Interactive Online Database for Potato Varieties Evaluated in the Eastern United States

• Published in: HortTechnology (Alexandria, Va.) Vol. 20; no. 1; pp. 250 - 256
• Main Authors: Clough, Mark E, Yencho, George C, Christ, Barbara, DeJong, Walter, Halseth, Donald, Haynes, Kathleen, Henninger, Melvin, Hutchinson, Chad, Kleinhenz, Matt, Porter, Greg A, Veilleux, Richard E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-02-2010
• Subjects: Breeding and Genetic Improvement; cultivars; data collection; information dissemination; information exchange; Internet; Internet resource; plant adaptation; potatoes; Solanum tuberosum; variety trials; vegetable crops; Canada; United States
• ISSN: 1063-0198; 1943-7714
• DOI: 10.21273/horttech.20.1.250

Databases are commonly used to coordinate and summarize research from multiple projects. The potato (Solanum tuberosum) research community has invested significant resources in collecting data from multiple states and provinces, and we have developed a web-based database format for the use of researchers, farmers, and consumers. The northeast regional potato variety development project (NE1031) is a U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (USDA-CSREES) regional project focused on developing and evaluating the suitability of new varieties and advanced clones from multiple breeding programs for a range of environments. This multistate project and its predecessors have been in existence for more than two decades, and they have resulted in the collection of a significant amount of standardized potato trial data. We have developed an interactive potato variety database that allows researchers and end-users to access and obtain potato variety trial results in one centralized site. The database is populated with the results of potato variety trials conducted in eight states (Florida, Maine, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia) and two Canadian provinces (Prince Edward Island and Quebec). It currently contains over 35 data features and was developed primarily for scientists interested in potato variety development, growers, and allied industry members. Hypertext mark-up language (HTML) and hypertext preprocessor (PHP) were used to develop the database interface.