Colorado
Kent Sather, Manager, Colorado Potato Certification Service Colorado
Potatoes harvested in Colorado's San Luis Valley
Colorado’s San Luis Valley is an ideal location for seed potato production. Its 7,600-foot altitude, cool days and high summer sunlight intensity allows for high altitude vigor. Certified seed lots begin with extensive testing of tissue culture plantlets maintained by the Colorado Potato Certification Service (PCS) tissue culture bank at the Colorado State University San Luis Valley Research Center. Disease-free plantlets are distributed to 10 Colorado grower-owned/operated tissue culture/greenhouse facilities. Their greenhouse minituber production serves as the foundation for one to a maximum of six years of field increase for 25 Colorado certified seed potato growers as well as other certified seed growers in the U.S. Detailed historical documentation of seed lots, laboratory serological disease testing, three summer visual inspections, storage inspections, required postharvest test inspections, and shipping inspections comprise the total protocol to provide quality seed potatoes to customers.
The 2014 planting season in the San Luis Valley of Colorado was good. Soils were slightly moist after a winter with some snowfall on the valley floor. Very little measurable precipitation fell during planting. Air and soil temperatures were average through April and into early May, allowing for normal planting and emergence. Good conditions during May and June encouraged root and vine growth and eventual tuber initiation. Cloudy and slightly cooler weather in July, unusual for the San Luis Valley, was blamed for slow tuber sizing and maturity, especially for late-maturing cultivars.
Vine killing by certified seed growers began in late July and early August, sacrificing yields but limiting the potential spread of community virus. Some fields received moderate to severe hail damage mid-July as well. Harvest reports indicate average yields.
Tubers are good grade quality, depending upon the variety. The top five certified seed varieties are Russet Norkotah selections, Canela Russet, Classic Russet, Centennial Russet, and Rio Grande Russet.
An official 2014 certified seed directory is posted online at potatoes.colostate.edu/potato-certification-service. This lists second inspection results of all seed lots passing summer inspections eligible for sale. An interactive version of the same certified seed directory is part of the Colorado Certified Potato Growers’ Association website. See this directory and other certified seed grower information at www.coloradocertifiedpotatogrowers.com. Certified seed growers submitted required seed lot samples for the postharvest test grow-out, which takes place on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, Jan. 2-18. Postharvest test results will also be posted online by late January.
Colorado certified seed potato acreage entered was 12,729 acres, down 527 acres from 2013.Total acreage in the San Luis Valley, including the seed crop, was 54,128 acres, up 4,441 acres from 2013. Community diseases such as PVY and other environmental issues such as water availability have been and will continue to be major factors affecting future potato crops.
Idaho
Alan Westra
Southeast Area Manager, Idaho Crop Improvement Association
Idaho’s 2014 growing season began with early to normal planting. What started out as a fairly typical season was punctuated by a period of unusually cool and wet weather in August. There were reports of late blight in Idaho; however, no blight was observed in any Idaho seed lots during field inspections. Harvest was completed in a timely manner, with seed potato yields reported as average to very good. Quality going into storage is reported as very good.
A total of 32,366 acres were accepted for certification this year in Idaho. This represents a reduction of 1.5 percent from 2013. A total of 211 varieties, line selections and advanced clones are represented in this acreage. The top varieties for 2014 are Russet Burbank (43 percent of total acreage), Ranger Russet (15 percent), Russet Norkotah (all, 13 percent), and Alturas (5 percent). The proportions of each variety are essentially unchanged from last year.
A major change for the Idaho certification program in 2014 is the adoption of new rules for bacterial ring rot. These rules, which are in effect for the current crop, provide for a surveillance program that requires PCR testing of all seed lots being planted on seed farms as well as certified seed sold for commercial production, Idaho G1 (Field Year 2) or higher. This mandatory testing program is intended to monitor the disease status of individual operations and the certification program as a whole.
In addition to the comprehensive testing of seed lots, the new rules also provide for increased scrutiny in the case that ring rot is detected on a seed farm. When ring rot is confirmed in any seed lot, all sister lots (i.e., all seed lots originating from the same seed source), must be tested at 4,400 tubers per lot, regardless of which seed farm they are on.
Further, the contact lots on the seed farm with the confirmed find are subject to elevated sampling intensities, and all planting stocks on that farm must be flushed.
Finally, seed farms with confirmed ring rot are subject to a five-year probation period during which farm sanitation practices will be reviewed and seed lots will be tested at elevated sampling intensities. This probationary period is intended to ensure that there is no recurrence of the disease on that farm, to demonstrate farm cleanliness, and to prevent the inadvertent sale of infected seed lots.
Maine
Ellis B. Additon, Director, Maine Bureau of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources
Maine potatoes in full bloom. Photo courtesy Maine Bureau of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources
Seed potato harvest in Maine was aided by very favorable weather in September and early October. The entire crop was out of the ground by mid-October.
Wet weather delayed planting by about two weeks last spring, but very favorable summer and fall weather led to an extremely high-quality crop. The volume numbers are still being calculated but early reports are the crop was average to above average in quantity. The annual harvest was aided by almost no rain for the three-week harvest period.
As of Oct. 10, 2014, 10,860 acres had been entered into the Maine Seed Certification Program from 117 farms. This report is a week earlier than last year, so the totals could change upward slightly. Frito-Lay varieties continue to be by far the largest acreage entered, with other top varieties being Atlantic, Snowden, Superior, Russet Burbank, Dark Red Norland and Reba, in that order.
North Dakota
Willem Schrage, North Dakota State Seed Department
The cooler temperatures in the summer of 2014 were favorable for tuber growth in North Dakota. The weather cooperated very well during the harvest. The soil conditions were such that bruising was kept to a minimum, and there is a good crop in storage. Shipments have gone smoothly to the early areas in the South.
The “APHIS Alert” program of Dr. Ian MacRae of the University of Minnesota was active again in 2014. The program is very much appreciated by seed potato growers. Timely communication is appreciated. The postharvest test is carried out in Florida, where North Dakota seed potato growers own land in Miami-Dade County.
The North Dakota State Seed Department is unique in the country in that it is its own department, which reflects the importance the industry gives to good quality seed in the state.
The Departments certified 16,103.51 acres of seed potatoes in 2014, up from the 14,169.99 acres the year before. The increase in acres is not an increase in production of seed potatoes; it means that more acres that are intended for the fresh market passed field inspection this year. In North Dakota any farm that certifies seed has its total potato acreage certified. Red potatoes in the state have a good reputation and are in demand. The soil has a major influence on the color and the taste. It shows by the number of acres of the most important variety in the state being red and dark red selections of Norland, with an acreage of 4,351.25 acres.
The rich soil in the state produces high gravity potatoes in demand for chipping. NDSU variety Dakota Pearl is the second seed potato variety in North Dakota with 1711.18 acres.
Seed potato varieties with more than 1,000 acres were Red LaSoda, Red LaSoda NY, Ranger Russet, Bannock Russet, Umatilla Russet and Russet Burbank, which made a comeback from below 1,000 acres
NDSU released a new variety, the Dakota Russet, for the processing market.
The North Dakota Department of Agriculture and the USDA/APHIS office in North Dakota have worked to continue the survey for potato cyst nematode (PCN) in the state. When the demand for testing surpasses the present funding, the difference will be charged by the State Seed Department to the growers requesting testing.
A North Dakota seed potato directory is available at www. ndseed.com, by calling (701) 231-5400, or by emailing wschrage@ndseed,ndsu.edu
Oregon
Jeff McMorran, Oregon Seed Certification Service
Planting and growing conditions were nearly ideal for much of the season in most areas or Oregon this year, resulting in good yields of high quality, nice-looking tubers with very few external or internal issues.
Water shortages in some areas were a looming issue throughout the season. Mosaic and other serious diseases were either absent or well within tolerable levels for most seed lots, with the exception of calico (alfalfa mosaic virus) that was particularly troublesome this year for some growers. Harvest went well despite warmer than usual temperatures delaying the timing to some extent, with some growers being forced to harvest at night to avoid heat injury.
Oregon had 3,070 acres of potato seed entered for certification in 2014, slightly above the state’s average. Of these, 2,653 acres were accepted, 106 were rejected or withdrawn, and 311 are still pending variety acceptance (as of Nov. 4). Oregon certified 198 acres in northern California and 143 acres in northern Nevada (both near the Oregon border), with the rest in Oregon proper. Production areas included 1,019 acres in the Klamath Falls area, 837 acres Union County, 311 in Malheur County, 485 in Jefferson County, and 169 in Gilliam County.
Typical processing type varieties like Russet Burbank, Umatilla Russet and Ranger Russet made up 46 percent of the acreage. Fresh market varieties such as Russet Norkotah, Chieftain and Yukon Gold made up 32 percent of the acres certified. Chippers (Frito-Lay, Atlantic, Pike) made up 18 percent, and a large range of specialty varieties made up the remaining acrage. This year Oregon also certified around 300 acres of Simplot’s new Innate varieties for the first time.
The major shift in the Oregon certification program in 2014 was an increasing number of large nuclear and G1 lots (FY1, FY2, respectively) at locations distant from traditional seed areas. This change is partially due to the remoteness of many locations in Oregon from commercial production, as well as the ability of pre-nuclear greenhouses and labs in other states to produce large amounts of planting material as lower costs. Several of Oregon’s specialty growers have also cited the difficulty of getting acceptable seed from other areas as a reason for starting greenhouse-nuclear operations of their own. In most cases, G2 seed (FY3) is now going directly to commercial operations without another year or two of increase.
While processing and russeted white-flesh varieties continue to make up the bulk of Oregon seed production, increases in acreage of specialty varieties continues. Specific information on the varieties and acreage produced in Oregon can be found at: www.seedcert.oregonstate.edu/potatoes.