Potato grows during spring and autumn conditions in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. These contrasting conditions may affect dry matter, reduced sugars, starch and amylase contents and chip color. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of spring and fall growth conditions in the expression of processing quality traits to develop breeding strategies to maximize the selection gain and facilitate the identification of potato clones with high processing potential. The experiment was a factorial of 21 clones and two growth seasons in the complete random design, with three replications. Tubers were produced during spring 2006 and fall 2007 growth seasons and evaluated for dry mass, reduced sugars, starch and amylase contents and chip color. Spring growth conditions maximized the gain from selection for reduced sugars, chip color, starch and amylase. Similar selection gain for dry mass was found in spring and fall seasons. The distinct environmental conditions of spring and fall did affect the selection gain and resulted in different groups of superior clones. The clones SMA508-2, SMA508-4 and SMA519-1 showed the best combination of processing quality traits in both growing conditions and higher than the best check. Clone selection for processing quality should be done in spring season, when environmental conditions improve the expression of the processing quality traits in Rio Grande do Sul State.
Solanum tuberosum L.; dry matter; reduced sugars; starch; amylase; chip color
