Improving Russet Burbank

THE LEGEND: UI scientists develop varieties
improving on Russet Burbank

by MARLENE FRITZ

MEET NEW VARIETIES inspired by Russet Burbank currently being grown in Idaho, plus prom-ising newcomers. Most are Tri-State variety releases. All aim to improve on the Russet Burbank.

by NOAH KROESE

Ranger Russet, 14.4 percent of Idaho’s potato crop, is also the Pacific Northwest’s third most widely grown variety because of its minimal processing waste and resistance to early dying.

Western Russet (2.8 percent). At McCain Foods USA in Burley, field manager Jim Fuller is particularly impressed with Western Russet’s high yields, ample size, percentage of No. 1s, and “excellent processing attributes.”

Alturas (1.7 percent), excels in yields and processing quality and resists Verticillium wilt and early blight.

Umatilla Russet
(1.6 percent) excels in fry color and tuber shape.

NEWCOMERS
Defender, a noteworthy newcomer, is a long white potato that needs no fungicides to withstand late blight. It develops disease symptoms so slowly that growers who would otherwise be applying late-blight fungicides weekly need not spray them at all.

Premier Russet UI’s Jeff Stark, coordinator of the Idaho Tri-State program, anticipates a unique contribution by Premier Russet. Not only is it a nicely sized, shaped, and russeted potato that tolerates drought, but its resistance to sugar accumulation allows processors to make light-colored fries even after 250 days in relatively cold storage (42°F). In three years of storage research at the University of Idaho’s Kimberly Research and Extension Center, the highest concentration of product-darkening glucose in Premier Russet was less than the lowest concentration in Russet Burbank.