July/August 2019 - 19

Europe, but not yet registered in the UK. "
The network was launched at
Herefordshire Storage Day where AHDB
communicator Stuart Baxter spoke with
Briddon and Adrian Cunnington, head
of crop storage research at Sutton Bridge,
to learn more about the new network.
While site visits are available to all
levy-paying AHDB members, there
are limitations to the number of visits
a farmer could receive. Growers can
expect an overview of current available
products, as well a conversation about
their individual storage arrangements to
establish what can be done to improve or
make new options work going forward.
In preparation, AHDB and SBCSR
sent specialists to The Netherlands and
Germany to visit potato stores where
CIPC had been pulled from use.
" They were more than making
do, " Cunnington said. " They were
succeeding with good sprout control
both from using Biox M and DMN with
a pre-treatment of Maleic Hydrazide. "
CHEAPER ALTERNATIVES
Dirk Garos, director of the UKbased
postharvest treatment company
Restrain, offers information on the
future of sprout suppressants with
special focus on the use of ethylene, a
product he said is easy to apply and a
very cheap alternative to CIPC.
Restrain offers a system that uses a
generator to create ethylene right in the
store using the raw material ethanol. The
generator transforms the ethanol, which
is regulated by a sensor to maintain an
ongoing, low concentration.
Ethylene gas blocks the elongation
in the potato sprout by way of blocking
cell division, Garos explained. From the
outside the appearance of the potato
does not change. Should there already
be a sprout present, the ethylene will
prohibit it from growing in length, but
it will become thicker. Blocking cell
elongation, Garos said, removes the risk
of internal growth.
Sprout suppression is determined by
variety, though, Cunnington said.
" Varieties have a characteristic
dormancy, " he said. " If there's a long
dormant variety, we can reduce the
need for sprout suppressant and our
costs by using a long dormant variety.
And similarly, if we can bring the store
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19
temperature down in varieties that
have low-temperature tolerance ...
that also reduces sprouting pressure,
so we can make do with less sprouting
suppressant overall. "
While ethylene works on all varieties,
Garos cautions those who are selling
potatoes for processing, especially for
fries. Restrain is currently working with
processors to determine which varieties
can withstand ethylene.
The cost of CIPC is much higher than
ethylene, which is a driving factor for
uptake by farmers and store managers
as well. The cost of applications of
ethylene in a 1,000-ton store are
nearly on par with the cost of CIPC
applications. Garos said ethylene gas is
four to six times cheaper than any other
alternative.
UK farmers will have access to CIPC
this year. The phase out process will
commence Jan. 1, 2020.
" Obviously, when we lose CIPC, we
need to make those decisions quickly
as to what alternatives we're going
to use, " Briddon said. " People can be
rest assured that there's a lot of work
going on behind the scenes at Sutton
Bridge. "
July/August 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of July/August 2019
