Potato Generations

Generations of potatoes…what is that? I’ll try to answer that in a minute. Not long ago I was talking to Michael Cooper, Agricultural Bureau Chief for the ISDA’s Division of Plant Industries who said during a discussion there’s another consideration for potato seed that involves generation number: “They also have a defined generation system so when the potato initially comes out of a greenhouse and then go into the ground they can count down the number of generations that they’ll allow because the more generations the potato’s in the field, the more likely it is to start picking up disease.” Time to confess. I didn’t know exactly what generation numbers meant (even though I acted like I did). It bugged me being a dope so I called up Glenda Craig from Idaho Crop Improvement Inc. and asked her. Here’s what she said: “The number of years that the potatoes have been in field soil. We begin with the nuclear which is the first year in field soil, then it goes G-1 through G-6, G-1 being 2 years, G-2 being 3 years. If you’re growing a G-1, 2 years in the soil generation one, it produces generation 2.”

Got it.