Texas A&M AgriLife Research, the Texas A&M Potato Breeding Program, Barrett Potato Farms and Springlake Potatoes Sales Inc. will host the annual Texas Potato Field Day on July 17 in Springlake.
Participants will meet at 10 a.m. at Springlake Potato Sales, 1452 U.S. Highway 385, before traveling to the field.
The field day allows researchers and other industry leaders to view and learn about the newest potato varieties developed by the Texas A&M Potato Breeding Program and several other national partners.
“The Texas A&M annual potato field day offers a great opportunity for industry members, including researchers, commercial and seed growers, processors and retailers to interact, exchange ideas and identify needs or opportunities,” said Isabel Vales, Ph.D., AgriLife Research potato breeder and associate professor in the Texas A&M Department of Horticultural Sciences, Bryan-College Station.
On The Agenda
This year’s field day will feature 152 potato clones, including russets, chippers, reds, yellows, purples, smalls and fingerlings. Several Texas-released varieties and advanced selections, as well as advanced selections from other breeding programs, will be displayed.
Vales said most Texas-released varieties and advanced selections are tolerant to heat stress and are able to produce high marketable yields of tubers with few external and internal defects. In recent years, researchers have complemented field screening with potato variety evaluations conducted under controlled greenhouse and growth chamber conditions to validate heat tolerance.
For more information, e-mail Vales at isabel.vales@tamu.edu, call Douglas Scheuring at (979) 324-2564, Jeffrey Koym at (806) 777-2412 or Bruce Barrett at (806) 893-2040.
To learn more about the Texas A&M Potato Breeding Program, visit https://potato.tamu.edu.