Red Pearl: A New Gourmet Red Potato Variety

American Journal of Potato Research, May/Jun 2004 by Groza, H I, Bowen, B D, Kichefski, D, Peloquin, S J, Jiang, J

Red Pearl was found to be resistant to bacterial wilt and brown rot under the natural infection conditions in Hastings, Florida (Peter Weingartner, unpublished). Red Pearl showed a significantly higher resistance to corky ring spot than Dark Red Norland, both externally (0.0% tubers vs 21.7%) and internally (0.0% tubers vs 22.4%) under field conditions in Florida (Peter Weingartner, unpublished).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Dr. David Douches, Michigan State University, for establishing the isozyme identity of Red Pearl. We are grateful to Geraldine Haberlach and Drs. Walter Stevenson, Douglas Rouse, Shelley Jansky, and Peter Weingartner for testing the disease resistances. Red Pearl was grown under the Wisconsin certification program since 1992. Since then Red Pearl has been grown by Wisconsin seed growers. Tissue culture plantlets are maintained in the seed Certification Programs in Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, New York and Wisconsin. Seed Class B is available from Steve Myers, Summit Farms, Colorado. A small quantity of breeding seed is available from Rhinelander Agricultural Research Station, Wisconsin. The Wisconsin potato breeding program is financially supported by USDA/CSREES, the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association, Robert Draper Technology Innovation Fund (UW), and Hatch funds (UW).

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