This buyers' guide appears in the September 2021 issue of Potato Grower.
It's probably safe to say now that summer’s over, and your little potatoes are all grown up and out of the field. We hope that over the coming months, they will fulfill their collective destiny, ultimately making their way to consumers’ plates. To help ensure your potatoes are comfortable and safe until the day they fill some lucky belly, we present this storage buyers’ guide, with many of the industry’s leading innovations for making sure your crop leaves storage looking (and tasting) as good as it did coming in.
Teton West of Idaho
(208) 356-7979
Teton West Construction Solutions
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Teton West of Idaho has been eastern Idaho’s most reliable steel building supplier and builder for more than 45 years. Specializing in pre-engineered, structural steel and archwall steel structures, Teton West works with the best names in the business. Over the years, the company’s reputation of hard work partnered with old-fashioned integrity has allowed it to expand its range of service to neighboring states like Utah, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and even as far as Nebraska. Teton West’s success stems from the belief that exceptionalism is both a mindset and a way of living.
Whenever you’re ready to start building, the team at Teton West has the know-how to help you design and develop your vision, provide accurate price estimates and schedules, and deliver tailor-made construction solutions.
Idaho Hydro Tech
(800) 656-2281
Humigator
Silver scurf, black dot, and Fusarium are molds, and all molds spread through the air by sending mold spores airborne. Potato growers’ storages have ventilation systems designed to circulate lots of air, and circulating air spreads these mold diseases.
State-funded university research and more than eight years of success in storages across North America have proven that Humigation reliably removes mold spores from the air, and Humigators are the only air cleaners specifically optimized for potato storage. With no filters to change, Humigators run nearly maintenance-free for years. The spread of these diseases can be stopped by cleaning the mold spores out of the air as it is circulated.
IHT offers a complete line of Humigators for all storage sizes.
GroupAg
(208) 356-7800
(208) 970-0091
GroupAg Services
GroupAg is a full-service post-harvest company. The core of the business services includes potato storage ventilation and post-harvest chemical application. Their proprietary application methods are the most efficient and effective in the industry. With industry-leading products and expertise, GroupAg can help to create and maintain the ideal conditions to maximize the value of the crop through the storage and shipping processes. GroupAg offers engineering expertise to design and build storage ventilation systems with industry-leading components and can service and maintain any existing system.
GroupAg represents and distributes the following:
- 1,4 Group chemicals
- Decco chemicals
- Biosafe Systems chemicals
- BTU Ventilation products
- Forte humidifiers
- JTS refrigeration systems
- A-tec Indirex cooling systems
- Caldwell/Chief axial fans
Forte Humidifiers
Forte humidifiers have proven to be the most cost-effective solution for achieving ideal humidity levels in potato storages. While being offered at a fraction of the cost of the current market alternatives, Forte humidifiers produce a superior fog quality and allow for more adaptable installations than the compeition. In addition, all Forte humidifiers have been carefully designed and constructed with materials that resist corrosion from water and acids, and thus can double as chemical applicators.
1,4GROUP, Inc.
(208) 877-9766
1,4SIGHT
Sprout and peep control, pressure bruising and shrink are quality issues that storage managers face every year. Incorporating 1,4SIGHT into your storage treatment plan can provide unprecedented success in managing these common storage challenges.
1,4SIGHT can be used as a standalone product or to supplement your CIPC sprout control regimen. It works internally to delay sprouting activity, whereas CIPC works externally to prevent peeps from sprouting. Together, they extend dormancy while controlling sprouts. 1,4SIGHT penetrates through the potato skin to restore its dormancy. Dormancy lowers the respiration rate, slowing the loss of moisture and solids, thereby diminishing shrink and susceptibility to pressure bruise. Restoring dormancy may also shorten the post-harvest “sweat period.” Maintaining dormancy helps retain potato firmness, resulting in fresher-appearing potatoes and fewer load downgrades.
BTU Ventilation
(888) 884-8070
www.btuventilation.com
BTU Ventilation Systems
BTU Ventilation offers the engineering expertise to design storage facilities, along with incorporating BTU ventilation systems to meet specific needs for different operations. BTU offers growers the state-of-the-art systems with features that will maximize a crop’s quality from post-harvest storage to market delivery.
BTU systems can be implemented as upgrades to existing storages or as part of a new storage construction. In either case, BTU provides engineering management to assure that a grower’s investment provides the best return season after season.
Steel Vision Construction, Inc.
(208) 745-1105
Behlen Curvet Potato Storage
Steel Vision Construction and Behlen Building Systems have partnered for over 20 years to provide potato and onion storage buildings for growers in Idaho and surrounding states. Steel Vision utilizes the Behlen “Curvet” storage system in widths of 51, 60 and 68 feet.
Steel Vision and Behlen both live by the motto, “Good Iron, Great Experience,” and the Curvet is a testament of that commitment. It a great economical solution for your storage needs.
Gellert Company
888-GELLERT
Gellert Post-Harvest Solutions
When it comes to post-harvest storage, Gellert has the expertise and equipment to help growers minimize storage challenges and maximize product quality. With Gellert’s proprietary equipment, growers can rest assured their storage environment has the most efficient and effective ventilation, humidification and refrigeration for their potato crop.
Gellert has been through a lot with the agriculture industry over the past 60 years and is prepared to continue bringing new technology, state-of-the-art products and enhanced storage design solutions to help the industry thrive.
Agri-Star Control Panel
Gellert storage equipment runs smoothly with the proprietary Agri-Star panel. With the user-friendly interface, the Gellert App and multiple design options, Agri-Star panel has become a favorite in post-harvest storage. The panel can also be adapted for industry-specific needs such as burners for onion growers and irrigation systems for greenhouses or nurseries. The reporting capabilities and graphs give growers the data they need to make storage trend decisions and keep their environment working at optimum performance.
Agri-Stor Companies
Twin Falls, Idaho (208) 733-7000
Warden, Wash. (509) 349-7000
Monte Vista, Colo. (719) 850-7783
Blackfoot, Idaho (208) 785-7000
Post-Harvest Crop Protection
Agri-Stor provides crop protection from the field, through storage, and all the way to the fresh market or processor. Agri-Stor carries a full line of organic products markets as well. From disinfectants to sprout control, Agri-Stor has the quality products and the application expertise to handle a wide variety of crop protection solutions. In addition to crop protection, Agri-Stor provides all ventilation, refrigeration and humidification for potato storages, including climate controls.
SmartBlock
SmartBlock is a post-harvest sprout inhibitor that effectively achieves extended sprout control in stored potatoes, made from a naturally occurring molecule commonly found in foods such as yogurt and mushrooms. SmartBlock has been FDA-approved as a direct food additive and has no effect on finish, color, sugar levels, taste, texture or cooking quality.
Agri-Stor will apply SmartBlock directly into potato storages using commercial thermal application equipment. Its patented technology works effectively alone, or combined with other sprout inhibitor products, to burn off peeping or fully sprouted tubers and restore dormancy. Depending on storage temperature, one SmartBlock application can have ongoing sprout control for up to three months.
Disinfecting Services, LLC
(208) 356-5332
Cleaning and Disinfecting
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Disinfecting Services is a company specializing in post-harvest applications on stored potatoes and cleaning and disinfecting potato storages to keep them up to GAP standards. Disinfecting Services also offers plenum pipe straightening, cleaning and disinfecting, humidification system flushes, AC coil washing, piler applicator cleaning, and thermal fogging.
Disinfecting Services has its own line of post-harvest chemical products, including:
- Harvest 6.0, one of the strongest disinfectants labeled for potatoes;
- Bio Ultra, a high-foaming detergent designed to penetrate into heavily contaminated surfaces and break down contaminants from storage walls;
- Growers’ Shield, a soil treatment when combined with Harvest 6.0 that moves deeper into the surface to disinfect floors; and
- Cell Guard, a product used to improve airflow by cleaning and maintaining open-air passages in humidification systems, increasing the life of the media.
Techmark
(517) 322-0250
Storage Ventilation and Controls
Techmark is an international agricultural engineering company specializing in storage and production systems. Techmark applies technologies that create positive returns for growers and industry.
Techmark engineers apply innovative technologies with advanced engineering concepts to design efficient and effective ventilation systems. Their experience from working across many locations and environments has given them the knowledge to recognize different needs across different regions and understand how design can be utilized to maximize performance.