Parma, Idaho
May 4, 2009
Harvest a red, yellow or purple
specialty potato and its skin color will be shiny and bright.
That’s paramount, because skin quality drives buyers to put a
particular potato in their shopping cart. Store that potato for
a month or two, and its skin color will be noticeably duller. It
may even have developed unappealing blemishes that prompt
consumers to leave it in the store.
Across southern Idaho this year,
University of Idaho agricultural researchers will be
investigating the in-season, harvest, storage and packing
processes that affect skin color and quality in specialty
potatoes. They will examine the potentially positive or negative
effects of growth regulators, in-season and post-harvest
fungicides, harvest timing, disinfectants and storage
conditions. Roy Navarre, a research geneticist with the USDA
Agricultural Research Service at Prosser, Wash., will add a
nutritional twist—studying the impacts of these factors on the
healthful phytonutrients in potato skins.
Project leader Mike Thornton, a University of Idaho potato
physiologist at Parma, expects the results of the multi-year
effort to be a comprehensive set of recommendations for skin
quality-enhancing practices. “I think we can make some progress
with some fairly simple treatments,” he said.
At Kimberly, colleague Nora Olsen, a University of Idaho
Extension potato specialist, will concentrate on the critical,
early-storage “wound healing” period when potatoes temporarily
need higher humidity and temperatures. She will also evaluate
disinfectants and other compounds that are applied as potatoes
enter the storage shed or leave the packing shed. Olsen hopes to
identify strategies for putting the shine back on the spuds and
for keeping appearance-marring diseases and disorders from
getting a foothold.
“A bright, beautiful color and top-quality appearance are very
important to marketing specialty potatoes: they need to catch
the buyer’s eye,” said Olsen.
At Aberdeen, potato pathologist Phillip Wharton will address
silver scurf—a blemish-producing disease that leaves only a
slightly noticeable silvery sheen on thicker-skinned russet
potatoes but very evident dry patches on specialty spuds.
And in Prosser, Navarre will tease out the relationships among
the various management approaches and the healthfulness and hue
of two sizes of potatoes—tiny one- or two-ounce “baby” potatoes
harvested in June and a second crop harvested later and larger
in August. Previous research has shown that very small, immature
and deeply colored specialty potatoes are exceptionally rich in
phytonutrients and that these phytonutrients do not decrease
after steaming, boiling, baking, microwaving or stir-frying.
“We have two very desirable goals—higher amounts of
phytonutrients and an even more visually appealing potato,”
Navarre said. “Hand in hand, that’s a very good combination to
have.”
The trial will include Yukon Gem, a white-skinned potato with
yellow flesh; All Blue, a purple-skinned potato with purple and
white flesh; Red LaSoda, a red-skinned potato with white flesh;
Purple Pelisse, a purple-skinned fingerling potato with purple
flesh; Bintje, a white-skinned potato with light-yellow flesh,
and POR01PG20-12, a red-skinned potato with red and white flesh.
Purple Pelisse is a recent release from the Tri-State Potato
Variety Development Program, in which the University of Idaho
participates.
The project is funded by both the Idaho Potato Commission and
the USDA Agricultural Research Service.
Founded in 1889, the University of Idaho is the state’s
flagship higher-education institution and its principal graduate
education and research university, bringing insight and
innovation to the state, the nation and the world. University
researchers attract nearly $100 million in research grants and
contracts each year; the University of Idaho is the only
institution in the state to earn the prestigious Carnegie
Foundation ranking for high research activity. The university’s
student population includes first-generation college students
and ethnically diverse scholars. Offering more than 150 degree
options in 10 colleges, the university combines the strengths of
a large university with the intimacy of small learning
communities. For information, visit
http://www.uidaho.edu/ |
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