PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Believe it or not, there are actually more than 4,000 varieties of native potatoes being grown around the world. While a relative few are being grown here in Maine, farmers and their clients are always looking for the next best potato.
During peak harvest season each year, the University of Maine's Agricultural Research and Development Farm in Presque Isle tests some 250 varieties, trying to find better quality potatoes for companies that produce the fries, chips, and frozen potato products consumers love. Some of those products may end up in your local produce aisle or as seeds for next year's crop, both here and in other eastern states.
"You can see this is just a really pretty smooth skin; it's bright in the marketplace. It would jump out on the shelf if someone was going to buy them," UMaine agronomy professor Greg Porter said. "It has to yield well, [and] it has to have tolerance to some of the important pests and diseases, or more stress tolerant varieties which can help with warming, changing climate."
For the past 40 years, Porter, who was born and raised in Presque Isle, has dedicated his life to developing quality potatoes to make Maine even more competitive and marketable.
Potatoes are a big money maker for Maine, which is why the UMaine potato research team gets hundreds of thousands in federal funding to develop new varieties, like the successful Caribou Russet.
During peak harvest season, all of the different potatoes are picked one by one by students and part-time workers. They're then labeled for grade, quality, and yield, and brought back to UMaine's flagship campus in Orono for all of the remaining research work.
"I enjoy it. I mean, it's not hard work. It's work that needs to be done," Larry Sawyer, who has been working for many years as a tractor driver and field worker during peak harvest season, said.
Right now, Maine is the fifth largest potato producer in the country.
"We got every market class represented here, from chipping and fresh market to specialty varieties that small roadside stands growers would grow to French fry processing varieties," Porter said.
The process starts at the UMaine campus in Orono. Potato plants are cross-pollinated in greenhouses in Orono, which results in thousands of true potato seeds. After that, researchers and students use those seeds to grow 50,000 plants in Presque Isle. Plants are then selected over the course of two years, and they narrow it down to the best 250.
Porter said his team receives money from the United States Department of Agriculture, University of Maine, Maine Potato Board, and some other public sector grants to keep the research going. For example, in 2022, the program received $227,000 from the USDA and $60,000 from the Maine Potato Board.
Porter explained that after much research, a third of the best 250 varieties will make the cut.
"The ones that are left that look very promising will go out to commercial trials. They'll start being looked at by growers, french fry processors, and our chip processors. Only a few of them actually get released commercially," he said. "The Caribou Russet was an exellent example of that, where it looked very good in research, [so] growers and processors started looking at it."
"Caribou Russet has been a game changer for the Maine industry. Not only because it's a dual purpose, but also does really well in dry conditions," Maine Potato Board director Don Flannery said.
Flannery said demand has been very good for Maine potatoes, which is a reason why this research is so important.
"People continue to rely on Maine as a very stable source of whatever potato they are looking for. The last three years, we've seen an uptick in acres in Maine due to demand," Flannery said.
"It's valuable to me that my research is contributing to an important crop that keeps families on family farms and helps generate a revenue for our state," Porter said.
According to the recently released numbers from the USDA, Maine potato sales in 2021 were a little over $200,000,000, which is an all-time high.
After all his contributions to the UMaine potato research program, Porter is set to retire at the end of the year. He released five varieties, including the Caribou Russet.