Potato Farming
Insight
How do we improve overall crop performance and uniformity?
Bigger and better potatoes with an overall 6% yield increase – Phil Kingsmill reports back to us after first hand experience of using Maxstim Agriculture+ complex biostimulants.
Phil Kingsmill
“I have been involved in growing commercial potato crops for over 30 years; I am a former chairman of CUPGRA (Cambridge University Potato Growers Research Association) and operated at various levels including being on the board of directors of a prestigious commercial grower. My aim was always to produce the best quality crops, sustainably and profitably.
As an experienced potato grower I have a reasonable understanding of the pests and diseases affecting potatoes as well as their nutritional requirements. However, I have often noticed a wide range in crop performance within fields and certainly between fields that are often not obviously explainable.
In 2022, I was invited by Maxstim Ltd to advise and supervise biostimulant trials on potatoes in Suffolk. To be involved, as part of the field-scale crop trials team and getting to understand and experience the benefits of the range of Maxstim’s bio-stimulants and bio-fertilisers, and then being able to demonstrate the economic benefit from their application to other farmers and growers is very exciting.
Working with Tim Cannon, Maxstim’s senior agronomist, we compared potato crops treated with Maxstim Agriculture+ and crops with no treatment. We felt it was important that the plots were of sufficient number and size, so we opted for 6 plots of 5.5m2 in each treatment – a lot of digging! It was also important to us that crop was graded in 5mm size bands, all tubers counted, and dry matter content measured.
It was a very impressive set of results with the plots treated with Maxstim Agriculture+ showing:
- an increase in tuber number
- increased size
- larger yield, giving an overall yield of 74 tonnes/ha compared with 70 tonnes/ha for the untreated; a yield increase of nearly 6%
- an improvement in skin finish if one of the Maxstim Agriculture+ treatments was sprayed in furrow”
These results speak for themselves, and I believe there is opportunity to optimise the use and application of Maxstim’s products; to make reductions in the use of traditional fertilisers and crop protection products, to optimise the potential of the plant’s own production mechanisms, in the UK and across the world. Further trials are being conducted in 2023 to increase our understanding of these improvements in crop performance and uniformity.
Over the years I have come across a wide range of biostimulant products making all sorts of claims. I have been growing potatoes a long time and this is the only complex biostimulant that has impressed me.
Agriculture+ is a complex biostimulant with a wide range of bioactive components including our unique bioflavonoids and polyphenols, creating better root development and early growth.
For more information about how Maxstim could fit into your schedule, call:
Tim Cannon
Email: tim.cannon@maxstim.com
Mobile: 07884 586191
Tony Kelly
Email: tony.kelly@maxstim.com
Mobile: 07974 435417
