A Historical Look at Russet Burbank Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Quality Under Different Storage Regimes

摘要

Russet Burbank is the predominant potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) cultivar grown and stored for fresh market and frozen processing (French fry) use in North America. Multi-year assessments of potato tuber quality under different storage regimes can provide information about a cultivar's ability to retain process quality when challenged with seasonal variations across multiple years. The objective of a 15-year study initiated in 1999 was to evaluate the quality of Russet Burbank tubers grown and stored at the Kimberly Research and Extension Center. Potatoes were measured for specific gravity at harvest and stored for eight months under three temperatures (5.6, 7.2 and 8.9 A degrees C) and periodically sampled throughout the storage season to determine dormancy length, sugar content, fry color and mottling severity (a quality issue), and weight loss. The year in which the crop was grown significantly (p < 0.001) affected all quality characteristics except specific gravity (average ranged between 1.071 and 1.081). Tubers held during the 2011-2012 and 2013-2014 storage seasons exhibited generally higher glucose, darker fry color, more severe mottling, and higher weight loss. Average sucrose content at 7.2 A degrees C and 8.9 A degrees C across the 15 years significantly decreased over the eight-month storage while average glucose content remained consistent after first month of storage. Average percent weight loss across the 15 years was 6.1 % after eight months in storage. This 15-year study emphasized that variation of post-harvest storage quality from year to year was likely a result of variable seasonal growing conditions. Storage temperatures between 7.2 and 8.9 A degrees C were the optimum range for storing fry processing Russet Burbank potatoes and the warmer temperature of 8.9 A degrees C appears to ameliorate the seasonal effects on glucose content and fry color to maintain better processing quality throughout storage.