Abstract:
For potato, diploid hybrid breeding is a novel breeding technique that speeds up the
development of new varieties. A consequence of hybrid breeding is the introduction
of hybrid true potato seeds as starting material. From these seeds, seedling tubers
can be produced in one field season, to use as starting material for a seed or a ware
crop in the following year. For breeding purposes as well as for seed crop and ware
crop production, it is essential to produce seedling tubers of high quality. The pro-
duction of seedling tubers is a new step in the potato production chain; therefore, we
investigated the effect of tuber quality traits on plant development and yield. With
similar seedling tuber weight, more eyes per seedling tuber led to more stems per
plant. This was compensated by a lower number of tubers per stem, resulting in an
equal total tuber number and weight per plant at the end of the growing season. A
higher seedling tuber weight led to a higher soil cover in the field. Hybrid potato
plants grown from larger seedling tubers produced a greater total tuber weight per
plant than plants grown from smaller tubers, while number of eyes and stems per
tuber had no effect on final yield when using equal seedling tuber weight
Authors: Julia E. Stockem, Merijn D. Bus, Michiel E. de Vries & Paul C. Struik