Effect of variety and harvest date on tuber sugars and chip color

The major tuber sugars—glucose, fructose and sucrose — in tubers of the Red Pontiac, Kennebec and Monona potato varieties harvested five times during the 1970 growing season were determined quantitatively by a gas-liquid Chromatographic technique. Also, chips were made from tubers and chip color was measured objectively and reported as Rd values. Red Pontiac tubers produced the darkest-colored chips (Rd-15.5), and its tubers tended to accumulate the highest levels of the three sugars. The major difference between Monona, which produced chips with the lightest color (Rd-21.1), and Kennebec (Rd-19.5) was the very low level of glucose found in the tubers of Monona. Varieties produced chips lightest in color at the second (8/31) or third (9/15) harvest dates. Conversely, darkest-colored chips were obtained from each variety at the fourth harvest date (9/28). This was attributed to the cool, wet weather. Sugar content also varied during the harvesting schedule. Glucose content changed little until late in the season when an increase occurred. Fructose tended to decline until the final harvest when a distinct increase was obtained. Sucrose declined significantly through the third harvest, but changed little thereafter.