Potato dormancy is a major obstacle in post-harvest evaluations for the certification of seed. Objectives of this study were to evaluate the efficacy of several treatments to break dormancy and induce sprouting soon after harvest for Russet Burbank, Clearwater Russet, and Umatilla Russet. Treatments included: (a) control held at 18.3 C, (b) cold-stratification held at 4.4 C for two weeks, (c) temperature fluctuation held at 4....

Handling potatoes at harvest and throughout transloading operations can result in two main impact injuries: blackspot and shatter bruises. The objective of this study was to examine the development of blackspot and shatter bruises over a 24 to 48-h period as influenced by cultivar, impact height and holding temperature with the intent to identify whether more rapid, on-farm bruise evaluations could be used to facilitate change...

Potato virus Y (PVY) is an important pathogen in seed potato production that may cause seed lots to be downgraded or rejected for certification. A study was conducted to determine if mother seed tuber size influences the prevalence of PVY within a seed sample during evaluations of seed-borne infection in a grow-out. The trial was conducted using Russet Norkotah (two growing seasons) and Umatilla Russet (one growing season). Se...

Handling potatoes individually or collectively in packages can create opportunities for potatoes to develop quality defects including blackspot and shatter bruise. Three trials were conducted to examine how handling packaged potatoes can influence the risk for physical damage including shatter and blackspot bruise. An impact recording device was used to record peak acceleration (max g-force) in common fresh market packaging op...

Variable morphological characters have obscured genealogical relationships in the Cape fossorial skink Acontias meleagris meleagris species complex. Currently the species complex contains four dubious operational taxonomic units ( A. meleagris meleagris , A. m. orientalis , A. percivali tasmani and the morph lineicauda) with poorly defined species boundaries. In the present study we examine the evolutionary relationships withi...

Despite recent molecular systematic studies on the fossorial southern African skink subfamily Acontinae, evolutionary relationships among the three genera remain unresolved and disputed. Among these, the most recent study suggests that both Typhlosaurus and Acontias are paraphyletic, contrasting earlier results that suggest the presence of two divergent clades within Acontias . Here we further investigate the evolutionary rela...