Fruit & Vegetable Magazine

News Harvesting
Spotty rainfall across P.E.I. leaves some producers feeling the heat

August 18, 2020  By Stephanie Gordon


There has been “incredibly” spotty rainfall over the past three to four days across Prince Edward Island, doing little to quell concerns of farmers enduring a very dry growing season.

Some places have gotten big rainfalls, while others have gotten next to nothing, according to P.E.I. Potato Board’s August 18 agronomy update.

Ryan Barrett, research and agronomy coordinator with the P.E.I. Potato Board, shares a taste of that variability from weather stations across the province. Barrett writes that the majority of locations have gotten approximately five millimetres (mm) of rain from August 1 to 18, with some outliers.

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Location Rain recorded
Foxley River/Tyne Valley area 14 mm
Miscouche 102 mm
Mont Carmel 57 mm
Lower Bedeque 52 mm
Augustine Cove 61 mm
Hampton 19 mm
South Lake 10 mm

 

On August 7, CBC’s meteorologist Jay Scotland says spring and summer have been very dry, especially in western P.E.I. In some cases, according to Scotland, rainfall has been just 20 per cent of what’s normal. If the dry weather persists, potatoes will end up being smaller-than-average in size and can develop quality issues like scab or physiological defects linked to dry weather.

Matthew Compton of Compton’s Vegetable Stand in Summerside, P.E.I. told the CBC that he doesn’t remember it ever being this dry for this long. Compton shares that his sweet corn cobs and strawberries are not as long or big as they should be due to the dry weather.

https://twitter.com/EPAA_pei/status/1286336272462684168

“Farmers are undoubtedly feeling the stress of the drought more acutely than anyone. I sincerely hope that your potato fields are able to hang on just a little bit longer to hopefully catch some rain later this week. For those that did get some rainfall on the weekend, I hope that the fields are still in a position to use that moisture. As noted last week, please feel free to reach out to me if you just want to chat, but take advantage of the Farmer Assistance Program if you feel like you need to talk to a mental health professional,” Barrett writes in his agronomy update.


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