Porter talks to BDN about developing new potato varieties
Greg Porter, a professor of agronomy at the University of Maine, spoke with the Bangor Daily News for an article about what it takes to develop new potato varieties. For the last eight years, Porter has led UMaine’s potato breeding program, looking for the right combination of consumer marketability and disease and pest resistance, according to the article. Porter, who also has run the university’s agronomic crop management program for 30 years, said it can take more than a decade to develop a new potato variety. Every spring, Porter’s staff plants 50,000 tubers, or modified stems, in test plots in Aroostook County, each one representing a different genetic variation of a cross-pollination. Of the 50,000, he said, only 2 percent make it to the next round of planting based largely on visual characteristics. According to Porter, there is no end to the possibilities when it comes to combining different potato DNA. “The neat thing about potatoes is there are just so many different markets and ways to use new and improved potatoes,” he said. “On the one side we try to provide solutions to pests and diseases like late blight, and on the other side we want a potato that farmers and consumers want.”