Project Number: 5442-43440-007-00
Project Type: Appropriated

Start Date: Sep 15, 2004
End Date: Sep 14, 2009

Objective:
To cooperate with potato breeders, producers, and processors to improve post harvest potato quality by reducing storage and processing losses. A major portion of this effort involves the evaluation of storage and processing characteristics of promising new varieties and advanced germplasm developed and submitted by U.S. potato breeding programs. Identify new genotypes with the ability to process directly from a storage temperature of less than 7 degree C. Identify optimum storage conditions for new cold-sweetening resistant germplasm and field-stressed tubers.

Approach:
This CRIS project is a service project that provides standardized storage, processing and analysis of advanced breeding clones submitted by public potato breeding programs. All protocols, storage conditions, and analytical methods used have been standardized in accordance with current industry practices and are therefore invariant. Specific approaches include: 1) storage, processing and evaluation of new breeding lines, 2) determine cold storage potential of selected clones and cultivars, and 3) evaluate and identify optimum postharvest treatments to minimize quality loss in field-stressed potatoes.