Update on the Potato Storage Research Facility

Published in the CommonTater, January 2012. Written by Mary LeMere.

The Wisconsin Potato & Vegetable Storage Research Facility has entered its fifth year with the start of this storage season. The facility is as busy as ever with seven bulk pile research bins and over 100 pallets of research potatoes associated with nine different programs in climate controlled lockers.

Research on post-harvest fungicide treatments for control of silver scurf, pink rot, and late blight is ongoing in Dr. Gevens' plant pathology program. Included in fungicide evaluations are treatments of Phostrol, ozone, Oxidate, and other compounds. Tubers from a number of field disease trials from production season 2011 will be further evaluated under commercial storage conditions. In 2011-2012, we are studying the interaction of variety, wound healing, and soft rot control, an effort which involves the expertise of Drs. AJ Bussan, Paul Bethke, and Amanda Gevens.

Dr. Russ Groves is currently researching the influence of temperature on the development t of potato tuber necrotic ringspot disease (PTNRD) in seed potatoes. The goal of the project is to complement the ongoing PVY research and attempts to increase our understanding of how tuber necrosis develops in an affected crop as well as in storage. Experiments are designed to determine the abiotic factor, or set of factors, that contribute to the development of potato tuber necrotic ringspot disease among selected, commercially valued chip and process varieties. Field experiments are conducted in regional trials, located in both southern and northern potato production regions, to evaluate susceptibility, symptom expression, and potential resistance in varieties and advanced breeding lines to the range of emerging PVY isolates. There have been no studies to quantify or define the consequences of long-term storage of tubers and associated quality issues (e.g. PTNRD symptom development, gravity and shrinkage) linked with PVYNTN infection.

Variety development continues with the efforts of Mary LeMere and Bryan Bowen on the Wisconsin Variety Development and Advanced Selection Trial and Mary LeMere and Dr. AJ Bussan on the United States Potato Board Snack Food Association Trial. Recently named Wisconsin varieties Nicolet and Tundra were developed as part of these trials and stored in both small and bulk quantities in the Wisconsin Potato & Vegetable Storage Research Facility.

Dr. AJ Bussan is evaluating the sensitivity of multiple potato varieties to stem end defects across multiple regions of the United States. Nicolet and Lamoka (NY) are currently in bulk storage at the facility as part of the research program with Dr. Bussan looking at variety-specific storage management practices. Ongoing research will determine if stem end sugars can be preconditioned and the influence of stem end darkening can be decreased by storage management. Acrylamide-forming potential of tubers will be evaluated in some elite chipping potato lines.

The effect of potato vine desiccants on potato storability and quality is currently being investigated by Dr. Jed Colquhoun. While the general benefits of potato vine desiccation relative to potato quality are well known and documented, the potential effect of various specific desiccants on storability is less well known. New and potential vine desiccants utilize different modes of action than traditional desiccants such as diquat, and therefore may affect potato qualities that determine storability and processing, such as sugars and solids. In this study, Dr. Colquhoun evaluates the effect of traditional, new and potential future vine desiccants on potato storability and quality.

Dr. Paul Bethke is researching the impact of potato maturation on storage. His program will investigate the biochemistry and molecular biology of senescent sweetening and the development of sugar end defects in Russet Burbank and Bannock Russet potatoes exposed to transient water stress. The change in incidence of severity of stem end defects in the storage of field and greenhouse grown chip varieties will be examined. Dr. Bethke continues his research monitoring ethylene and other volatile compounds of storage atmospheres.

Fry testing and storage sugar analysis services are available at the Processing and Quality Assurance Labs in the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Storage Research Facility. For further information regarding these services or activities at the facility please contact Mary LeMere (715-249-5961, lemere@wisc.edu).