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> MSU Potato Lab
Overview and History of the Montana Seed Potato Certification Program
Overview
Montana State University has developed one of the best seed potato programs in the nation. The MSU program has helped the Montana seed potato industry to produce high quality certified seed potatoes that have been very well received in all the potato growing states, particularly in the northwest United States. The volume of seed potatoes produced in Montana is about 3.5 million hundred weight, bringing around $30 million into Montana annually.
The seed potato program includes both the certification of seed potato crops and quality improvement. MSU conducts certification in accordance with State law, Section 80-5-301, MCA. However, it is the quality improvement work that has helped the industry most.
The quality improvement work centers on disease elimination in the sources of seed potato stocks, followed by disease testing and field inspection of the resulting plants and seed tubers. This approach has been successful because seed potato production starts from a small quantity of seed that is increased over three to five years before being used for commercial planting.
The terminology used to identify seed is: Nuclear for the potatoes increased from seed sources such as tissue culture plantlets, Generation 1 for seed increased from Nuclear, and Generation 2 for seed increased from Generation 1, and so forth. Generation 4 is the final seed potato crop produced for certification in Montana. This is called "flushing out".
Brief History
1926 - 1951 The seed potato program began in 1926. Dr. M.M.Afanasiev, Dr. Morris Elward, Dr. Frank Harrington, Dr. Starling, etc., were among those who contributed their time to the seed potato program and studied potato diseases in Montana. Mr. E. Issac, who did field inspection and worked with growers directly, is remembered most for his dedication and relentless personal contact. Mr. Issac retired in 1952; however, he continued helping with inspections until the day he passed away in 1961.
The greenhouse indexing service was set up in 1926 to help growers sort out disease-infected seed sources. Growers would bring in their nuclear seed in December, usually one tuber from each plant unit. After the tubers broke dormancy and started to sprout, they were grown in the greenhouse. The plants were read visually for diseases and abnormalities. The results of the readings were sent back to the growers in February. The growers used the information to discard the disease-infected plant units before field planting.
Greenhouse indexing was a significant step in improving seed quality as it greatly reduced mosaic virus disease and potato bacterial ring rot to manageable levels. Mosaic virus disease is known to cause rapid degeneration of potato vitality while bacterial ring rot disease severely rots tubers in the field and in the storage.
1952 - 1978 Montana State Legislature passed a law in 1951 designating Montana State University as the certifying agency for agriculture seed crops, including seed potatoes. MSU appointed the Montana Potato Improvement Association to carry out the responsibility of seed potato certification work. Thus, the official Montana Seed Potato Certification Program was established and, under MSU\'s supervision, seed potato certification rules and regulations were brought into existence. Accountability also became part of certification work.
MSU continued conducting greenhouse indexing services and provided a researcher to direct the certification program.
During this period, the Potato Virus X (PVX) testing program was initiated. PVX is a key virus of the mosaic virus complex; the program further reduced the virus disease problem for the industry and greatly strengthened MSU\'s seed potato program.
MPIA Director John Schutter, Sr., who received an Honorary Doctor of Agriculture from MSU-Bozeman in 1995, and Dr. J. Shepard, virologist, were instrumental in establishing this program.
Unfortunately, between 1952-1978 the program\'s director\'s position changed hands several times. Dr. Leonard Yeager (1952-1957), Mr. Orville McCarver (1957-1967), Mr. John Dunse (1968-1972), Dr. Larry Claflin (1974-1975) and Dr. Dallas Batchelor (1975- 1978) all served as directors. These frequent changes of directors, noticeably in the 1970\'s, severely disrupted the continuity the program and affected the quality of seed potatoes certified by MSU. A result was numerous litigations being filed against the certification program and MSU due to potato bacterial ring rot. The MSU seed potato program hit rock bottom around 1978.
Mr. McCarver, like Mr. Isaac, still helped with potato inspection. His contributions to the industry are greatly appreciated by the growers.
1978 up to present MSU revoked the appointment of MPIA to carry out the responsibilities of certification and hired Dr. Mike Sun to be in charge. MSU appointed the Directors of MPIA as consultants to review the certification rules and regulations, and serve as a liaison with the seed potato growers. Three major additions have been made since 1978.
The first is the installation of meristem-tissue culture technology in the MSU Potato Lab. It is a method used to clean up all disease pathogens in the seed source. Using plants resulting from the meristem procedure, a rapid in vitro increase of the disease-free seed stocks is generated through tissue culture plant propagation. This enables growers to have an unlimited source of beginning disease free stock to start their seed production. It shortens by two to three years the time needed to increase a seed stock to a sellable volume.
The second major addition was the initiation of the ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay) method to detect all virus and bacterial diseases. This method is very sensitive and can handle a large number of samples making it adaptable for mass disease testing work. At the MSU Potato Lab, we routinely test for Potato Virus X and Potato Virus Y in G1, G2, G3 and G4. About a half-million potato leaf samples are tested every year.
The third change is the mandatory flushing out of seeds at G4 to avoid cumulative re-infection of diseases. Certification rules further prohibit potatoes being imported into Montana for certified seed purposes.
In Summary
The Montana seed potato industry has been enjoying a good reputation for producing high quality seed potatoes. Yearly production has doubled since 1980. The MSU Seed Potato Program is funded entirely by the certified seed potato growers. The program\'s budget is around $600,000 annually.
It must be pointed out that cooperation with the seed potato growers is closer than ever. The seed potato industry and Montana State University cooperate more or less like partners. Montana seed potato growers are very well educated, many of them receiving college degrees from Montana State University. They are not only excellent farmers and business people, but are strong supporters of MSU.
Incidentally, the Montana State Legislature twice appropriated funds to MSU to do research in seed potatoes. The first appropriation of $50,000.00 came in 1981 for the development of meristem-tissue culture techniques. The second appropriation, in the amount of $150,000.00, came in 1991 for potato biotechnology research. Microtubers, which are produced in vitro, are replacing tissue culture plantlets as seed source materials for seed potato production in Montana. In addition, the potato blight cast program has been added to the potato improvement operation to assist the growers in controlling potato late blight disease.
Mike Sun, Director
Extension Plant Pathologist
March 2001
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