Maine potatoes recovering after wet and soggy season

Industry leaders with the Maine Potato Board said Thursday that after a wet and soggy spring which forced some growers to do some replanting, crops are recovering and if the weather holds, Aroostook County is on track to have a bountiful potato harvest.

Don Flannery, executive director of the Maine Potato Board in Presque Isle, said on Thursday that farmers have seen “pretty decent growing conditions” despite a wet and soggy May and June.

“We had a challenging six weeks to plant the crop,” he admitted. “The moisture is still lingering, but the crop is pretty decent. Its pretty healthy. We have made up a little ground from what we dealt with in the spring. We may have had some damage that has lingered that we can’t see yet, but we hope that the next six to eight weeks will be warm and dry and bring us into a smooth harvest. The potato blossoms are decent and the crop looks good so far.”

Flannery said that growers planted approximately 55,000 acres of potatoes across the state this year, which is down slightly over last year due to market conditions.