Potato Review

www.potatoreview.com POTATO REVIEW SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021 29 NEW VARIETIES A T its market-launch, despite being 12 years old and costing in region of €1million in R&D, the success of new a potato variety still hangs in the balance. For seed and ware growers alike, the risks of growing new varieties are high but so are the potential rewards, according to the growers of new yellow flesh processing variety Babylon. Based on the Mertoun Estate on the Scottish Borders, Peter Shields farms 130 hectares of seed potatoes. “Fundamentally, we’re trying to predict variety trends,” he said. “It takes a little optimism but if we weren’t hopeful, we would never try. “In total we grow 15 or 16 varieties each year, of which one or two will be new. About 50% of those new varieties become commercial options. Those that are rejected aren’t always ‘bad varieties’, sometimes it is simply that they don’t suit the land or the climate here.” Peter says he gets a fair amount of information on new varieties before they come on-farm – a result of the extensive R&D that goes into breeding new varieties - but it still takes two or three years to know whether a variety is going to work. Bablyon is going into its second year and following the farm’s standard trial process for new varieties. “We normally bring in Pb2 stock, multiplying it on for use as commercial plants the following year,” he explains. Last year we grew about 1.5ha of Babylon. It was in a field with some other established varieties and received the same agronomy package. Some was sold to ware growers, for growing on as a ware crop the remainder being kept on farm for further multiplication. This year we are growing 4ha of Babylon in total. “It is in a field of its own this year, so we’ll get a better idea of what it is, and what it isn’t going to do. So far, the variety is looking promising. It has bred reasonably well; numbers were good and it got up to size really quickly. There weren’t any issues with disease, we didn’t see any blackleg for example, and it was relatively easy to kill off which, from a seed growers’ perspective, is a big benefit.” Peter stores harvested crops through until April with the bulk of grading landing in March and April just in time for planting. “Last year, Babylon was in the long-term store. Being a processing variety, ware growers tend to want it just in time for planting so it is a busy time for us, fulfilling orders. Babylon behaved well in store, but we have to be cautious; it’s easy to read too much into this early data. We really need to see it on a larger, scale to understand all its characteristics”. ➜ The early years We find out what’s motivating growers of Babylon, a new yellow flesh processing variety from Agrico, to plant hectares of a potato that is very much finding its feet in the marketplace.