From the Columbia Basin Herald:
MOSES LAKE — While potato farmers in the Columbia Basin could call on all the water they needed during this year’s drought, the heat still posed risks and has left its mark on this year’s potato crop.
“Yield is down, and quality is also down,” said Adam Weber of Weber Farms near Quincy.
Weber grows potatoes on between 4,000 and 5,000 acres and said the heat was to blame for the drop in yields and quality.
“It’s 10% down, though it varies with varieties,” he said. “I would say they kind of shut down during the heat cycle and they weren’t growing as much.”
“It heated up the soil too much and stressed the plants out too much,” Weber said.
According to Mark Pavek, a professor of potato research with Washington State University Extension, potatoes grow best when the temperatures are around 70-90 degrees Fahrenheit, and when temperatures rise above 95 degrees for too long, potato plants struggle to keep producing tubers when it’s too hot.
Pavek said in the kind of temperatures the Columbia Basin experienced this summer — as high as 115 degrees in and around Moses Lake — the potatoes at greatest risk of being damaged are those closest to the surface.