Potatoes rug up against frosty mornings

The race is on to protect potato crops in Far North Queensland, with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting widespread frosts for tomorrow morning.

Frosts caused millions of dollars damage to Atherton Tableland potato crops last year, when temperatures plummeted to -6 degrees.

Aerial crop spraying is underway, and agronomist Paul Reevers says farmers are applying anti-freeze to protect the plants from dying.

"We're trying to get a good coverage over the leaf, to let the plant build up its abscisic acid and other salts to be resistant to frost damage," he says.

"So we're actually letting the plant build those levels up, and it makes it more prone to resistance when the ice tries to form on the leaf, and so the cells don't burst."