Potatoes in this year’s North Dakota State University breeding trial that are bound for use as chips, french fries, in the fresh market and even specialty markets like low-glycemic could eventually make the grade for many kinds of markets.
Potato clones in the NDSU trial were planted May 2. Out in the fields at NDSU’s Williston Research & Extension Center’s potato breeder and associate professor Susie Thompson was helped with seeding by research specialists Dick Nilles and Tyler Tjelde.
A beautiful, warm day with sunshine filled the irrigation acres, which are provided with water throughout the growing season by center pivots while the group planted.
“Planting went really well,” Thompson said. “Tyler and Jerry [Bergman, NDSU WREC director] will be collaborating with us and will have a graduate student working out there with them,” Thompson said.
Thompson planted 10 dual-purpose russet clones from the NDSU potato breeding program.
“The russets may be used for the frozen processing market as french fries, or in the fresh market like table-stock,” said Thompson. “They are sold in grocery stores or used in the food service industry,” she said, adding these are long and blocky in type, with white or yellow flesh color.
Also planted were eight fresh market varieties, predominantly red-skinned with white flesh. Five are numbered and three are named. The named varieties are Red Norland, Yukon Gold and Dakota Ruby.
The team planted 20 hills of the same clone replicated four times and grown out during the summer.
The NDSU team will evaluate the agronomics of the potatoes and talk about it at field days throughout the summer. Harvested potatoes are taken back to Fargo, N.D., where the total yield, grade and other important traits such as specific gravity are evaluated. The dual-purpose russets will also be french fried.
“I may taste them, too, to see if they are mealy or crispy for the quick-serve restaurant market,” Thompson said.
It takes a tremendous amount of work to finally be able to release a potato variety. Thompson has research trials not only in Williston, but also in nine locations from western Minnesota across North Dakota.
“Our North Dakota potato breeding program has been very successful over the years, with Dakota Ruby released two years ago, Dakota Russet in 2012 and Dakota Trailblazer in 2009,” Thompson said.
In addition to the clones mentioned, Thompson is also in a project with Bergman to find a good low-glycemic potato.
One of Thompson’s graduate students went through more than 200 lines to find acceptable clones that were low-glycemic with high levels of resistant starch. Ten of the best are being grown at Williston for further evaluation.
This research was funded by a North Dakota specialty crop block grant through the North Dakota Department of Agriculture.
“This [low-glycemic research] is very preliminary,” Thompson said. “We have a lot of evaluation to do before a potato variety can be released, but it is exciting.”
One disease Thompson is concerned about is late blight, and with the Mondak Gold, early blight has been problematic. But as Williston is a relatively isolated site, there aren’t many diseases that have harmed the crop at the research site.
Varieties that are susceptible to early blight are managed with fungicide choices. The disease primarily puts lesions on leaves and stems, and can leave a bull’s-eye lesion of necrotic tissue.
“That can kill the plant if the lesions are large enough,” Thompson said. “The tubers can also become infected by the large conidia (spores) if wounded during harvest and handling, causing dry rot in storage.”
Tjelde is present at the site every day and will apply fungicide as needed to protect the crop.
Source: Farm & Ranch Guide