This month the Smorgasbord takes a look at Pomerelle Russet, an early-maturing fresh variety showing promise—at least in early trials—out of short- or mid-term storage for the fry processing market. However, its primary use appears to be as a high-quality, early fresh variety. We appreciate our friends at the Potato Variety Management Institute for this information on Pomerelle Russet.
Traits
- Moderately high early-season yields
- Attractive, smooth, oblong-long tubers with brown-russeted skin
- Moderately long tuber dormancy, about 30 days shorter than Burbank
- Maintains acceptable fry color 180 to 200 days in storage at 48 degrees
- Moderate specific gravity
Strengths
- High percentage of U.S. No. 1s
- Greater resistance to soft rot, corky ringspot, potato mop-top virus and tuber infections from late blight relative to Burbank and Norkotah
- Resistances to internal and external defects
- Lower total glycoalkaloid concentrations and higher protein and vitamin C concentrations than Ranger and Burbank
- Resistance to sugar ends
- High protein and vitamin C concentrations
- Less susceptible to growth cracks, second growth, shatter bruise and hollow heart than Burbank; similar to Ranger and Norkotah
- Dry rot resistance similar to Norkotah; more resistant than Burbank
- Significantly lower susceptibility to Fusarium dry rot in storage than Burbank
Weaknesses
- Slightly lower yields than industry standard varieties
- Susceptible to early dying, PVY, potato leafroll virus and foliar late blight
Pomerelle Russet has performed very well in eastern Canada and an exclusive licensing agreement has been made with a company in that region for marketing and production. Information on seed availability for Pomerelle Russet is available from the Potato Variety Management Institute at www.pvmi.org.