The development of the potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) processing industry has been limited in Brazil, because of the low availability of tubers with adequate quality. High dry matter, responsible for chips with low oil content and crispy consistency, and low reduced sugars, keep chips with light color, are necessary for high quality processing products. The objective was to identify potato clones with high processing quality based upon the evaluation of tubers produced under spring 2003 and autumn 2004 grown seasons at Santa Maria, RS, Brazil. The experiment was conducted in a factorial (15 clones and two grown seasons) in a complete random design with four replications. The clones Dakota Rose, SMINIAIporã, SMIJ461-1, SMIJ319-1, SMIJ456-4Y, SMID040-4RY, SMIE040-6RY, SMIC148-A, SMIF165-6RY, SMIH095-1, SMINIA90244-1, SMINIA793101-3, SMINIA95043-11, Macaca and Asterix were evaluated in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul (RS) State, during spring 2003 and autumn 2004 grown seasons. The environmental conditions during grown season affected the postharvest quality of tubers. The clones SMIJ461-1, SMIJ319-1, SMIJ456-4Y, SMIC148-A, SMIDO40-4RY and SMIH095-1 had the highest processing quality, even better than Asterix cultivated for tablestock or chip processing in different potato production regions. Different environmental conditions of temperature and sunshine, common between spring and autumn grown seasons of RS, had little effect in the processing quality performance of SMIDO40-4RY and SMIH095-1 clones. The clones SMIJ461-1 and SMIJ456-4Y had the highest dry matter content and the lightest chip color during the spring grown conditions.
Solanum tuberosum; dry matter; reduced sugars; total polyphenols; starch
