Accumulation of sugars in microtubers of potato node cuttings (cv. Kennebec) during cold storage

Summary Microtubers of potato cultivar Kennebec were stored for two months at 2 or 8°C and sampled at selected intervals for the determination of glucose, fructose, sucrose and sprout weight. The aim of this experiment was to determine whether these microtubers show the same response to storage temperature with respect to sweetening as field grown tubers. During storage at 2 °C, reducing sugars and sucrose increased rapidly to a concentration of over 1.0 and 0.7 g/100 g fresh weight, respectively. In contrast, in tubers kept at 8°C, only a relatively slight increase in reducing sugar concentration to 0.3 g/100 g fresh weight was observed and sucrose concentration remained virtually the same.