New varieties of potatoes bred from the Texas A&M breeding program may soon enter the French fry market, said Isabelle Weils, potato breeder at Texas A&M AgriLife, reports Phys.org portal.
At a recent field day on the southern plains near Springlake, Vales talked about the new clones. potato.
“We are very excited to have an experimental clone of a light brown potato with purple flesh that has a very special property: high starch content even in the very stressful heat conditions of Texas,” Weils said.
The original cross was made in Colorado, and the selection was made in Texas.
“The experimental clone COTX08063-2Ru has a high specific gravity even under conditions of high thermal load in Texas and it makes a very good French fries. This is the second year that this clone has been undergoing national trials.”
The amount of starch in potato tubers is a major factor in determining its use. High starch potatoes are often used to make processed foods such as french fries, chips, and dried potatoes.
Weils stressed that the Texas A&M potato breeding program is part of the Southwest Regional Potato Variety Development Project, a project funded by the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
“The Southwest Program was founded in 1997 and we are celebrating 25 years of successful collaboration,” she said.
Texas A&M University, Colorado State University and UC Davis initiated the Southwest Regional Potato Varieties Project to meet the unique needs of the region's potato industry, Wales said.
“In the US, most potato breeding programs are government-run,” Weils said. — The level of cooperation in potato breeding is unparalleled; potatoes grown under the Southwest Program are grown throughout the United States and Canada. In the Southwest region, we also evaluate potatoes grown under other regional programs.”
She added that while federal funding is the main source of the program, other funds come from state departments of agriculture, national commodity groups such as the US Potato, foundations, and others. Additional funding comes from royalties received from varieties released in under Texas A&M's PVP Plant Variety Protection Program.
“We had 180 different clones this year at Field Day,” she said.
High temperatures during the growing season are a major abiotic stress in several production areas in the Southwest region, Weils says. Heat stress can cause physiological defects and adversely affect the yield and quality of tubers. Tubers harvested from the field were assessed for susceptibility to internal heat tuber necrosis, growth cracks, accumulation of reducing sugars, brown core, hollow core, and heat sprouts.
“The varieties of potatoes we develop come in a variety of tuber sizes, shapes, skin and flesh textures, and colors to suit different market needs,” Weils said. “For example, we are looking for clones with a lot of small tubers. We also grow bicolor potatoes. We recently got round, reddish-brown tubers with pink eyes and yellow flesh."
According to the breeder, Texas A&M Norkotah Russet varieties continue to be the most popular, with 35 licensees in 12 states. These are reddish brown potatoes for the fresh market. Two other red-brown varieties that are growing in popularity are the red-brown Reveille, which has doubled in area from 2020 to 2021, and the red-brown Vanguard. The heat tolerance and long dormancy of the red-brown varieties Reveille and Vanguard are attractive characteristics for growers in the US and Canada.
Since the start of the Southwest Potato Variety Development Project, 66 new varieties have been released or released jointly with other institutions. 44 of them are in Colorado and Texas.
“These potato varieties occupy a significant and growing portion of the country's potato crop area and have made a significant contribution to the regional and national economy,” Weils said.