Optimising nutrient use efficiency in potatoes

Roger Blyth’s approach to potato nutrition is built on a simple principle: measure everything, build your own dataset, and avoid shortcuts. Drawing on experience as both a grower and agronomist, he argues there is no universal recipe for nutrient use efficiency (NUE).

For Blyth, improving NUE is as much about process as products. In his webinar for Australian potato growers, he compared modern nutrition programs to hydroponics, where nutrients must be supplied in the right amounts and at the right time to match crop demand.

Just because potatoes are grown in soil rather than a controlled hydroponic system, that doesn't mean they are any less particular about what they eat. The same principle applies: nutrition should be managed as precisely as possible to maximise returns.