With the very mild winter weather conditions in the Northwest this past year, a lot of volunteer potatoes survived over winter. Growers are now seeing a lot of problems with volunteer potatoes in other crops such as corn, sugarbeet, wheat and onions. Volunteer potatoes can be very hard to eliminate if the correct control measures are not taken at the most appropriate time.
The potato tuber initiation stage has been shown to be the best time for herbicide application to kill the volunteer potato plant, prevent re-sprouting, and prevent tuber production. Attached, Pamela Hutchinson, potato cropping systems weed scientist with the University of Idaho, has put together a great article on methods for controlling volunteer potatoes in other crops.