Firewater and potatoes

Potatoes are one of the most nitrogen-demanding crops, and the way that nitrogen is supplied can make the difference between an average yield and an exceptional harvest. While traditional fertilizer programs often rely on large, up-front applications, research and farm experience are showing that spoon-feeding nitrate throughout the growing season can significantly improve potato performance, profitability, and sustainability.

Potatoes with Firewater

Potatoes have a shallow root system and grow rapidly. This means their nitrogen demand is both high and continuous. Unlike some crops, potatoes are not very efficient at scavenging nitrogen deep in the soil profile. On top of that, they are often grown in sandy or light soils that lose nitrogen quickly through leaching or volatilization. Because of this, potatoes benefit most when nitrogen is supplied in a steady, readily available form—like nitrate.

Firewater has been seen to have incredible impact on potato yields as a full synthetic nitrogen replacement, due to its high nitrate content and ability to spoon feed throughout the season efficiently through foliar applications via pivot irrigation.

Here’s a quick rundown on how Firewater performed on this Washington State trial.

Two fertigated plots of Russet potatoes were evaluated under similar growing conditions:

• Trial #1

• Nitrogen source: Firewater

• Amount applied: 130 gallons (over the course of 4 weeks)

• Application method: Fertigation (pivot)

• Yield: 25.895 tons/acre

• Trial #2

• Nitrogen source: Calcium nitrate

• Amount applied: 250 lbs N

• Application method: Fertigation (pivot)

• Yield: 23.99 tons/acre

Aside from the Firewater trial costing only about $5.20 USD (to make 130 gallons of product), it ended up outperforming their synthetic trial by nearly 2 tones per acre in yield, which is 1) cutting input costs down to almost nothing and 2) putting more money back into the growers pocket by increasing their harvest.

Thank you farmers all around the world. Without you, we wouldn't eat!