More than 140 varieties of potatoes will be available for viewing at the annual Texas A&M Potato Breeding and Variety Development Field Day on July 20 near Springlake. (Texas AgriLife Research photo by Kay Ledbetter)
SPRINGLAKE – The annual Texas A&M Potato Breeding and Variety Development Field Day, hosted by cooperator Bruce Barrett, will be held July 20 near Springlake.
Those planning to attend should assemble at 10 a.m. at Springlake Potato Sales, located between Littlefield and Springlake on State Highway 385, according to Dr. Creighton Miller, potato breeder for Texas AgriLife Research and with the Texas A&M University department of horticultural sciences in College Station.
The program will be on the Barrett Farm, where Miller has 141 different potato varieties for viewing at the field day, including fingerlings, reds, red-skinned with yellow flesh, russets and chippers.
He said side-by-side planting of trials allows for digging of tubers during the field day, while leaving the twin row for plant canopy observation. A book will be provided with all the necessary information growers might want for each variety.
Miller also will discuss the potato breeding program. He and his colleagues have planted about 60,000 offspring plants representing 456 different parental combinations at the Springlake site and have a larger trial planted at Dalhart.
These tubers will be dug later and plant selections will be made based on different identified criteria, he said. In addition, all of the varieties will be evaluated for zebra chip through a fresh cutting and chipping process.
Zebra chip, a recently emerging disease of potatoes, will also be discussed by Miller and other AgriLife Research scientists during the field day.
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