HEALTH STATUS AND RECOVERY OF POTATO CV. EARLY ROSE

Early Rose is an old American potato cultivar selected from the seedlings of self-fertilized cv.
Garnet chilli by Albert Breesee.
It was commercially introduced in 1857. This cultivar was widely grown under a variety of names (Mesecar, Rani ruzevac, Rani roznik, Amerikaner) until 1960s, when new, highly-bearing cultivars were introduced.
Its low bearing was due to degenerative changes.
In Serbia, this cultivar is, under the name Mesecar, well known because of its exceptional quality and it can be found as a kind of rarity at a much higher price, if compared to the other cultivars.
Therefore, considerable efforts are being made to improve the plant health status, especially for potato viruses which could lead to degenerative changes and lower crops.
A selected clone was tested by ELISA and the following viruses were detected: PVY, PVX, PLRV, PAV, PMV, PSV. The cleaning up of infected clone was carried out by means of thermotherapy and tissue culture.
By repeated testing, a healthy line was selected and further micropropagated in vitro in order to gain basic, virus-free material.
In this way, the basis for a more complex study of genetic potential in this cultivar was created.

I Balkan Symposium On Vegetables and Potatoes

M. Rankovic, R. Ðurðina, P. Svetlana

Potato, thermotherapy, meristem culture, virus-free plants, microtuberization

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1997.462.53