Blazer Russet Potato Wins Top Reviews

Versatile and delicious, Blazer Russetpotato is one of the newest graduates of the potato-breeding program ofuniversity and Agricultural ResearchService scientists in the Pacific and Intermountain West. This potato iswell-suited for fresh-market sale or for potato processors to make into frozenpotato products.

The oblong, medium-to-large Blazer Russet tubers each average about 7 to 8ounces. They have the characteristic light netting, called russeting, on theirbrown-to-tan skin, with firm, cream-white or white flesh inside.

Potato growers and processors in western states worked with ARS potatobreeders and their University ofIdaho, Washington State University andOregon State University colleagues to putthe tuber through nearly two decades of rigorous laboratory, field andtest-kitchen scrutiny before the decision was made in December 2005 to makethis experimental potato a named variety. Until that time, Blazer Russet wasknown simply by its breeder number, A8893-1.

According to ARS potato breeder and plant geneticistRichardG. Novy, potato processors are viewing Blazer Russet as a promisingreplacement for Shepody, a potato that is widely grown in the United States.

Both Blazer Russet and Shepody are ready to harvest earlier than otherleading potatoes, meaning that the two russets can replenish dwindling suppliesof potatoes remaining in cold storage from the previous harvest. But BlazerRusset provides higher yields of premium potatoes, known as U.S. No. 1, thanShepody, according to Novy. He is based at theARSSmall Grains and Potato Germplasm Research Unit in Aberdeen, Idaho.

ARS scientists Dennis L. Corsini and Joseph J. Pavek, both now retired,selected the parent potatoes for today's Blazer Russet in 1988. In tests thatfollowed, Blazer Russet plants typically outproduced even America's potatoidol, Russet Burbank.

Blazer Russet is one of a series of superior potatoes from a regionalcollaboration among ARS and university scientists known as theNorthwestPotato Variety Development Program.

ARS is the U.S. Department ofAgriculture's chief scientific research agency.