06/02/08 Research on a new potato variety

The University of Idaho's Nora Olsen is conducting storage research this year on a relatively new potato, Premier Russet, or as Olsen sometimes refers to it 6LS. This low sugar accumulating potato has good fry color and stores at low temperatures. OLSEN "Then the quality, the fry quality of it is superb, exceptional." Olsen says there are some other storage concerns that have to be addressed and that's where her research comes in. OLSEN "And those issues are its a little bit more susceptible to weight loss and therefore shrinkage and that's always a concern for long term storage. Something I think that we can try to work out. It also is a short dormancy variety. Again I think we can work on that definitely and it's more susceptible to a couple of diseases. One being pink rot and the second being dry rot." Olsen says the Premier Russet was released in 2006 with very few acres of seed planted. That changed last year when the acreage jumped and she expects to see more Premier Russets in Idaho, Washington and Oregon this year. Even though it was intended as a processed potato some growers are considering 6LS for the fresh market because it looks so good. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott