Crystal, A New Processing Potato Variety

The potato still ranks as the top vegetable crop grown in the U.S. In North Dakota the potato is the only vegetable crop grown extensively and the only vegetable crop that generates any appreciable farm income. Farm income in North Dakota from potatoes varies from 50 to 100 million dollars per year depending on production and current price. This income is from on-the-farm sales and does not take into consideration income that is generated indirectly from potatoes such as sale of machinery, railroad, trucking, construction, chemicals and other products and materials used in potato production. On March 1, 1980, Crystal, a white-skinned variety, was named and released by the Horticulture and Plant Pathology Departments at NDSU and the Red River Valley Potato Research Laboratory at East Grand Forks, Minnesota. This is the eleventh variety released by NDSU since the introduction of Norland in 1957.