#52 Erica Fava - Variety Development

This week's episode of Spudchat is a recording of Ryan Barrett's presentation from the 2026 International Potato Technology Expo in Charlottetown, PE. In this talk, Ryan discusses his research into the use of Minuet, an in-furrow biopesticide, for reduction of common scab symptoms in processing potato varieties. A video of this presentation, along with other IPTE presentations, is available on the PEI Potato Agronomy website (www.peipotatoagronomy.com).

In this episode, Ryan talks with Erica Fava of AAFC Fredericton about AAFC's National Potato Breeding Program, and how variety development and evaluation is done in Canada. This includes work supported by the National Cluster Program under the Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada (FVGC), with trials in 8 provinces across Canada. 

On this episode of Spudchat, Ryan talks with Steve Watts of Genesis Crop Systems here in PEI about some of his on-farm research into nutrient management, including implementing 4R nutrient management, investigating the use of enhanced efficiency nitrogen products, and now investigating the use of nitrogen-fixing bacteria products in potatoes. Steve is a professional agrologist and project lead under the ACS Living Labs PEI initiative.

In this episode of Spudchat, we welcome back Dr. Judith Nyiraneza from AAFC Charlottetown to talk about manure and other soil amendments in potato rotation, including some of the work that she and her team have been doing through ACS Living Labs and other projects. We talk about a long term rotation trial comparing the use of manure compared with different cover crops, as well as some on-farm trials using liquid manure, biochar, and willow wood chips. 

Spudchat is back for a new season!  In this episode, Ryan talks with Dr. Julie Pasche of North Dakota State University in Fargo, ND about Alternaria, commonly known as early blight and brown spot diseases. They discuss the differences between these pathogens and the diseases they cause, discuss differences in populations and fungicide resistance across the continent, and discuss management strategies. They finish with a chat about black dot, a growing disease of importance in many regions.

This week on SpudChat, Ryan chats with Darin Gibson with Gaia Consulting in Manitoba. Darin and his wife Debbie do contract potato research, variety evaluation, potato breeding, and sugar testing services in Manitoba, and both are well-known in the MB potato industry and beyond. 

In this episode of Spudchat, Ryan talks with Chad Mooney, a potato farmer in Eastern Prince Edward Island about his journey back to the farm after time in the Canadian armed forces, how he is trying to use data from multiple sources to inform his decision making on the farm, and the multiple ways he is collecting that data, including the use of drone imagery. Chad also talks about using his DJI Agras drone for cover crop seeding and variable rate fertility management, as well as how he thinks the role of drones in potato farming will expand in the future.

Spudchat is back after a longer than anticipated hiatus!This week, we hear from Jonathan MacLennan of MacLennan Properties, West Cap and Brandon MacPhail of MacSull Farms, New London, to hear how their crops are looking so far this year, as well as hear about new projects underway on their farms.If you have feedback about Spudchat, please feel free to contact us at [email protected].

In this episode of SpudChat, Ryan Barrett chats with Kelvin Montagu of Applied Horticultural Research in Australia about regenerative agriculture at the World Potato Congress, held in late June in Adelaide, Australia.  This recording was done by the folks at PotatoLink, the Australian potato industry extension project.  You can find out more about PotatoLink at https://potatolink.com.au, and you can check out their podcast at https://www.buzzsprout.com/2022082.

In this episode, Ryan talks with Dr. Aitazaz Farooque, Professor of Precision Agriculture with the University of Prince Edward Island.  Aitazaz has been a frequent collaborator on research projects with the PEI potato industry, including research into the use of soil electroconductivity (EC) for creating management zones, uses those zones for variable rate fertility or seed spacing, investigating compaction, and now working on using AI and machine learning to identify PVY in the field.  We discuss all of these projects and more in this chat.