POTATO VARIETY PERFORMANCE ALASKA 1986

Abstract

A comparative yield trial with 44 named varieties and numbered selections of potatoes was conducted at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station’s (AFES) Palmer Research Center during the 1986 growing season. This yield trial is the continuation of a potato variety testing program initiated in 1982. The trial again was conducted at the Matanuska Research Farm, located on Trunk Road near Palmer. Nonirrigated trials have been conducted each year beginning in 1982, but irrigated trials were not initiated until 1985. Results of previous trials are recorded in Circulars 49 and 54, available at the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station offices in Fairbanks and Palmer. As in past years, varieties with long production histories in Alaska (Alaska 114, Bakeking, Green Mountain, Kennebec, Superior) are included and serve as a comparative base for newly developed varieties or older varieties that in the past have escaped testing at this location. Varieties that compare favorably with the above listed standards may warrant some consideration by commercial growers. In continuance of a program that was initiated in 1985, abbreviated versions of the AFES potato yield trial were conducted at locations in various parts of the state. These off-station trials again were made possible by the willingness of cooperators to plant, tend and harvest the crop. The seven off-station sites include several where comparative testing of potato varieties has not been reported previously.