Huckleberry Gold potato variety

[Tom Wagner]

Huckleberry Gold known previously as
A99326-1PY
Parents are….
Agria x COA94019-5R

I was invited to give a peer review for this variety about to be published.

Invitation to Peer Review #AJPR-D-13-00090
American Journal of Potato Research

I was flattered in being selected for such an honor but did not know how to navigate the site. I am late in even doing this post but so bit by bit I am doing it now.

Fresh cut Huckleberry Gold potato variety



Microwaved Huckleberry Gold



potatoes.wsu.edu/trials/2010/REDSPEC/RedSpec%20PDFs/A99326-1PY.pdf

It did well enough here in the Seattle area. The skin was not as smooth as I would like…since blue, purple, violet and red potato skin is better if dug a bit early as to not allow the maturing tubers to get rough flakey skin and loose some of the brightness of color.

It had a sensory mouth feel as less solid than a Yukon Gold and the flesh color a bit lighter than it too.
The flavor was good but our tuber samples had gotten a bit green due the storage of the tubers not in the best condition.
I especially like the fact that our breeding work with Huckleberry Gold was used as a female with a cross from my Nordic October. The hybrid seed will throw red skin and violet purple skin…light yellow flesh to white flesh and smoother skin by far. The TPS will be sown in the winter greenhouses near San Diego soon.
Wish I could say more, but I am looking forward to this variety being offered to the industry. My impression is that Agria was a good choice in the cross. Agria is a good flavored potato and one of the best out of Europe. I don’t know too much about the male line but that it is a red skin..white flesh selection bred in Colorado and selected in Idaho. Agria has some purple pigments in the sprouts and that contributed the purple skin in the hybrid.

The outstanding cyst nematode resistance is outstanding to have in a new release...and so is the virus X resistance.



I have a twenty five year collection of TPS that has a simlar color as Huckleberry Gold.  Maybe I will dust off that seed this winter and grow some mini tubers to plant out next season.

[verdeperto]

Agria is unquestionably one of the preferred varieties in Europe but the bibliography always states it is both pollen infertile and incapable of producing berries...

[Tom Wagner]

Agria is unquestionably one of the preferred varieties in Europe but the bibliography always states it is both pollen infertile and incapable of producing berries...

No question about it being a preferred variety...wish it could be here in the states but the early production years ago in California failed to produce US#1's due to pear shaped tubers...and our standards are not forgiving to off shapes of any kind. Too bad, Agria deserved an exception to the grade standards.

Exactly because of the sterility issues of Agria is why making hybrids with it are easy...no fear of self pollination! Just on the potato pedigree lookup...there are over 75 varieties in which Agria is one of the parents and countless grand offspring as well. Agria is the new Katahdin in terms of how many varieties it is creating. If I ever get a way to promote my seedling tubers into the official releases...sigh!

[nathanp]

Are the sterility issues inherited if you use it as a parent?

[Tom Wagner]

Are the sterility issues inherited if you use it as a parent?

Yes, but there could be exceptions...not going there till I get more data.

The first introduction of potatoes into Europe were likely a different cytoplasm from the andigena tuberosum series of Peru and not the tuberosum of Chile. Below is a blurb from an Ozette story.
A

second introduction took place, in 1861 in the form of Rough Purple Chili, a clone obtained by the reverend Chauncey Goodrich of New York State. The cultivars Russet Burbank and Early Rose were derived from this and the latter has had a pervasive ancestral contribution to potatoes bred in the late 1800’s and the following century (Bryan et al. 1999). It has been assumed that “Rough Purple Chili” originated from the in the long-day adapted Tuberosum of Chile. Today potatoes extant in the long day temperate or highland tropical areas of the world outside of the Andes resemble Chilean potato Group Tuberosum. The most important genetic marker supporting this is in the chloroplast genome in which a 242 bp deletion is shared by the Chilean potato and all non-Andean potatoes (denoted T-cytoplasm). As a consequence two theories of the origin of potato diaspora have existed for decades. One purports that central Andean potato was taken to Europe whereupon it evolved into a long day adapted form and has spread widely throughout the world. The conversion to the Chilean chloroplast genome is explained as occurring later when Chilean potato became the sole cytoplasmic donor, perhaps mainly due to the introduction of Rough Purple Chili into the breeding pool. The T-cytoplasm is often associated with male sterility, ensuring maintenance of the original maternal line

I've talked about this issue here on this forum over three years ago and the benefit of using varieties such as Lumper which does not have the cms problem.

I wanted to keep the cytoplasm of the Lumper alive and well dispersed in the potato varieties available to the world. The X-type cytoplasm is very rare and represents the old Solanum andigena like background that predates the T-Type cytoplasm that represents 85% of most modern potatoes

If one follows Agria back to each of the female parents way back you come to Clivia which also has a habit of not producing berries and whose pollen fertility is low. Clivia's female parent was a seedling number and no information is on record of its connection to the Early Rose or not. Just how that 242 bp deletion works is beyond me. But needless to say is that sometimes a mutation is advantageous as all the offspring will have to be outcrossers and hybrids. That amounted to be big plus for the potato hobbyist in the old days to simply collect berries from a sterile variety that obviously was crossed. I know for a fact that a variety that selfs itself loses lots of vigor in the progeny..and in potatoes selfing is not in its evolutionary advantage.

[verdeperto]

Thanks Tom, as always, for the input. You are truly a lighthouse in these matters. At least for people like me, it makes a tremendous difference to have a background like yours. I learn thrice as fast... and don't you ever forget that you are also breeding breeders.

And also, might I be so bold and blunt to add, don´t you dare sigh, for even though your selections are still not accessible to everyone, in a "near future", when tracking the parents of those "near future" varieties, some of them will surely read: Bred by Tom Wagner... anyway you put it Tom, your legacy (both genetic and pedagogic) will endure the test of time.

As for Agria... what could we improve? Which varieties would you cross it with, and why?

[DarJones]

There are three forms of incompatibility available to plant breeders:

Cytoplasmic male sterility results in failure to mature pollen, usually as a result of cellular dysfunction at the megasporocyte stage of meiosis. The cytoplasm contains various types of organelles such as chloroplasts as well as structures that transport, convert, and metabolize nutrients.

Self incompatibility is when a specific gene in nuclear dna prevents a matching gene from merging with the ovule. This is usually associated with failure of a pollen tube to grow properly in order to reach the egg. The best example is the S gene which affects several wild species of tomato.

Dichogamy usually occurs in plants that have separate male and female flowers. Corn for example exhibits partial dichogamy with pollen release usually occurring between 5 and 7 days differential from silk maturity. The result is that corn is more likely to cross pollinate than to self pollinate.

[verdeperto]

Thank you snickeringbear, I have been going through the old threads scavenging information... it really helps when someone sums it up like you did.

[duncan nelson new zealand]

my daughter is living in New York, and would like to find a new York equivalent to agria which we have in nz. can you recommend one?
thanks Duncan

[Tom Wagner]

Duncan,

The equivalent of Agria? That is a tall order.

Just because you daughter lives in New York doesn't guarantee her lots of choices. Especially if she relies on the farmer's markets or grocery stores as a source. I took a quick look at the varieties certified for New York and it would seem Carola, Satina, Juliette, and a few other lines might be candidates to try. Agria is frowned upon here in the states for making too many pear shaped tubers knocking down the U.S. No. 1's grade.

Growers in New York certainly can obtain potato varieties from elsewhere but below is a list that pinpoints what has been suggested for the state since they have been certified within the state which indicates some degree of acceptance by growers there.

POTATO VARIETIES & SELECTIONS New York (state)
ENTERED FOR CERTIFICATION IN 2013

Adirondack Blue
Adirondack Red
Alegria
All Blue
AmaRosa
Amey
Andover
Austrian Crescent
Bake-King
Banana
Butte
Carola
Cascada
Castile
CF7523-1
Chieftain
Chippewa
Daisy Gold
Early Ohio
Eva
French Fingerling
Genesee
German Butterball
Goldfinger
Goldrush
HZ-99-482
Juliette
Katahdin
Kennebec
Keuka Gold
King Harry
La Ratte
Lamoka
Lehigh
Marcy
Merlot
Modoc
Musica
NorDonna
Norland
NY79
NY115
NY118
NY136
NY140
NY141
Papa Cacho
Parella
Peter Wilcox
Purple 5
Purple Pelisse
Purple Peruvian
Reba
Red LaSoda#10
Red Maria
Red Pontiac
Red Sunset
Red Thumb
Salem
Sassy
Satina
Sebago
Sifra
Snowden
Soraya
Superior
US Blue
Waneta
Yukon Gold