Adrian Briddon, from Sutton Bridge Crop Storage Research, spoke to farmers at the East of England Potato Day.
More than 140 potato growers, advisors and agronomists assembled for the Potato Council’s event, part sponsored by QV Foods of Holbeach Hurn.
The day involved technical presentations followed by machinery and plot demonstrations.
Adrian kicked off the presentation sessions with a talk about Chlorpropham (or CIPC), widely used as a sprout suppressing agrochemical applied to stored potatoes.
He spoke about lessons learnt from CIPC exceedances and how to achieve best practice for the 2013 season.
He told delegates: “CIPC labels are changing and we know that the maximum total dose rate per season will be reduced to 36g/tonne.
“It’s vital to get CIPC on early. It needs to be within three weeks of harvest. This gives the best chance of controlling sprout growth with the least amount of CIPC.”