Oregon Public Broadcasting

The recent heat wave may be damaging potatoes.  The plants like heat, but when it gets into the hundreds they suffer. That’s bad news for French fry processors, as correspondent Anna King explains.

This past weekend it hit 105 in Pasco, Washington, Hermiston, Oregon and Boise, Idaho. When it’s that hot the potatoes shut down.

When they start growing again the tubers can grow into odd shapes, make hollow cores or produce dark spots.

Those misfit potatoes are often made into less valuable dehydrated products.

Dale Lathim is the executive director of the Potato Growers of Washington. He says farmers who are trying to save their potatoes from the heat are pouring on the water -- just not too much.

Dale Lathim: "Potatoes are so delicate that if you get too much water on there you will do more damage than you would from the heat. So it’s a fine balance but most of our growers are experts at doing this and they just view it as a challenge."

Lathim says potatoes usually aren’t hurt too much if the extremely hot weather only lasts a couple of days. Potatoes love temperatures in the upper to mid-90s.