BARI Alu-86—An Early-Bulker, High Yielding and Quality Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Cultivar Suitable for Diverse Environments

Abstract

BARI Alu-86 (12.13) is a potato variety with medium maturity (92.2 days) and rapid tuber bulking which makes it fit for early and full-season harvest. The Tuber Crops Research Centre of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute released it in 2019 as a result of a cross between BARI Alu-50 and CIP 389429.31. In early season harvest, this variety produced an average of 29.0 t/ha potato, which was 30.0% greater than the popular early bulking check variety Granola. This variety yielded 45.7 t/ha tuber yield during full-season harvest, which was 36.8 and 39.7% higher than widely used table purpose check cultivars Diamant and Asterix, respectively. The BARI Alu-86 variety is famed for its delicious qualities as well as its visually appealing tubers with red skin, long oval shape, shallow eyes, and cream-coloured flesh. Average combined sensory ratings (16.1 out of 19) were very similar to Lady Rosetta. It had an average dry matter content of 18%, specific gravity of 1.072, and starch content of 20.9 mg/g. BARI Alu-86 also showed some promise as an export variety, as it produced smooth skin large tubers (63.9% > 40 mm diameter) with an average weight of 120–250 g per tuber. This variety had minimal weight and rotting losses, as well as a nice tuber, look after 90 days of storage. It also had long dormancy periods (80–85 days). This variety has no cases of hollow heart, cracking, PVX, early blight, late blight, stem rot, stem canker, black leg, or bacterial wilt. However, a lower percentage of PLRV, PVY, common scab and cutworm infestation occurred.