Yield losses due to missing plants in potato crops

Missing plants in potato crops can be caused by diseases and other factors, and can result from non-emergence or from plants incapacitated at any time during the growing season. Field experiments were conducted to simulate missing plants and to estimate the resulting yield losses by removing different percentages of plants at random from plots at emergence and/or later stages. The recorded yield losses were not proportional to the percentage of missing plants. Two surveys of fields of table stock and seed stock of the cultivar Netted Gem in New Brunswick in 1972 showed that approximately 25% of the plants were missing at emergence, probably causing around8% loss in total tuber yield. Assuming all cultivars have similar levels of misses, the yield loss clue to missing plants at emergence in New Brunswick in 1972 was equivalent to a financial loss of approximately $1 1/2 million.