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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fargo, North Dakota » Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center » Sugarbeet and Potato Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #60920
Title: CORRELATING HARVEST-TIME TUBER DAMAGE AND RESPONSE: III. FIELD TESTS OF HARVEST-TIME DAMAGE

Author
item GLYNN, MARTIN - NDSU
item Orr, Paul
item PRESTON, DUANE - U OF MN
item HOFFMAN, V - U OF MN

Submitted to: Valley Potato Grower Magazine
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/1/1995
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: During field tests, an instrumented sphere (IS) was buried in the potato row and harvested along with tubers. After the IS traversed a portion of the harvester, 25 kg sample of tubers from each section of the harvesting equipment was gathered and pulp temperatures taken. Control samples were hand-harvested from the same rows. We assumed sample tubers were not at the same maturity. Samples were transported to the Potato Research Laboratory, separated according to weight (200-399g, 300-400g and greater than 400 g), and divided into two approximately equal batches. One batch was incubated at 18 degrees C for 12 hours to enhance the visibility of bruises, then steam-peeled and evaluated by commercial inspectors for shatterbruise, blackspot, nicks, scrapes and skinning. The second batch of tubers was placed in glass chambers for measurement of CO2 generation/O2 utilization. Larger tubers sustained greater overall damage. The second most influential factor was variety. Temperature had less effect on injury, and on CO2 generation, than did tuber size or variety; but lower temperatures did result in more shatterbruising within variety.