The cultivar Cooperation-88 (C88), developed from the International Potato Center’s germplasm, bred in the Philippines and selected in Southwest China, has resistance to late blight, PVY, and PLRV. It is, however, a short-day cultivar and unsuitable for growing conditions in Canada. In 2015 the Canadian Private Potato Breeders Network (CPPBN) made reciprocal crosses between C88 with long day cvs Prospect and Shepody. C88 functioned as both male and female in the trial. Evaluations of progeny of the crosses indicated that some clones inherited resistance to late blight while producing high yields of tubers under long days. This finding reveals the acceptable heredity of resistance in a potato breeding program when a short-day cultivar is crossed with two different long day cultivars. This study meets the collaborative goal of the CPPBN to develop new potato varieties with durable resistance to late blight.

Dark Red Norland is an important potato cultivar in the fresh market due to its attractive bright, red colour, and good yield. However, skin blemishes such as silver patch, surface cracking, and russeting can negatively influence the tuber skin quality and marketability. It is well known that potato is a drought-sensitive plant. This study was conducted to determine whether irrigation would affect Dark Red Norland’s yield and skin quality. A three-year field trial was conducted by Peak of the Market in Manitoba, Canada. Plants were treated under both irrigation and rainfed conditions. The results show that irrigation increased the total yield by 20.6% and reduced the severity of surface cracking by 48.5%. Microscopy imaging analysis demonstrated that tubers from the rainfed trials formed higher numbers of suberized cell layers than those of the irrigated potatoes, with a difference of 0.360 to 0.652 layers in normal skins. Surface cracking and silver patch skins had more suberized cell layers than the normal skins, with ranges of 7.805 to 8.333 and 7.740 to 8.496, respectively. A significantly higher amount of total polyphenols was found in the irrigated samples with a mean of 77.30 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/100 g fresh weight (fw) than that of the rainfed samples (69.80 mg GAE/100 g fw). The outcome of this study provides a better understanding of the water regime effect causing these skin blemishes, which could potentially be used to establish strategies to improve tuber skin quality and minimize market losses.

(2020). A Conflict of Values. Caribbean Quarterly: Vol. 66, Crime in Selected Caribbean Territories: Culture and Representation, pp. 301-316.

Optimizing nitrogen (N) fertilizer management in irrigated potato ( Solanum tuberosum L.) on coarse-textured soils is challenging. The “4R” nutrient stewardship framework of using N fertilizer at the right rate, right source, right placement and right time provides approaches to improve fertilizer use efficiency while maintaining or improving yield. This 3-years replicated field plot study evaluated effects from a series of N fertilization strategies including 10 combinations of sources, placement and timing, as well as fertigation, on irrigated processing potato (cv. Russet Burbank) grown for a total of five site-years in the Province of Manitoba, Canada. Treatments were designed to provide early to late availability of N to the potato crop. Nitrogen was applied to 80% of Provincial N recommendation to increase the likelihood of observing improved fertilizer use efficiency and effects of treatments on yields. Measurements were tuber yield, size distribution, specific gravity, hollow-heart rate, fertilizer apparent N recovery (ANR) and agronomic nitrogen use efficiency (NUE). Results showed differences in yield, quality, ANR and NUE between fertilizer treatments were generally very small or absent. Average tuber marketable yields for fertilizer treatments were significantly greater than those for the unfertilized control ( P < 0.001). Split application of urea at planting and hilling, and urea at planting with fertigation occasionally increased tuber marketable yields on sites of coarse textured soils ( P < 0.05). Use of polymer-coated urea (ESN) or stabilized urea with inhibitors (SuperU) did not affect yield, quality or N use of potato. Site-year difference ( P < 0.001) were apparent for all measures highlighting the importance of soil and climatic conditions on agronomic and environmental effects of N management practices. The results indicate current grower practice of split urea application at planting and hilling and urea at planting following by in-season fertigation are sound. Results indicate growers could shift to the more convenient practice of ESN at planting without reducing yields. Absence of treatment effects suggests N was generally not a limiting factor for the current study, indicating that the current recommendation for potato production in Manitoba over-estimate site-specific crop N needs.