Tater seed in Saskatchewan

[DarJones]

Interesting conundrum in this article. They have developed true breeding potato lines, but now they have to figure out how to market them without people just saving their own seed.

ca.news.yahoo.com/sask-company-seed-idea-revolutionize-120000230.html


Then there is this article about Stevia.
ca.news.yahoo.com/sugar-lost-sweet-spot-paraguayan-plant-upends-market-051346716--finance.html



Just for larks, what if someone moved the gene from Stevia into potato so that potatoes tasted super sweet?

That ought to liven up the board for a few days. Talk about potato seed, talk about using less sugar, and talk about how bad GMO's are for us.

[Tom Wagner]

Iv'e met Jacob VanderSchaaf of Little Potatoes years ago in California. We never conversed again. I suppose Joel is a son? The Small Potatoes claims to have eight varieties that no one else is allowed to grow so we will see how that goes. The way seed potato contracts are written no one can get them unless they are part of the contract and no one else can buy them and growers are loathe to buy seed potatoes not certified.I will contact Joel via Linkedin to see how i could help.

To talk about stevia gmo'ed into potatoes....? Who would want sweet tasting spuds?

[stevecrouse]

Some of the old timers spoke of only eating the potatoes that were next to a crack in the potato house doors because the draft was so cold it sweetened them up.
I prefer the starch flavor, myself.

[tuberosum]

Oct 20, 2014 14:04:31 GMT -8 DarJones said:

Interesting conundrum in this article. They have developed true breeding potato lines, but now they have to figure out how to market them without people just saving their own seed.

ca.news.yahoo.com/sask-company-seed-idea-revolutionize-120000230.html


Then there is this article about Stevia.
ca.news.yahoo.com/sugar-lost-sweet-spot-paraguayan-plant-upends-market-051346716--finance.html



Just for larks, what if someone moved the gene from Stevia into potato so that potatoes tasted super sweet?

That ought to liven up the board for a few days. Talk about potato seed, talk about using less sugar, and talk about how bad GMO's are for us.

Hey that's us! We're that small company in Saskatchewan working with TPS. But as a correction, we're not too worried about people saving seed, we need to be able to register hybrid TPS varieties in order to sell them on a larger scale.  Currently there is no registration for hybrid TPS varieties in Canada or the US, nor much protection to keep other larger companies from making TPS of the same cross and selling it, which would undermine all our hard work.  But saving seed is not our issue... we're not one of those companies:)  
The varieties that Tom is speaking about are registered clonal varieties, not TPS.  We have exclusive arrangements with the Little Potato Company to produce the clonal varieties we source and/or develop for the small potato and specialty markets.  As Tom mentioned this is not uncommon in the potato world.  TPS is, of course, a whole different ball of wax.  TPS can go a long way to helping put food in hungry mouths.  It would make the most efficient food crop in the world, the potato, vastly more efficient.  That sort of thing can help a lot of people and solve a lot of problems.  So that's why we're doing what we're doing and we applaud the work that Tom does to help make TPS possible.
Thanks for your interest.  We'll try and keep you all updated on our progress.

[Tom Wagner]

Thanks, Joel, that was excellent! Keep in touch.

[DarJones]

Joel, it looks like you are growing potatoes for spuds and by planting two varieties side by side, can also collect large amounts of TPS. From what I can see, this would be viable, unfortunately, not many people have the skills to grow potatoes from seed. Also, how do you test them for adaptation to different climates? I've had tons of problems identifying heat adapted varieties from Tom's lines.

I should send you a sample of this purple skinned potato of Tom's. It is a massive producer of TPS and manages a decent crop of delicious spuds.

[nathanp]

Bejo Sheetal in India appears to be a large scale potato breeder offering TPS in some countries. I inquired awhile back with the VP who neglected to return further emails about availability in the US.

Several of the African members of the Kenosha Potato Project have used their TPS and resell it. One of the ways it is sometimes used is TPS to harvest in the same year.

From Edward Chaora (in Zimbabwe)

we getting bigger sizes from 295, most likely the ones we get from Diamond, I have asked my friend Lovemore Nyakazela to post the tubers were harvested last week from a farmer in Featherstone near Chivhu,acording to our research, 295 can be the answer to our potato seed problems, its cheaper,and the farmer can also retain his own seed bank so he can plant 3 to4 times using the same tubers without having to buy seed everytime he or she wants to grow potatoes,for those in rural area where transport is a problem one can carry 10gms in a pocket,

TPS has big future in developing countries, as they import seed potato tuber at a very high price and also there is not guarantee of timely availability of the potato tubers.

Please contact for free samples and literature on "How to grow Potatoes from TPS"

Bejo Sheetal Seeds Pvt. Ltd..
P.O. Box -77, A-3,Old M.I.D.C..
JALNA - 431 203. M.S (INDIA).

Seedtoday.com article describing some of Bejo's TPS.

[marches]

Oct 21, 2014 2:00:50 GMT -8 stevecrouse said:

Some of the old timers spoke of only eating the potatoes that were next to a crack in the potato house doors because the draft was so cold it sweetened them up.
I prefer the starch flavor, myself.

I prefer the starch flavour too, it pairs well with what I typically eat with potatoes and is a nice 'blank palate' for adding whatever flavours I wanted to.
I don't like the idea of eating sweet chips, sweet mash, etc and I don't like sweet potatoes anyway (that is, the species sweet potatoes / yams).
I suppose breeding sweet actual potatoes with yellow flesh rich in caretinoids could make for a good sweet potato / yam alternative in cooler growing areas where those don't do so well, and they'll probably store better too.

[Tom Wagner]

I suppose breeding sweet actual potatoes with yellow flesh rich in caretinoids could make for a good sweet potato / yam alternative in cooler growing areas

I am not so sure I want to increase sugar content in my breeding work with potatoes and inventorying those as TPS. There is lots of information out on the Internet and some seemingly are contradictory. Jansky and SCRI have pertinent info and as follows...you can read parts of it. The major thing I take away from all this is that my work with phureja potato lines is important if one wants to get flavor, increased glutamates, Umami, etc.

[PDF]Potato Flavor - ResearchGate
www.researchgate.net/...Potato_Flavor/.../0046353b19241c65a8000000....
by SH JANSKY - ‎2010

Potato tubers also contain low levels of sugars such as glucose, fructose, and sucrose, which are not typically considered to directly contribute to taste (Solms and Wyler 1979). In fact, sweetness has historically been considered to be an undesirable flavor component in potatoes (Burton 1966). ....we have found that sweetness of baked potatoes is significantly correlated with desirable flavor (Jansky 2008). Similarly, sucrose and reducing sugar levels have been found to be important factors in determining potato flavor attributes (Vainionpaa et al. 2000). Ribonucleotides act as precursors for flavor potentiators, known as umami compounds, which are associated with desirable flavor.

www.hutton.ac.uk/webfm_send/169

However, potato flavour is not generally given high priority in breeding programmes because flavour is difficult to assess and quantify. As consumer traits such as flavour are becoming much more important to consumers, research at SCRI has started to address what are the main determinants of potato flavour. The basis of much of our work in this area is that tubers from Solanum phureja accessions consistently score better in sensory evaluations than those from Solanum tuberosum. Although there are considerable differences in the volatile compounds produced by cooked tubers from S. phureja and S. tuberosum, potential flavour compounds associated with the potato matrix have received less attention. These compounds define the basic taste parameters, sweet, sour, salty or bitter and also 'umami'. Umami compounds enhance flavour and mouth feel. The most potent umami compounds are glutamic acid and 5’ -ribonucleotides (particularly 5'-guanosine monophosphate, GMP). Glutamate and GMP interact synergistically so a small increase in GMP may lead to a large effect on flavour. In some vegetables (including potato tubers) GMP is produced during cooking, probably due to RNA breakdown. The purpose of this study was to assess the levels of the major umami compounds in boiled potato tubers, in cultivars previously assessed for sensory quality. The free levels of the major umami amino acids, glutamate and aspartate and the 5’-nucleotides, GMP, AMP, were measured in potato samples during the cooking process. Tubers were sampled at several time points during the growing season

The S. phureja accessions studied in this project show a clearly higher level of umami level than S. tuberosum cultivars. In mature tubers this due to a combination of a higher glutamate content and a higher GMP level. Comparison with sensory evaluation panel suggests that there is a correlation between overall acceptability and tuber umami content. We are currently expanding this study to look at a wider range of breeding lines. Our ultimate aim is to understand the factors responsible for the higher umami level in S. phureja tubers.

[DarJones]

There is also the factor that higher sugar content in potatoes results in potatoes that can't be fried. They burn too easily.