Virtual Tour of Seed Potato Farm

Our potato seed starts from disease free stock maintained and increased with tissue culture. The tissue is placed in sterilized mediums to grow small plantlets. These plantlets are cut and re-cut to increase the number of plantlets. These plantlets are then planted in sterilized soil in a greenhouse and grown out until they produce small tubers. A maintenance stock of each variety is kept growing in a slow growing medium for future use. After the mini-tubers from the greenhouse are planted in the fields successive generations or years in the fields are used to increase from the first or nuclear generation small stocks. It takes usually 3 years in the field to get sufficient amounts of potato seed for a commercial grower. In Colorado, seed can only be grown for 6 years or generations in the field before it can't be certified again - thus the limited generation seed program name. This limited generation program limits the disease levels in seed. Since each year a little more disease creeps into seed stocks. In addition to the limited generation rules, low levels of diseases are required to meet certification standards. Since most of the significant potato diseases are seed borne, its very important to plant clean seed.

A certified potato seed crop starts long before planting time. Seed stocks must be selected and verified with winter grow-out tests. Although we may sell you one drop and well sized seed, in the lower generations every seed tuber is valuable and except for the very biggest, most are planted, requiring seed to be cut. To avoid disease spread during the cutting process we cut all our seed by hand using a hot cutter. The cutting blades are heated to 500°F to keep them always clean. After cutting, small amounts of lower generation seed stocks are kept in plastic bins. Plastic bins are used over wood since they are easier to keep clean. The cut seed is being dusted with a seed treatment in the above picture.

Planting time is a busy time with many crews working at once. To minimize disease spread we use separate equipment to plant, work and harvest generations 1 - 3. Thus the early generation small plots are planted with this old but accurate 4-row Acme planter. The Nuclear stock is planted by hand or with our hand feed planter. Utmost care is always used in disinfecting between each lots and avoiding any variety mix between lots.

Hilling high generation plots while applying a systemic insecticide for good early season pest control.

During the summer trained rougers go though each field at least two times to dig up diseased plants that may exist. Diseased tubers are destroyed. In addition to roughing a strict sanitation and integrated pest management program is used to prevent disease spread. Equipment and people are disinfected between each field and sometime within a field if necessary. Good seed lots are isolated from other fields and trap crops are planted around every field to help in disease control. Trap crops are a haven for beneficial insects and aphids entering a field can clean off non-persistent mosaic viruses from their bodies. This works since aphids are attracted to edges of fields first. A separate set of equipment is used for the lower generation seed lots since its impossible to clean equipment totally. This helps keep the lower generation seed (the future) clean of diseases. A pest vector control program involves monitoring with field visits, pan traps and sticky traps as well as control measures including systemic and contract insecticides coupled with natural control.

Potato Fields are inspected by the Potato Certification Service for diseases three times during the year. These disease levels are listed in the Colorado Seed directory. To see our latest disease ratings click here. Each generation must meet certain disease levels to qualify for certification.

Harvesting low generation seed lots into plastic holding bins in the field is a slow process since all the equipment must be disinfected between seed lots. The tubers from mini-tuber grown plants are harvested with a digger and picked up by hand since every tuber is valuable. Workers are issued disposable coveralls, boots and gloves to maintain clean conditions. The bins are then stored in temperature and humidity controlled storages to maintain tuber vigor. Small lots of seed are stored in plastic cribs while larger lots are stored in compartmentalized storages. We have 5 separate air systems in the different seed storages. This allows us to reduce spread of diseases in storage.