CHELLAN potatoes

[Tom Wagner]

One year ago ...November 2011...I dug a single hill of potatoes from a TPS seedling of a cross of Chellah and one of my experimental types. It had great blight resistance then (NOW TOO) and it had a great appearing group of white tubers.

From that single hill...I was able to plant about thirty hills and now have one hundred pounds. Not a bad increase. The one tuber I ate had a high gravity and a great flavor for a white potato variety. I have berries from it and a cross or two as well. I am hoping to plant about 1000 hills of it next spring.

Here is a picture of CHELLAN

[DarJones]

Tom, Iirc, that was one we discussed a couple of months ago. You might consider letting a couple of people trial it in different climates to see how it performs. I will have to look, but that may be one of the varieties you let me keep a tuber from.

I might add that the yield looks EXCELLENT!

DarJones

[graybell]

Dar you must have some great potato growing soil down there. BTW I have about five gallons of that glass gem corn, if you need any.

[DarJones]

We had a better than average year here on NorthWest Alabama. I dug the Chellan potatoes today and harvested about 150 pounds off a 35 foot row. That is comparable to and maybe a bit better than Kennebec. What impressed me today was the number of large potatoes. This was in comparison with last year when they were mostly small to medium size. Here are the good and bad traits I see:

1. Makes a large plant with relatively few problems from pests and diseases
2. Production is in the good to excellent range
3. Flavor is good to excellent when fried or baked
4. Harvest is relatively easy, all the potatoes are closely located under the plant

1. Not good for new potatoes, has an off whang flavor
2. Makes a large number of smaller potatoes, would prefer to make just a few mostly large spuds
3. My stock is currently infected with one of the leaf mottle viruses
4. tends to have a lot of lumps and bumps on the surface, origin is genetic
5. Somewhat susceptible to nematodes.

Overall, I would say this is an excellent potato for growing in my climate. It is medium to long season with dry down in early July.

I collected a pocket full of mature berries as I was harvesting. I'll clean the seed and see if anything interesting pops up next year.

[Tom Wagner]

Large tubers is the most obvious benefit. It is an excellent source for getting larger tubers into the mix of potato genetics.

[marches]

Looked up Chellah, they look interesting. Do Chellan have additional disease resistance or any other species in them?

[nathanp]

CHELLAN is a cross of Chellah.....a fairly new Irish bred potato and a un-named seedling that had great late blight resistance. I kept the two L's as Chellah has two L's and to distinguish the name from Chelan....the town and lake in central Washington. CHELLAN was a first year seedling hill during the 2011 season and the tubers of the hill were cut to make 32 hills fr 2012. I have been impressed with this clone for many reasons....the vigor, the yield, the late blight res, and the wonderful white tubers it produces. I think it is much better than the parents in nearly every respect.

Info from Tom's post at Tomatoville

For parentage of Chellah, see this link:

link

[Tom Wagner]

In order to estimate some genetic traits or at least some obvious strengths and weakness of the CHELLAH potato variety which was the female parent of CHELLAN....I am quoting part of the European Potato Database info on Chellah.

If you read down the list you will find an number of good traits that have likely have been passed on to CHELLAN. Some late blight res, some virus X res, etc. But the one thing that bothers me is the lack of resistance to virus Y. I suspect this virus is in my tuber lines already and I am hoping the TPS I have has some outcrossing to something that has some resistance. As Darrel indicated....no nematode resistance.

The male parent of CHELLAN is a Russet type crossed with a Peruvian clone. As I recall it did not have any russeting at all.

After observing what virus Y susceptibility did to Cal White in California nearly 25 years ago, I have been acutely aware of the need to have virus Y tolerance in order to have sustainability in keeping tubers going year after year without certification measures.

Berries Rare to occasional [13]
Flower colour Red violet [13]
Flower frequency Occasional [13]
Foliage cover Moderate to good [13]
Growth habit Spreading to semi erect [13]
Light sprout colour Pink [13]
Maturity Late [13]
TUBER CHARACTERISTICS
Primary tuber flesh colour Cream [13]
Tuber eye colour Yellow [13]
Tuber eye depth Shallow to medium [13]
Tuber shape Oval [13]
Tuber skin colour White to yellow [13]
Tuber skin texture Smooth [13]
TUBERING CHARACTERISTICS
Dormancy period Medium [13]
Resistance to external damage Moderate to resistant [13]
Resistance to internal bruising Medium [13]
Tuber shape uniformity Medium [13]
UTILISATION CHARACTERISTICS
After cooking blackening Trace to little [13]
Cooking type / 411 Cooked texture Fairly firm (multi-purpose type) to firm (salad type) [13]
Dry matter content Medium to high [13]
Frying colour Pale to medium [13]
RESISTANCE TO FUNGAL DISEASES
Resistance to gangrene (Phoma foveata) High [13]
Resistance to late blight on foliage(Laboratory test) Medium to high [13]
Resistance to late blight on tubers(Laboratory test) Medium to high [13]
Wart (Synchytrium endobioticum) Field immune [13]
RESISTANCE TO BACTERIAL DISEASES
Resistance to blackleg (Erwinia spp.) Medium [13]
Resistance to common scab Medium to high [13]
RESISTANCE TO VIRUS DISEASES
Resistance to potato leaf roll virus Medium [13]
Resistance to potato virus X Medium to high [13]
Resistance to potato virus Y (strain not specified) Low [13]
RESISTANCE TO PESTS
Resistance to Globodera pallida race 1 Very low to low [13]
Resistance to Globodera pallida race 2 Very low to low [13]
Resistance to Globodera rostochiensis race 1 Low [13]

[DarJones]

I read several articles on PVY and found a couple of interesting tidbits. Resistance is primarily from Andigenum and Stoloniferum and is highly linked with male fertility. It should be relatively easy to make crosses with resistant stock because resistant lines tend to be good pollen sources.

[Tom Wagner]

That would certainly be important since I have I increasingly used paternally linked andigena materials and crosses.

[marches]

What's of like during boiling?

[Tom Wagner]

Because of the high gravity of Chellan, boiling is not one of the better uses for it. HG potatoes tend to slough off (rupture, separate) when boiled