New Potato Sprout Inhibitor Has WSU Roots

New Potato Sprout Inhibitor

I’m KayDee Gilkey with today’s Northwest Farm and Ranch Report.

There is a new potato sprout inhibitor being released that has Washington State University roots, so to speak. AMVAC Chemical Corporation’s SmartBlock features a patented new class of potato sprout inhibitor technology representing a breakthrough approach in the treatment of post-harvest potatoes.

WSU Department of Horticulture Chair, Dr. Rick Knowles shares more about the what they discovered nearly 12 years ago about this naturally occurring molecule.

Knowles: “The class is Aldehydes and Ketones and they encompass a wide range of compounds that are very common as aroma and flavor compounds from fruits and vegetables. So if you go out and cut your grass, you smell one of the main smell of cut grass is trans 2-hexenol. That was the original discovery we found that that chemical had had very good efficacy as a sprout inhibitor which led us then to research other chemicals in the Aldehyde and Ketone class.”

Growers and processors in the Pacific Northwest, which account for more than half the total potato acres in the U.S., spend an estimated $7 million to $9 million annually to inhibit sprouting of stored potatoes, according to Knowles.

The new technology provides an alternative for other compounds currently used to inhibit sprouting and will facilitate expansion of fresh and processed product exports, particularly to markets with strict chemical residue limits.