Month: September 2022

Potato Breeding Program Targets French Fry, Chipping, Fresh Markets

Posted on by Julia Johnson

Potato breeding program targets french fry, chipping, fresh markets

A purple-meated potato is one of the unique clones the Texas A&M AgriLife potato breeding program is growing in field trials near Springlake. Credit: Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Kay Ledbetter

New potato varieties bred by the Texas A&M Potato Breeding Program could enter the french fry market before long, said Isabel Vales, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife potato breeder in the Department of Horticultural Sciences in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

“We are quite excited about a light russet experimental potato clone that has a very special feature: a high percentage of starch and high gravity even under the very stressful high-temperature conditions in Texas,” Vales said. “I think the french fry processing market, for which Texas has not released any processing russets, is a possibility.”

The potato’s experimental identification is COTX08063-2Ru. The initial cross was made in Colorado and the selection made in Texas.

Historically, Texas has not been a player in that french fry market, Vales said, primarily because of the heavy competition from the Northwest, which is really strong in that market.

“But also, in Texas, we cannot get the high solids required for the processing markets. Out of all of the varieties and experimental clones we evaluated over time, none of them had a high gravity,” Vales said. “The experimental clone COTX08063-2Ru has a high specific gravity, even under high  conditions in Texas, and makes very good . This is the second year this clone is in the National French Fry Potato Trials.”

She said the amount of starch in potato tubers is the main factor determining a potato’s use. High solids or gravity means the potatoes are solid and dense. The potato yield is high, as is the starchy matter. High-starch potatoes are often used to make processed foods such as fries, chips and dehydrated potatoes. Potatoes with low to medium starch levels are frequently used for the fresh or table stock market.

Collaborating across state lines to reach numerous markets

Vales said the Texas A&M Potato Breeding Program is part of the Southwestern Regional Potato Cultivar Development Project, a multi-state project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

 

“The Southwestern program was established in 1997, and we are celebrating 25 years of successful collaborative work,” she said.

 

In the U.S., Vales explained, there are four regional potato variety development groups involving 12 breeding programs in public land-grant universities and others within the USDA Agricultural Research Service. The regions are Northwestern—Washington, Oregon and Idaho; North Central—North Dakota, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan; Northeastern—North Carolina, New York, Maine and Florida; and Southwestern—Texas, Colorado and California.

“In the southwestern region, we don’t have a USDA-ARS contribution like the others do,” she said.

Texas A&M University, Colorado State University and the University of California at Davis initiated the Southwestern Regional Potato Cultivar Development Project to meet the unique needs of the region’s potato industry, Vales said.

Crosses and original selections are made in Colorado and Texas, followed by regional evaluation trials in all three states and additional states in the western region—Oregon, Idaho and Washington. Some french fry and chipping clones enter national trials every year.

“In the U.S., most potato breeding programs are public,” Vales said. “The level of cooperation in potato breeding is unparalleled; potatoes developed by the Southwestern program are planted all over the U.S. and Canada. In the Southwestern region, we also evaluate potatoes developed by other regional programs.”

She added that while federal funding is the program’s main source for public breeding, other funds come from state departments of agriculture, national commodity groups like Potatoes U.S., foundations and in-kind support from growers. Additional funding comes from royalties derived from varieties released under plant variety protection, PVP, by the Texas A&M program.

“To obtain PVP, we have to declare that the potato varieties are unique, distinct and stable,” Vales said. “Seed growers planting PVP varieties must pay royalties. Texas A&M has been very successful in that regard. The amount we received this past year is more than $900,000, and part of that is reinvested in the program.”

Field day events introduce Texas A&M varieties, open market outlets

Vales said the trials in various locations across the state and field days are the best way to let growers and the industry know about the latest potato clones in the breeding pipeline.

“This year, we had 180 different clones in the field day display, representing fresh and processing market classes,” she said. “Within the processing class, we had chippers and french fry types; within the fresh, we had reds, yellows, purples, smalls and fingerlings.”

Around 48 people from various U.S. states and Canada attended the Springlake event. The attendees expressed interest in some clones and shared priorities and challenges with the Texas A&M Potato Breeding Team and other participants.

Early and advanced selected clones included in the field day are also evaluated in agronomic trials in Dalhart and the San Luis Valley, Colorado, as well as California around Bakersfield, South Central Valley and Tulelake, near the Oregon border.

Southwest region presents unique growing conditions, challenges for potatoes

She indicated that cooler nights favor higher yields and fewer tuber defects. Thus, in Texas, the yields get higher with elevation and latitude, which means “we typically obtain much higher yields and better tuber quality out of the Dalhart trials located in the Texas Panhandle.”

High temperature during the growing season is a major abiotic stress in several of the Southwestern Region production areas, Vales said. Heat stress can trigger physiological defects and negatively affect tuber yield and quality. Sensitivity to internal tuber heat necrosis, growth cracks, reducing sugar build-up, brown center, hollow heart and heat sprouts are assessed from field-harvested tubers.

“The potato varieties we develop come in different tuber sizes, shapes, skin and flesh textures and colors that fit different market needs,” Vales said. “For instance, we collaborate with Tasteful Selections, looking for clones with many small tubers. We are also growing fingerlings and bi-color potatoes. Recently, we developed a round russet with pink eyes and yellow flesh that was provided an exclusive release to explore new market opportunities.”

The Texas A&M Norkotah Russet strains continue to be the most popular, with 35 licensees in 12 states, she said. These are fresh-market russets. Two other fresh-market russets growing in popularity are the Reveille Russet, which doubled acreage from 2020 to 2021, and Vanguard Russet. The heat tolerance and long dormancy of Reveille Russet and Vanguard Russet are attractive features to growers across the U.S. and Canada.

Expanding potato markets beyond the Southwestern Region

Potato entries are evaluated in each state’s trials for numerous traits, including chip and french fry quality, Vales said. Top entries move to Southwestern for two years and Western Regional Trials for up to three years. Superior clones are released as new varieties. Also, Colorado, Texas and California participate in National Chip Processing Trials and the National Fry Processors Trials. Advanced selections are also sent to collaborators all over the U.S. and Canada.

Vales said the Southwestern Region Project shares breeding stocks and advanced selections with a dozen other states. Since the inception of the Southwestern Regional Potato Cultivar Development Project, 66 new cultivars and clonal selections have been released or co-released with other institutions. Colorado and Texas are responsible for 44 of those.

“These potato cultivars represent a substantial and increasing part of the national potato acreage and have significantly contributed to regional and national economies,” Vales said.

Several potato cultivars released by the Southwestern Region were listed in 2021 among the top 50 grown based on seed acreage in the U.S. Those developed in the region ranked second among the four regional projects, behind the Northwest and substantially ahead of the North Central and Northeast projects.

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From Phys.org. Read here.

New Potato Disease Found in North Dakota, Minnesota Fields

Posted on by Julia Johnson
The disease, called “rubbery rot,” was seen in North Dakota and Minnesota this summer and was found in Wisconsin in 2019, said Gary Secor, North Dakota State University Extension plant pathologist.

 

A man wearing a green polo shirt and blue jeans holds a brown clipboard in his right hand and a black microphone in his left.Gary Secor, North Dakota State University Extension plant pathologist, talked about potato diseases at Northern Plains Potato Growers Association’s annual field day held Aug. 25, 2022, at Hoverson Farms near Larimore, North Dakota.

LARIMORE, N.D. — The 2022 growing season has been mostly disease-free for potatoes, but farmers got a heads-up during a research session about a potentially damaging fungus that showed up in the Northern Plains this year.

The disease, called “rubbery rot,” was seen in North Dakota and Minnesota this summer and was found in Wisconsin in 2019, Gary Secor, North Dakota State University Extension plant pathologist told farmers at Northern Plains Potato Growers’ field day held Aug. 25, 2022, at Hoverson Farms near Larimore.

”It’s a new problem,” Secor said.

The fungal disease, caused by geotrichum candidum, results in tubers that are damp and feel rubbery when they are squeezed, similar to the way they do when potatoes are infected with pink rot. The potatoes with rubbery rot are inedible.

Potatoes that have rubbery rot disease, which occurs at the end of growing season, smell like sour milk, Secor said.

Geotrichum candidum fungus is in soils worldwide, he said.

“It’s a very ubiquitous organism,” Secor said. “It is causing some serious problems. “

Secor declined to say where the potatoes he diagnosed with rubbery rot originated from in North Dakota and Minnesota.

In November 2019, the first case of rubbery rot was documented in potato fields in the United States. The potatoes were from a field in Bingham County, Idaho, and diagnosed with the disease at the University of Idaho, according to an article written by The American Phytopathological Society in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The Idaho potatoes that were infected with rubbery rot had been held in storage since harvest and were from a sandy loam field that was irrigated by an overhead system, the article said.

According to the article, rubbery rot has been sporadically reported in the United Kingdom and Korea and Australian potatoes with the disease were intercepted at a U.S. port. Meanwhile, rubbery rot also causes tomato rot in the United States, the article said.

Whether rubbery rot is difficult to manage is not known, Secor said. He and other researchers will study the fungus’ epidemiology to determine how to combat it.

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From AG WEEK. Read here.