Northstar: A high-yielding, white cold-storage chipping potato cultivar with attractive oval tubers resistant to late blight

‘Northstar’ (V0123-25) is a white-skinned, white-flesh, mid-season maturing potato cultivar suitable for cold storage chipping. It was selected from a cross made at the Lethbridge Research Centre of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada between ‘Niska’ and ND860-2. In trials across western Canada, full season marketable yields of Northstar were 6% to 31% greater than ‘Snowden’ and 11% greater than ‘Norchip’. Specific gravity of Northstar has averaged 0.009 and 0.012, less than Snowden and ‘Atlantic’, respectively. Chip color was superior to Norchip, Snowden and Atlantic. Northstar showed an excellent potential for direct chipping out of a 6 C storage. Tubers of Northstar are uniform, oval, smooth to slightly flaky in texture, with shallow eyes. The incidence of hollow heart and internal necrosis was lower than Atlantic, Norchip and Snowden. Deformed tubers occurred at levels less than Norchip and Snowden. Northstar is resistant to tuber late blight infection, moderately resistant to common scab, Verticillium wilt and Fusarium wilt, and moderately susceptible to foliar late blight. It is susceptible to early blight and shows clear tuber and foliar symptoms when infected with bacterial ring rot.