Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1500787
36 POTATO GROWER | JUNE 2023 Seed Potato Workshop Proves Highly Valuable Attendees came from several potato-producing states, one province Montana Seed Potato Certification Program By Nina Zidack, Director How can U.S. seed potato certifica- tion programs address the increasing demand for dormant tuber testing as an alternative to current postharvest test methods? This was the underlying question that drove the mission of a workshop on dormant tuber testing methods that was held April 4-5 and hosted by Wisconsin Seed Potato Certification at the Univer- sity of Wisconsin Institute for Discovery on the University of Wisconsin campus. The workshop was sponsored by the Certification Section of the Potato Asso- ciation of America, and the USDA Spe- cialty Crop Research Initiative project on necrotic viruses of potato. Additional support was provided by Agdia Inc., Promega and Thermo Fisher Scientific. The University of Wisconsin Institute for Discovery served as the perfect location for this workshop. We had the run of a state-of-the art biotech teaching lab that allowed 45 participants a hands-on expe- rience. In this environment, everyone was able to roll up their sleeves and participate in the actual performance of different tuber testing methods. Informational sessions were led by seed potato certifi- cation personnel and researchers from the University of Wisconsin, Cornell, Montana State University and the University of Idaho. Attendees included staff from seed certification programs in Nebraska, Oregon, Montana, Colora- do, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Idaho, Maine, Michigan and Alberta, Canada. USDA- APHIS and ARS staff were also on hand. The postharvest test is the definitive measure by which seed potato quality is measured by certification agencies. In the United States, it has traditionally been a field test performed in either a tropical or desert location, or in green- houses. Depending on the state pro- gram, visual inspections are performed, leaf samples are collected and tested for virus in tandem or as stand-alone tests. Over the past 40 years, emphasis has been placed on assessing infection levels of PVY, but information gathered on varietal mixtures, herbicide injury and physiological disorders is also gathered and provides important information for both re-certification and commercial seed sales. While a field grow-out is ad- vantageous due to the broad spectrum of diseases and disorders that can be as- sessed in one test, it can be fraught with catastrophic weather events and scarce land availability. It is a time-consuming process with planting in November and results collected mid-January at the earliest. In Europe, dormant tuber testing is the dominant method for postharvest evaluation. Through my work with the UNECE Specialized Section on Standardization of Seed Potatoes, I have had the opportunity to visit tuber testing facilities in both the Netherlands and Switzerland. European seed potato programs have invested heavily in robot- ics for tuber tissue extraction and PCR, and demonstrate that high-through- put testing for multiple pathogens is possible. The Wisconsin workshop had a lecture/discussion component, but more importantly, provided a hands-on op- The postharvest test is the definitive measure by which seed potato quality is measured by certification agencies.