Location: Temperate Tree Fruit and Vegetable Research
Project Number: 2092-21220-003-035-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Aug 1, 2025
End Date: Jul 31, 2026
Objective:
Identify and evaluate economically superior clones and cultivars for adaptability
to the NW potato producing regions and inform the industry. Advanced generation
clones and cultivars from the NW potato breeding programs of ID, OR, and WA shall
be evaluated for commercial application when grown in WA. Early- and late-harvest
trials will be used to assess germplasm suitability for the fresh and process
markets and adaptability to the NW climate. The early-harvest trials will focus
largely on identifying material for early fresh marketing and out-of-field
processing. The late-harvest trials will be used to identify material that
processes well out-of-field and out-of-storage, and also to identify potential
fresh-pack cultivars.
Approach:
Reference varieties such as Russet Burbank, Ranger Russet, Shepody, Russet
Norkotah, Chieftain, Yukon Gold, and Purple Majesty will be used to gauge the
performance of new clones and cultivars. Tubers will be harvested, graded, counted,
weighed, and the internal and external quality measured. Potential economic return
to the grower from each cultivar and advanced generation clone will be calculated.
Economic return will be estimated using a mock processing contract that represents
incentives in actual contracts. Fresh market potential economic return will be
estimated using average market values. Overall merit scores will be calculated for
each clone and cultivar and presented to the industry.