Variation and correlation of starch potato utility features and tuber quality traits

In the study the authors used data from the Characteristics of the Polish National List of Potato Varieties concerning the economic value and the quality traits of starch potato varieties from the group of very early and early varieties and that of medium late and late varieties. For each of 13 quantitative traits, separately for every group of earliness, the basic statistical measures were determined and the coefficients of simple correlation were calculated, and for the utility traits -the equations of multiple linear regression. It was demonstrated that starch potato varieties were characterised by similar utility traits and variation in the case of dry matter content and starch content, tuber quality traits, i.e. shape and its regularity, and also the depth of the eyes. The late varieties produced a higher tuber yield and, consequently, a higher yield of dry matter, starch yield and bioethanol yield. In addition, a number of positive correlations were shown among the analysed utility traits, especially the tuber yield, with the tuber quality traits, i.e. starch yield, dry matter yield, bioethanol yield, and resistance to virus Y. Negative correlations appeared only in the group of very early and early varieties, between dry matter yield and resistance to virus Y and the content of starch and resistance to common scab. K e y w o r d s: starch potato, earliness group, variety, utility traits, quality traits, variation and correlation of traits 2016), varieties entered in the National List of Varieties (NLI), published by the Research Centre for Cultivar Testing (COBORU). It contains a lot of information on crop plant varieties based on numerous studies and experiments conducted by the Experimental Stations for Variety Testing (SDOO) in the diversified conditions of the country. In recent years, the NLI listed about 30 starch potato varieties. The