Potatoes in the San Luis Valley of Colorado

Colorado Potatoes

Farmers began growing potatoes in Colorado's San Luis Valley about 1875, making it one of the oldest potato growing areas in the country.  The snow-covered peaks of the Rocky Mountains jut up 14,000 feet to surround the fertile plateau of the San Luis Valley. Here, in the highest and largest alpine valley in the world where irrigated crops are grown in teh sandy soils, the potato flourishes.  The San Luis Valley is also has the highest concentration of center pivot irrigation in the world.

Agriculture has long been the basis of the economy in the San Luis Valley. Unique in world topography, the elevation of the valley floor is 7600 feet above sea level. The San Luis Valley is a large, flat intermountain valley that varies from 20 to 50 miles in width and is about 100 miles north to south. All crops are grown with irrigation water whose source is the abundant snow in the surrounding mountains. Crops are irrigated by some surface flooding or mainly by center pivot sprinklers.

The principal crops grown here are potatoes, alfalfa, native hay, barley, wheat and vegetables like lettuce, spinach and carrots. The San Luis Valley produces 92% of Colorado's potatoes, 81% of the state's spring wheat, 73% of the barley, 30% of the oats, 76% of the spinach, 73% of the lettuce and 46% of the carrots. The San Luis Valley is ranked in the top five potato producing areas in the United States, both in acres planted and production. Nature helps ensure that the 65,000 acres planted in the Valley each year are of a high quality.

The Valley's spring and summer are filled with warm, sunny days and cool nights, the combination for a perfect growing season. The cool weather also contributes to the smoothness of the skin and reduces second-growth roughness. This, highest in the world, isolated alpine desert with its cold winters helps eliminate or reduce pest and disease problems, reducing our need for some pesticides. The harvest begins in September with about 98 percent of the crop going into storage before being shipped. A integrated pest program funded by the area growers reduces Green Peach aphid populations dramatically as well as the disease leafroll that this aphid transmits.

The soil in the Valley is a fertile, loose-packed loam. This quality is necessary because potatoes grow in the ground and the soil must be able to shift easily to allow for the potato's growth. Because the Valley receives less than seven inches of rain a year, it qualifies as a desert and must be irrigated. A natural underground water aquifer, recharged from runoff from heavy snowfall in the nearby mountains, offers a plentiful irrigation source. The modern center pivot sprinkler, used by almost all growers in the San Luis Valley, allows the grower to control the irrigation.

The valey produces potatoes for the fresh market and certified Seed potaoes.  There are over 80 varieties grown in the valley each year for the staple russet, Reds, Yellows and specialties including purples and fingerlings.  The Colorado State Research center has a breeding program that has produced many successful varieties like the Russt Nugget, Rio Grande Russet, Chipeta, Purple Majesty, and many more.

About 28 major potato warehouses pack and ship potatoes in the Valley, one of which is Mountain Valley Produce. Using ultra-modern equipment, potatoes can go from storage to warehouse to truck any day during the shipping season without taking the potatoes outdoors. About 95 percent of the crop is shipped to the nation's fresh market.

Planting potatoes

Harvesting the potatoes

Sizing and sorting of the potato crop

Loading a bulk potato load right onto a semi at the farm out of the climate controlled cellars.

Before any shipment leaves the Valley, it is inspected by a U.S.D.A. representative. In 1941, a federal marketing order for potatoes grown in Colorado as well as a state marketing order was established. These orders, after several amendments, are still in effect, making Colorado one of four states under federal regulation and the only one with state control.

Disease free minitubers

The certified seed crop is a limited generation program that starts from clean tissue culture stock that is grown then in greenhouses to produce mintubers.  These minitubers are then planted in the field to start generation 1.  This breeding stock is increased each year to be sold off as certified seed usually the 4th generation.  In Colorado the field year is the generation year.  Each seed lot is inspected 3 times during the growing season to certify its low disease levels.  Leaf samples tested in tthe lab are laso used.  A winter grow-out sample is taken at harvest and these are grown in a warm area during the winter to again test the disease levels before the next season.