Growers, researchers, and industry partners gathered on July 22 for the annual Texas Potato Field Day, where attendees had the opportunity to view more than 100 potato varieties and breeding lines currently under development.
The event was hosted by Texas A&M AgriLife Research, the Texas A&M Potato Breeding Program, Barrett Potato Farms, and Springlake Potatoes Inc.
Participants met at 10 a.m. at Springlake Potatoes Inc., located along U.S. Highway 385, before traveling to nearby research plots. The event was free and open to the public, with no preregistration required.
The field day was designed to give attendees a firsthand look at the latest work being done to develop potato varieties suited for changing growing conditions in Texas and across the country. Researchers and producers were on hand to discuss performance, adaptability, and current challenges facing the industry.
At the research plots, attendees were able to look through over 140 different potato cultivars and advanced breeding lines. The field tour featured a wide range of market classes, including russets, chippers, reds, yellows, purples, small potatoes, and fingerlings.
Ph.D., AgriLife Research potato breeder and associate professor in the Texas A&M Department of Horticultural Sciences, Isabel Vales, said that the selections on display highlight ongoing efforts to improve heat tolerance and disease resistance in potato crops.
“Not all potatoes do very well under high temperature conditions. So we’ve been concentrating on selecting materials that do well under high temperature conditions. We call them heat tolerant, and heat tolerant means that they would give you a high yield of marketable tubers that have very few external and very few internal defects,” said Vales.
The Texas Potato Field Day serves as an opportunity for collaboration between researchers and producers, allowing participants to exchange information and evaluate new varieties in field conditions.
During the event, Vales gave an update on the breeding program and discussed advanced clones.
“What we do is breeding to develop new varieties, develop varieties for all market groups, so we have red specialties that includes the reds, the yellows, the purples, fingerling, smalls, and we have russets as well, so they come, they take a look at them, many of them have disease, resistances, that is kind of a bonus that they really need,” said Vales.
Other growers also provided overviews of their growing season thus far. Bruce Barrett of Barrett Potato Farms said the High Plains environment plays a key role in testing those varieties and determining their success beyond the region.
“We’ve had their test plot out here and they’ve developed several different varieties that are nationwide now, and so we have done that and part of it is pretty harsh conditions in this area for potatoes. So they kind of grow them here and if they work here, then they kind of like, hey, they might work even better in other places,” said Barrett.
For more information, please get in touch with Vales at isabel.vales@ag.tamu.edu; Douglas Scheuring, senior research associate, Texas A&M Department of Horticultural Sciences, at 979324-2564; Jeffrey Koym, Senior Research Associate, Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Lubbock, at 806-7772412; or Barrett at 806-8932040.