A P R I L 2 0 1 8 10 POTATO GROWER 2017 Summary Of Advanced Fresh Market Potato Trial Crystal, North Dakota by Dr. Asunta (Susie) Thompson, NDSU Potato Breeder The Northern Plains potato produc- tion areas of North Dakota and Minnesota produce potatoes for all markets, including tablestock, chip and frozen processing, and seed. About 16% of production is for tablestock, primarily red skinned and a few yellow skinned cultivars with yellow flesh. Norland selec- tions (Red and Dark Red) are pre- dominant, but fresh pack operations ship Red LaSoda, Sangre, and Yukon Gold amongst others. All have shortcomings, such as the lack of uniform color for the Norland selec- tions, hollow heart in Yukon Gold and the propensity for it to become oversized, or the patchy russetted skin that often develops on Sangre. Growers and packers of fresh market potatoes are interested in bright red skin color that is retained through storage, disease resistance particu- larly to ‘cosmetic’ diseases such as silver scurf and black dot, and of course high yield potential using minimal inputs. Additionally, there is more interest in cultivars that pos- sess a smaller overall tuber size pro- file, or those that may have unique skin and/or flesh colors for specialty marketing. In order to identify and develop superior cultivars, the potato breed- ing program as part of the North Dakota State University (NDSU) potato improvement team conducts hybridizing, selection, evaluation, and cultivar development activities across North Dakota and western Minnesota. In 2017, field research trials were grown at eight sites, five irrigated (Inkster, Larimore, Oakes, and Williston, North Dakota, and at Park Rapids, Minnesota) and three non-irrigated locations (Crystal, Grand Forks, and Hoople, North Dakota). These trials are important in identifying selections with high yield potential, disease and pest resistance, stress tolerance, low input requirements, and consumer quality attributes for fresh market and processing genotypes. The fresh market trials were grown near Crystal, North Dakota, in 2017; Dave and Andy Moquist (O.C. Schulz) hosted the trials as in previ- ous years. Unlike the 2016 trials which were lost to flooding and seed piece decay, the 2017 trials were outstanding and we were able to obtain excellent results. The trials included our preliminary fresh market trial, the North Central Regional Trial (non-irrigated), and the advanced fresh market trial. Many of these advancing trial entries had high set and excellent red skin color, two important char- acteristics for the fresh market; addi- tionally, several had good yellow flesh color combined with bright red skin color. This report summa- rizes the results in Tables 1-3 from the Advanced Fresh Market Potato Trial. Thirty advancing fresh market selec- tions and commercially acceptable cultivars were included in the trial planted on May 12. The field plot design was a randomized complete block with four replicates; cultural practices typical of the growing area and non-irrigated potato produc- tion were used during the growing