Early hailstorms affect Alberta potato crops

Alberta potato growers are having to watch and wait to see what impacts hailstorms are going to have on their crops, according to a report by fresh produce information platform, Fresh Plaza.

A large hailstorm hit the southern half of the province during late June and different areas are being also being hit at different times with hailstorms.

Ann Zalik of Prairie Gold Produce based in Vauxhall, Alta, whose family owns a 1,500-acre potato farm said: “We have one field of Russet potatoes that got hit pretty hard. We have maybe 13 fields altogether, but the hail was not enough to set them back significantly. They were still immature at the time and just coming up, so we had some foliage damage but I’m not too worried about it.”

She said for the 2020 crop, time is still on the side of growers. “It’s still early and there’s a lot of time yet for the potatoes to recover. In a lot of cases they weren’t quite setting tubers yet so even if they were, those would probably be aborted, and a new flush would come in.”