When I was young, I lived on a farm 30 miles from the nearest city. It was a whole-day experience just to go grocery shopping and an ordeal if something broke down and we needed parts. My nearest neighbors were at least 2 miles away down a bumpy gravel road that was used by tractors and other equipment, and not necessarily safe for a 10-year-old to take a nice bike ride.

Rhett Spear

Assistant Professor / University of Idaho Aberdeen Research and Extension Center

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Now, decades later, as I drive around the valley, it seems that I see just as many houses being planted into former fields as I do potatoes. This resulting decrease in farmable land means that growers are tasked with accomplishing the often-used adage of producing more with less. Adopting new varieties has given growers some low-hanging fruit to help boost production.

The Northwest Potato Variety Development Program, a collaboration between the University of Idaho, Washington State University, Oregon State University and the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS), was initiated in 1983. The focus of the program is to provide up-to-date potato varieties that will directly benefit all segments of the potato industry.

Standard varieties, like Russet Burbank, Russet Norkotah and Ranger Russet, are still widely grown even with agronomic issues including high input requirements, internal and external defects, lower yields and disease susceptibility. Despite their widespread use, these standard varieties are slowly being displaced by new varieties that have been selected and developed to address detrimental issues and improve grower returns.

The variety development program typically releases, on average, at least one variety per year to the industry based on agronomic, storage, and packing and processing improvements over commonly grown varieties. The most recent releases exhibit useful traits like disease resistance, cold-sweetening resistance and improved yields.

Galena Russet. Photo courtesy of the Potato Variety Management Institute.

Galena Russet

Galena Russet resulted from a cross between Premier Russet and the numbered breeding clone A98083-7. Galena is a medium- to late-maturing variety and has notable strengths, including cold-sweetening resistance, high total and marketable yields, resistance to defects and lower input requirements than Burbank. It does have a shorter dormancy length than Burbank but would still serve as a viable processing variety that could be used earlier in the storage season.

Rainier Russet. Photo courtesy of the Potato Variety Management Institute.

Rainier Russet

Rainier Russet was selected from the cross of Canela Russet and the breeding clone A99134-1. It produces large, blocky tubers with a heavy russet and excellent eye appeal and can be grown on either an early or late schedule. Rainier yields are similar to Burbank but with less nitrogen. Rainier could be used either fresh or for french fries, but if processed, it would do better earlier in the storage season. Although it has a much longer dormancy than Burbank, french fry quality decreases the longer it is in storage. Rainier also has the benefit of being more tolerant to dry rot and common scab; however, it should be handled gently since it is more susceptible to shatter bruise.

Becca Rose. Photo courtesy of the Potato Variety Management Institute.

Becca Rose

Becca Rose was selected in Aberdeen from two parents from North Dakota. It has a unique ancestry with a native Chilean variety as a grandparent. Becca Rose is an attractive red-skinned, white-fleshed potato that produces a high number of premium-sized tubers (2-6 ounces) during trials in Idaho. However, other regions have seen the size profile shift toward a slightly larger tuber. Despite lower yields than the standard variety Chieftan, economic return is better due to the high yield of smaller tubers. In addition to its agronomic advantages, it also has resistance to common scab and verticillium wilt and retains its red skin color over time in storage.

Echo Russet. Photo courtesy of the Potato Variety Management Institute.

Echo Russet

Echo Russet was the result of a cross between a clone from Aberdeen and a clone from Colorado. It produces a high percentage of U.S. No. 1 tubers that are cold-sweetening resistant. It is a dual-purpose variety, meaning it would do well both in the fresh pack and processing industries, and it has shown resistance to dry rot, soft rot and leaf roll along with tolerance to potato virus Y (PVY). Dormancy is shorter than Burbank and, if not managed, it can be more susceptible to hollow heart.

A12305-2adg. Photo courtesy of the 2023 Washington State University Potato Cultivar Yield and Postharvest Quality Evaluations.

A12305-2adg

A12305-2adg is not yet available to the potato industry. It is unique in that both parents carried virus resistance genes, which were passed on to give extreme virus resistance. This is particularly important for PVY, which contributes to reduced yields and seed certification issues on a yearly basis with no effective means for control. Virus resistance, combined with yields that are comparable to Clearwater and Ranger, large tubers and early-to-late harvest schedules could provide a new tool for growers.

AFA5661-8. Photo courtesy of the 2023 Washington State University Potato Cultivar Yield and Postharvest Quality Evaluations.

AFA5661-8

AFA5661-8 is another clone that is still being evaluated. It was the result of a cross between Blazer Russet and a breeding clone from Maine. It is a late-maturing clone with a high specific gravity, cold-sweetening resistance and low asparagine concentrations, which contribute to dark fry colors, and it has yields comparable to Ranger and Clearwater. AFA5661-8 has also shown less susceptibility to foliar and tuber symptoms of late blight and soft rot.

Many improvements have come about in the decades since I lived on the farm as a kid. Some are more complicated or expensive to implement, some come with immediate returns on investment and some have a steep learning curve. New varieties can be more easily implemented than many of the technologies associated with growing potatoes and can often be the low-hanging fruit that may help to improve the potato industry as a whole and to “produce more with less.”