By Kay Ledbetter
Participants at the 25th annual Texas Potato Breeding and Variety Development Program field day learned that the harvest is underway, that psyllids are threatening unharvested fields and that new varieties are showing lots of promise.
These were some of the “headlines” shared with about 60 producers and researchers gathered recently for the 25th annual Texas Potato Breeding and Variety Development Program field day near Springlake in the Bruce Barrett potato fields.
Breeding new potato varieties
The potato breeding program is conducted by Texas A&M AgriLife Research and the Texas A&M University department of horticultural sciences under the direction of potato breeder Dr. Creighton Miller in College Station.
Miller has developed the program over the past 40 years to breed high-quality, high-producing potatoes for the fresh, chipping and storage markets. He conducts breeding trials near Springlake with Barrett Farms and near Dalhart with CSS Farms.
The Springlake trial includes 33,161 seedlings, while the Dalhart trial has 41,659 seedlings, totaling 74,820 seedlings from 463 different crosses, he said. Among those are the Texas Russet Norkotah strains and the newer Reveille Russet released last year.
“Our Norkotah strains tend to be very popular throughout the country,” Miller said, adding there are about 40 licensees throughout the U.S. and, collectively, these strains rank fifth in varieties approved for certification.
Read more:
http://today.agrilife.org/2016/07/30/harvest-psyllids-new-varieties-hot-topics-at-potato-field-day/
