with volunteer plants in the potato. We did not see any differences in early or late blight following any of the preceding crops. Residual N in the 6 to 24 inch soil depth from the previous crops was greatest with field corn, sweet corn, and edible beans, and least with carrots, soybean, pepper, and sugar beet. The previous crop had no effect on soil organic matter, potato yield, or potato quality.


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Table 57. Potato stand and weed ratings for the Oakes Irrigation Research Site 2001 crops previous to potato study.

Previous

Crop (2000)

June 11 ratings1

August 2 ratings1

stand2

hns2

fxtl2

swth2

vol.2

stand2

fxtl2

swth2

 

------------------------------------------ 0 to 10 -----------------------------------------

cabbage

7.8

8.3 a3

8.0 ab

6.8 c

10.0 a

8.8 a

10.0

9.5

carrot

7.5

8.5 ab

8.3 ab

9.3 ab

9.8 a

7.5 cd

10.0

10.0

field corn

7.5

8.8 ab

7.8 ab

9.0 ab

9.8 a

8.0 bc

8.5

10.0

sweet corn

7.5

8.8 ab

8.3 ab

9.0 ab

10.0 a

7.5 cd

10.0

10.0

edible bean

8.0

9.3 a

8.5 a

9.3 ab

10.0 a

8.0 bc

10.0

10.0

onion

7.5

9.0 ab

6.3 abc

8.5 ab

10.0 a

7.0 d

8.5

10.0

pepper

8.3

8.5 ab

5.8 bc

9.8 a

10.0 a

7.5 cd

9.8

10.0

soybean

8.0

8.8 ab

7.8 ab

9.8 a

10.0 a

8.3 ab

10.0

10.0

sugar beet

8.0

7.3 c

4.5 c

9.8 a

10.0 a

8.0 bc

9.0

10.0

wheat

7.0

8.8 ab

6.0 abc

8.3 b

 3.8 b

8.5 ab

9.0

9.5

Probability

0.33

0.002

0.04

0.009

<.0001

0.002

0.37

0.57

C.V. (%)

9

6

25

11

3

6

13

5

1Ratings are from 0 to 10 with 0 = no stand or no weed control; 10 = perfect stand or complete weed control.

2Abbreviations are: stand - potato stand; hns - hairy nightshade; fxtl - foxtail species; swth - sowthistle; vol. - volunteer previous crop in potato.

3Values in the same column followed by the same letter are not significantly different at the 0.05 level. If no letters follow values in a column then there were no significant differences between values in that column.


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Table 58. Soil N Spring 2001, potato yield, and quality of potatoes in the Oakes Irrigation Research Site 2001 crops previous to potato study.

Previous

Crop (2000)

Soil Nitrogen

Soil

OM1

US #1

yield

Total

yield

Tuber

size

Hollow

heart

Specific

gravity

0 to 6"

6 to 24"

 

---- lbs/acre ----

%

---- cwt/acre ---

oz/tuber

%

g/cm3

cabbage

9.3

12.0 abc2

2.6

197

234

4.7

15

1.072

carrot

7.8

7.5 c

2.7

221

256

4.6

10

1.072

field corn

8.0

17.3 a

2.9

201

238

5.1

10

1.070

sweet corn

7.0

15.0 ab

2.6

195

234

4.6

10

1.071

edible bean

8.8

15.8 ab

2.8

202

236

4.9

10

1.073

onion

6.3

12.8 abc

2.7

189

233

4.5

25

1.069

pepper

7.0

9.0 c

2.8

224

252

4.7

15

1.073

soybean

5.8

8.3 c

2.5

215

248

4.7

 5

1.071

sugar beet

6.0

9.0 c

2.5

182

231

5.2

15

1.075

wheat

8.5

10.5 bc

2.8

188

228

5.2

25

1.073

Probability

0.14

0.014

0.26

0.62

0.88

0.33

0.80

0.70

C.V. (%)

25

34

9

16

12

10

124

0.4

1Organic matter.

2Values in this column followed by the same letter are not significantly different at the 0.05 level.


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