Beacon Chipper: A round white chip-processing potato variety

‘Beacon Chipper’ is a high-yielding, round white potato for the chip-processing market. This variety has an attractive round appearance with shallow eyes and high percentage of oversize tubers. Specific gravity in Michigan ranges from 1.077 to 1.083. Beacon Chipper may fit a window in raw product requirements between out-of-the-field ‘Atlantic’ crop and a late storage crop. This variety has some tolerance to common scab (Steptomyces scabies Thaxter) in comparison to Atlantic and ‘Snowden’. Beacon Chipper also has good chip-processing storage characteristics (light color and low amount of defects) and better tolerance to pressure bruise than Snowden. Based upon nitrogen and spacing management studies, we recommend that Beacon Chipper be planted at 20-cm within-row spacing with 180 lbs N/acre to maximize U.S. No. 1 yield and quality. The origin and pedigree of Beacon Chipper is currently unknown, despite extensive fingerprint analyses. The name Beacon Chipper was chosen to reflect the common nautical theme of Michigan and Maine.