This buyers' guide appears in the September 2020 issue of Potato Grower.
Well, your little potatoes are all grown up now and ready to leave the field. Over the coming months, we hope they will fulfill their collective destiny, ultimately making their way to consumers’ plates. To help ensure your potatoes are comfortable and safe until the day they become delectable delicacies, we present to you this storage equipment buyers’ guide, with many of the industry’s leading innovations for making sure your crop leaves storage looking as good as it did coming in.
Gellert Company
888-GELLERT
Gellert Post-Harvest Solutions
When it comes to post-harvest storage, Gellert has the expertise and equipment to help growers minimize storage challenges and maximize product quality. With Gellert’s proprietary equipment, growers can rest assured their storage environment has the most efficient and effective ventilation, humidification and refrigeration for their potato crop.
Gellert has been through a lot with the agriculture industry over the past 60 years and is prepared to continue bringing new technology, state-of-the-art products and enhanced storage design solutions to help the industry thrive.
Agri-Star Control Panel
Gellert storage equipment runs smoothly with the proprietary Agri-Star panel. With the user-friendly interface, the Gellert App and multiple design options, Agri-Star panel has become a favorite in post-harvest storage. The panel can also be adapted for industry-specific needs such as burners for onion growers and irrigation systems for greenhouses or nurseries. The reporting capabilities and graphs give growers the data they need to make storage trend decisions and keep their environment working at optimum performance.
Logan Farm Equipment
(800) 279-2689
Scoop Pro
The 2020 Logan Scooper mixes a strong, durable design and innovative features to produce one of the nicest machines in the potato industry. A 30 or 36-inch heavy-plated tractor utilizes features such as stainless steel conveyor walls, nose, axle and fender raise/lower for uneven floors, and an auxiliary control panel for operator convenience. The conveyor utilizes a lighter but strong tubular bridge frame with continuous belt, providing no drops, stainless steel construction and dual hydraulic lift. Conveyor drives are electric and the tractor wheel drive is hydraulic, all with variable speed.
BTU Ventilation
(888) 884-8070
www.btuventilation.com
BTU Ventilation Systems
BTU Ventilation offers the engineering expertise to design storage facilities, along with incorporating BTU ventilation systems to meet specific needs for different operations. BTU offers growers the state-of-the-art systems with features that will maximize a crop’s quality from post-harvest storage to market delivery.
BTU systems can be implemented as upgrades to existing storages or as part of a new storage construction. In either case, BTU provides engineering management to assure that a grower’s investment provides the best return season after season.
Steel Vision Construction, Inc.
(208) 745-1105
Behlen Curvet Potato Storage
Steel Vision Construction and Behlen Building Systems have partnered for 20 years to provide potato and onion storage buildings for growers in Idaho and the surrounding states. Steel Vision utilizes the Behlen “Curvet” storage system in widths of 51, 60 and 68 feet.
Steel Vision and Behlen both live by the motto, “Good iron, great experience.”
Tolsma USA
(208) 401-9217
Tolsma Post-harvest Solutions
Tolsma provides the highest-quality, most energy-efficient storage, processing and packaging technology to the world’s best agricultural entrepreneurs.
Tolsma-Grisnich partners with farmers, packers and processors on every continent. The company designs, delivers and services installations for unloading, transporting, storing, cleaning, grading and packaging potatoes, onions and carrots. Tolsma’s turnkey and custom solutions and intensive process support give customers peace of mind while delivering the highest possible returns on their products.
With more than 75 years of experience, Tolsma’s knowledge of market trends and the ability to ascertain the unique storage and processing chain needs of individual customers is unrivaled. Throughout the lifetime of the system, customers all over the world can rely on the advice and solutions provided by the specialists from the Tolsma service and support department.
1,4GROUP, Inc.
(800) 881-0823
1,4SIGHT
1,4GROUP, Inc. is a leading supplier of innovative dormancy and sprout-inhibiting products for potato storage worldwide. In collaborative efforts with leading university researchers and private industry, 1,4GROUP is dedicated to continued development of new and improved post-harvest chemical applications. From harvest to the customer's dock, 1,4GROUP offers a complete family of complimentary treatments that protect the quality and condition of potatoes.
Disinfecting Services, LLC
(208) 356-5332
Cleaning and Disinfecting
Disinfecting Services is a company specializing in post-harvest applications on stored potatoes and cleaning and disinfecting potato storages to keep them up to GAP standards. Disinfecting Services offers plenum pipe straightening, plenum pipe cleaning and disinfecting, humidification system flushes, AC coil washing, piler applicator cleaning and reverse directional fogging.
Disinfecting Services also has its own line of post-harvest chemical products, including:
- Harvest 6.0, one of the strongest disinfectants labeled for potatoes;
- Bio Ultra 2, is a high-foaming detergent designed to penetrate into heavily contaminated surfaces and break down contaminants from storage walls;
- Growers’ Shield, a soil treatment that, when combined with Harvest 6.0, moves deeper into the surface to disinfect floors; and
- Cell Guard, a product used to improve airflow by cleaning and maintaining open air passages in humidification systems, increasing the life of the media.
Agri-Stor Companies
Twin Falls, Idaho (208) 733-7000
Warden, Wash. (509) 349-7000
Monte Vista, Colo. (719) 850-7783
Blackfoot, Idaho (208) 785-7000
Post-Harvest Crop Protection
Agri-Stor provides crop protection from the field, through storage, and all the way to the fresh market or processor. Agri-Stor carries a full line of organic products markets as well. From disinfectants to sprout control, Agri-Stor has the quality products and the application expertise to handle a wide variety of crop protection solutions. In addition to crop protection, Agri-Stor provides all ventilation, refrigeration and humidification for potato storages, including climate controls.
SmartBlock
SmartBlock is a post-harvest sprout inhibitor that effectively achieves extended sprout control in stored potatoes, made from a naturally occurring molecule commonly found in foods such as yogurt and mushrooms. SmartBlock has been FDA-approved as a direct food additive and has no effect on finish, color, sugar levels, taste, texture or cooking quality.
Agri-Stor will apply SmartBlock directly into potato storages using commercial thermal application equipment. Its patented technology works effectively alone, or combined with other sprout inhibitor products, to burn off peeping or fully sprouted tubers and restore dormancy. Depending on storage temperature, one SmartBlock application can have ongoing sprout control for up to three months.
Techmark
(517) 322-0250
Storage Ventilation and Controls
Techmark is an international agricultural engineering company specializing in storage and production systems. Techmark applies technologies that create positive returns for growers and industry.
Techmark engineers apply innovative technologies with advanced engineering concepts to design efficient and effective ventilation systems. Their experience from working across many locations and environments has given them the knowledge to recognize different needs across different regions and understand how design can be utilized to maximize performance.
Meridian Mfg.
(800) 830-2467
ArchWall Buildings
With buildings whose capacities range from 25,000 to 200,000 hundredweight, Meridian ArchWall structures offer high-strength engineered steel and provide the best environment for potatoes. Meridian works with dealers and air companies to custom-design the fanhouses and plenums for proper ventilation, humidification, refrigeration and heating systems. Ask about Meridian’s insulated heated walls to help keep potatoes off the foam.
Syngenta
(866) 796-4368
Stadium Fungicide
For the best possible yield and quality, growers should utilize an integrated full-season approach from seed through storage. The yield and quality that result from good growing practices must be protected with good storage practices to preserve potato quality. Fusarium dry rot is one of the most important post-harvest diseases of potato. Soil-borne Fusarium infects tubers at harvest through wounds and can be present in the soil for many years. Silver scurf causes damage to the potato skin and results in higher water/weight loss during storage. Damaged skin may result in higher waste in removing the skin during processing.
Stadium fungicide combines three active ingredients—fludioxonil, azoxystrobin and difenoconazole—to provide targeted disease control for potatoes. Each active ingredient in Stadium has a different mode of action, which is highly effective for managing the spread of silver scurf and Fusarium dry rot during storage. Stadium remains active for months of storage, providing long-lasting protection with only one application.