Project Number: 500-42-001-61
Project Type: Grant

Start Date: May 03, 2004
End Date: May 02, 2005

Objective:
To develop methods that will enable growers to exert more stringent control over tuber size development and overall productivity of a given seedlot.

Approach:
Continue to develop and validate our current predictive models, based on markers of physiological age, for estimating the yield potentials of RR, RB and UR seed lots prior to, or after planting; define stem number/tuber set relationships for Norkotah Russet (NR) selections; develop productivity markers and management techniques that can be used by the fresh market industry to predict and control tuber number and size; elucidate the metabolic pathway(s) by which the butanols increase in seed during aging, improve the analytical procedures for butanol markers, and develop rapid assay techniques for evaluating large quantities of seed for use by industry; define how management of seed prior to harvest affects subsequent aging in storage to dictate productivity the following season, and determine the extent to which production techniques (e.g. seed spacing) can be manipulated to alter the predicted tuber size profile and overall yield of a particular seed lot in relation to various market requirements.

Project Team

Bennett, A. Rick Richard Knowles - Professor 301-504-6915

Related National Programs

Plant Diseases (303)   Crop Protection & Quarantine (304)