Location: Temperate Tree Fruit and Vegetable Research
Project Number: 2092-21220-003-011-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jul 1, 2021
End Date: Jun 30, 2024
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.
