Potato Review

48 POTATO REVIEW NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019 VARIETIES Next up was a bold, attractive sample of Spectra which is being pitched at the premium prepack/baker market. ‘ is one has been around for a couple of years but we’re just starting to see a reasonable amount of seed in the UK. It’s a white variety with dry matter around 18%. We have it on trial at Manor Fresh in commercial volumes with some yields coming out at over 82 tonnes per hectare and a 65% baker fraction. “Last season Spectra produced a massive percentage [of tubers] that tted the 62– 75mm bracket and when you talk about the UK packing business you are really looking at four-baker trays. is variety has the right shape so it ts that trade perfectly and it’s a medium-term storage variety for use after Christmas as a Melody-type replacement. It doesn’t have all-singing, all-dancing resistance but it’s a high yielding variety that comes out extremely well in taste panels.” Last but not least on Alex Moore’s quick guide were two varieties for the French fry sector . “Babylon is basically Agria plus 10% on yield, blackleg and storability and then we have Lugano. is is the one everyone is talking about, particularly in the chipping world. It has dual PCN resistance and it’s a low dormancy variety which was stored until July this year. It’s a UK variety to start with but we think that other countries may catch on. It has a good shape for the processing market where a lot of land is highly infested having grown Maris Piper for years and then Markies. “Yields in our trials have not been massive but when we manage to get pallida resistance into a variety you tend to lose something else, though Lugano is three to four weeks earlier than Markies so you’re getting the size and dry matter earlier. e crop here is going into the fresh chip market and we have great hopes for the variety.” British market potential Craig Stephen is commercial sales manager for Solana Seeds UK. On his trials site at Coldham Hall near Wisbech he picked out some of the parent company’s German-bred varieties which are showing potential for British markets. e rst was Edison, billed is a high yielding French fry/ sh and chip variety, though early indications suggest that it could also be used as a crisper. “ is one is a Markies type for the bag trade which is proving to be a good all-rounder with many of the virtues of Maris Piper about it,” he said. Edison is drought resistant, bold yet very uniform, with long oval tubers and light yellow esh and ‘exceptional’ taste. It does not have pallida resistance but it scores well on foliar and tuber blight with low susceptibility to bruising. Craig’s second selection was an early maincrop variety described as being suitable for crisps or mash, with the bene t of ‘outstanding’ resistance to PCN. “Rossini is a Lady Rosetta type,” Craig explained. “We’ve not done a lot of work with it yet but we feel that it might be a bit earlier than Rosetta.” e variety produces round oval tubers with light yellow esh and has shown good levels of tolerance to bruising, blackleg and tuber blight, he added. Next on Craig’s list was 7Four7, a high yielder with a white esh which produces a big baker fraction. It is said to be resistant to tuber blight and has rostochiensis resistance but not pallida. As the name suggests it produces very bold tubers and Solana accepts that there is an element of concern about potential oversize. Craig recommended careful nitrogen management having seen the variety in trials with reduced rates but he thought seed spacing should also an important consideration. ➜ “Lugano is the one everyone is talking about, particularly in the chipping world. It has dual PCN resistance and it’s a low dormancy variety.” Spectra Babylon Lugano Edison Rossini 7four7