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POTATOES

Corrective spraying in potatoes based on drone imagery.

Fat hen, cockspur grass and thistles sometimes survive the pre-emergence treatment. With a Croptic weed map you target these survivors precisely in post-emergence, without unnecessary damage to the crop and with a product range that shrinks every season.

potato field
5–8%

higher yield

Less crop stress thanks to targeted spraying

Up to 95%

less crop protection product

Every litre saved counts more with a shrinking product range

1–2 days

from flight to weed map

Weed map ready within 24–48 hours

Crop info

What do you do with the weeds that survive pre-emergence?

Pre-emergence does its job on germinating weeds on bare soil, but sometimes weeds survive the system. Stubborn species such as thistles and hedge bindweed appear between the rows. Left untreated, they compete directly with tuber formation during the critical period from emergence to canopy closure, and cost yield. Croptic detects those survivors from the drone and delivers a weed map that lets you correct precisely in post-emergence, only spraying where it is really needed.

PRE-EMERGENCE SURVIVORS

Thistles and hedge bindweed are root weeds that pre-emergence sometimes controls insufficiently and that form patches in the field.

HAULM KILLING

Since the strongest active substance was withdrawn, a single pass is often no longer enough: green spots and regrowth remain. Croptic detects those remaining green zones from the drone and delivers a map for a targeted second pass, instead of treating the whole field again.

SEASONAL CALENDAR

When does the drone fly for the corrective spray?

The optimal flight window for correcting the survivors of the pre-emergence treatment runs from emergence to canopy closure of the rows, a window of 6 to 8 weeks in which the survivors rise visibly above the crop. For seed potatoes this window is shorter due to early haulm killing for NAK inspection.

Season calendar

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Planting

Ware and chip potatoes

Emergence
Weed pressure / Drone window

Critical period emergence → canopy closure

Canopy closure

End of weed competition

Haulm killing

Early varieties July, late varieties August

Harvest

How does the Croptic correction on post-emergence in potatoes work?

Step 01

Drone flies over the field

You or one of our partners fly a drone over your field as soon as the weeds are visible in the post-emergence phase. The camera captures every detail in high resolution.

Step 02

AI detects the weeds

Our AI analyses the imagery and distinguishes weeds such as fat hen, cockspur grass, black nightshade and potato volunteers from the crop and from each other. That way you decide which weeds go into the weed map.

Step 03

You drive the corrective spray

You load the weed map into your GPS sprayer with section control. Nozzles open and close automatically over the weeds. You only treat where needed, and the rest of the field stays untouched.

REGIONS

Timing by region.

VLAANDEREN

Planting

20 Mar – 20 Apr

Drone window

20 Apr – 30 Jun

Haulm killing

25 Jul – 31 Aug

Harvest

Aug – Oct

NL-NOORD

Planting

1 Apr – 1 May (clay soil)

Drone window

5 May – 1 Jul

Haulm killing

Aug – mid Sep

Harvest

mid Aug – Nov

NL-ZUID

Planting

25 Mar – 25 Apr

Drone window

1 May – 25 Jun

Haulm killing

25 Jul – 25 Aug

Harvest

Aug – Oct

EXTRA VALUE

Detect potato volunteers in the follow-on crop.

Potato volunteers in beets, cereals or other follow-on crops are a structural problem in Belgian and Dutch arable farming. Standard products in those crops do not control potato volunteers, so a targeted corrective treatment is needed. Croptic detects every plant field by field and delivers a correction map alongside the standard weed map.

Proven use case in BE/NL

Frequently asked questions about Croptic in potatoes

With the targeted corrective spray on the survivors of the pre-emergence treatment you typically save 70 to 95% product compared with a full-field treatment. Late germinators such as black nightshade, fat hen and cockspur grass usually grow in patches, so you only treat those zones, not the whole field.

Ready to target the survivors of the pre-emergence treatment precisely?

Spray less. Know more.

Read also: Sugar beet · Onions · Cereals · Grassland