By Frank Giles
Faculty and staff of the Hastings Agricultural Extension Center were excited to host growers in-person for its 2022 spring field day in April. The event has been on hiatus the past two years due to COVID-19.
Much of the tour focused on potato production, which is a significant crop in the Tri-County region of Florida. Stops focused on potato nutrient studies currently underway. One stop featured a new potato breeding program being initiated by the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS).
There are about 25,000 acres of potato grown in Florida. The state’s sub-tropical environment presents unique challenges compared to other potato growing regions in the United States.
The UF/IFAS potato breeding program will develop cultivars adapted for Florida’s climate and soils. The program will take the best-adapted potato clones and use them as parents to create new selections.
“We have been planning for almost two years to get infrastructure and collaboration in place for the breeding program,” said Marcio Resende, a plant breeder with UF/IFAS. “This is really the first year that we are initiating the program. Why are we doing this? Most of the potato breeding programs are in the northern part of the country. Florida is a unique environment. The hope is having our own program and evaluations, we can identify and select the traits we need here.”
The breeding program has a specific focus on the following traits — yield, tuber bulking rate, tuber specific gravity, resistance to internal defects, tuber size and shape and disease resistance.
