Selection of Canadian potato clones for agronomic and fry quality traits

Resumo

The demand for cultivars suitable for processing, especially as frozen French fries, is increasing in Brazil. The Canadian expertise is high regarding the development of cultivars with processing characteristics; however, the growing conditions in Canada are quite different from those observed in Brazil. Thus, the aim of this work was to evaluate the performance of Canadian potato clones for their tuber yield, fry quality, plant vigor, and plant cycle, as potential new cultivars or to be used as a new source of variability to crosses. The experiments were conducted in Pelotas-RS and Canoinhas-SC, Brazil, in spring of 2017. A set of 12 advanced Canadian potato clones from the Centre de Recherche Les Buissons, QB, Canada, were compared to three control cultivars used for processing. A randomized complete block design with three replicates, with two rows of 20 plants each per plot was used. Tuber yield, fry quality, plant vigor, and plant cycle traits were evaluated. Data were submitted to analysis of variance and grouping of means, and selection gains. It was verified that is possible to select genotypes with higher tuber yield and better fry quality, but it is difficult to add also a short cycle and less vigorous plants. In an attempt to select productive genotypes, with good fry quality, a not so long cycle, and vigor at least equivalent to the control cultivars, clones 15 and 16 were the best at both sites.