CAFRE to host Potato Haulm Flailing Workshop

The College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE), with the support of Grimme, have organised a workshop at Greenmount Campus on Thursday 22 July. The workshops will highlight how to set flailing machines correctly to provide a suitable target to apply the follow-up spray.

Following the withdrawal of Diquat last year, desiccation of potatoes has become more challenging. The only current chemical option for potato desiccation are the PPO inhibitor group of chemicals, which include Spotlight Plus and Gozai. While slower acting than Diquat, spraying with these chemicals alone has proven to provide suitable desiccation of crops that are already beginning to senesce. 

Some crops however have to be desiccated before this stage to control tuber size for market requirements and to prevent virus infection in seed crops. Successful removal of the haulm in these crops will, in many cases, also require mechanical flailing in advance of the chemical application. This is a new technique for many growers in Northern Ireland.

In light of this, CAFRE with the support of Grimme, have organised a workshop at Greenmount Campus, demonstrating best practice in the setup of potato haulm flailing machines, to ensure suitable target for follow up spraying.

If you are interested, attendees must pre-book by visiting the Events section of the CAFRE website. Four time slots are available throughout the day, however, these are limited to 25 attendees per slot so growers are advised to book early.

If you require further information in relation to this workshop or you have a specific question you would like to ask, please send these to Senior Crops Adviser Robin.Bolton@daera-ni.gov.uk.

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