News on New Potato Varieties from the United States

Two recently released new Russet varieties - Castle Russet and Echo Russet - should help the potato industry in the Pacific Northwest cope with more stringent regulations on soil fumigants

With little fanfare, the Maine Board of Pesticides Control unanimously approved on Friday morning the registration of three new types of genetically engineered potatoes that have been developed by Simplot Plant Sciences.

Years before that french fry landed on your plate, the plant that would eventually give rise to the spud your fry was cut from was sealed away deep in a secure-access building, growing slowly in a test tube inside a locked growth chamber.

The Texas A&M AgriLife Research plant pathology team intentionally infected potato plants with psyllids positive with the bacterium that causes zebra chip disease, in order to identify promising germplasm in the battle against the disease plaguing the US potato industry for the past 15 years.

The US federal government has given the final OK to three more types of potatoes genetically engineered by Boise’s J.R. Simplot Co. to resist Phytophthora - the pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine.

University of Idaho has hired a new director for its nuclear seed potato program and plans to build additional facilities to help her expand production.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) today announced the availability of $1.85 million in funding for regional potato breeding research to support the development of superior-performing varieties that can be brought to market as soon as possible.

It’s been more than a year since a new potato variety known as the Caribou Russet was unveiled. But so far, it’s been rather hard to find — getting a new potato onto store shelves isn’t as simple as it may seem.

In September, McDonald's approved two relatively new potato varieties for the production of their french Fries. They only allow seven varieties now, four of which were developed by the Tri-State Program

Can the nutritional value of potatoes be improved? That is the question USDA research geneticist Kathy Haynes has been asking for nearly 30 years. Her quest for the answer has led her to breeding a more nutritious potato, similar to the papa criolla types found in South America.

A new potato variety that’s genetically modified to withstand bruising has been cleared for commercialization without undergoing USDA’s deregulatory process for biotech crops.

Participants at the 25th annual Texas Potato Breeding and Variety Development Program field day learned that the harvest is underway, that psyllids are threatening unharvested fields and that new varieties are showing lots of promise.

The annual Potato Field Day in the High Plains featuring the Texas A&M University AgriLife Potato Breeding and Variety Development Program will be July 21.

RPE, Inc.’s bite-sized potato brand, Tasteful Selections™, is continuing its efforts to inspire consumers to rescue moments and spend more quality time with family by creating delicious time-saving recipes and useful cooking tips.

Potatoes have been bred at Cornell for at least 50 years and 70% of the university’s breeding efforts are focused on developing new chip varieties. Walter De Jong reports.

Colorado based Strohauer Farms are trying out a couple more fingerling varieties this season - adding to an already impressive line-up of specialty potatoes - as they continue to see growth in the fingerling potato segment.

The Little Potato Company announces its plan to set up a new $20 million US Head Office and processing facility in DeForest near Madison, Wisconsin.

Researchers discovered that in a wild variety of potato (Solanum Microdontum) Calcium levels are about seven times higher than in a regular potato. They developed a molecular marker to facilitate the transfer of the high Calcium trait to newly bred potato varieties.