EUROPLANT breeds success

Breeding Progress

We only select the best

Every year we cross over 1,000 selected parent plants. The initial crossings are based on selected parent plants from a large gene pool of breeding material and the international range of varieties. The parent plants are crossed with each other with the objective of the desired quality and the further breeding goals.

The breeding and approval process of a new variety usually takes ten years. During this time, the new varieties are tested for more than forty characteristics. Next to the outer tuber characteristics and foliage ratings, there will be yield measurement, resistance and quality tests for the different uses of our potatoes.

The selection process starts with over 400,000 seeds, which grow up to little seedlings in our glasshouses and are going to the fields afterwards. Each of those seedlings own a different genotype and could be a potential new variety. In the course of the annual selection, the number of the seedlings reduces enormously. After eight years only a handful of candidates are doing the next step to the official test in one of the federal plant variety offices in the EU. Having passed successfully the official tests during two years the new breed will be a variety. After approval by the German Seed Marketing Act, the new variety can be traded commercially. The breeder receives the plant breeders’ rights of the new variety.

EUROPLANT has four breeding stations:

• Böhlendorf (Mecklenburg-Western Pommerania/GERMANY)
• Ebstorf (Lower Saxony/GERMANY)
• Kaltenberg (Bavaria/GERMANY)
• Idaho Falls (USA)

The following stations from our breeding partners complete our breeding activities:

• Dr. R.J. Mansholt’s Veredelingsbedrijf (THE NETHERLANDS)
• Zuchtbetrieb R. Jacobs (GERMANY)
• Saatzucht Berding (GERMANY)
• Sativa Kerkov (CZECH REPUBLIC)

At 40 trial stations, we test the suitability for cultivation and the quality of our new breeding lines.

In addition, we have a wide range of contacts and breeding partnerships abroad, which form a successful breeding network with our German locations.

Current methods of molecular biology have been an integral part of our breeding work for many years.

• The In-vitro culture – forms the principal technique of the maintenance and rapid multiplication of our potato varieties.
• ELISA-test – an immunobiological procedure for the detection of potato viral diseases.
• PCR-technique – allows the fast identification of varieties or breeding lines through genetic fingerprinting, as well as the examination of breeding material for infection by various pathogens.

Maintenance breeding

Healthy high performance seeds are essential

Healthy and efficient seed potatoes are the basis of quality potato production. Due to its vegetative nature, seed multiplication involves a high potential risk of disease transmission.

With the development of bioengineering techniques, new developments in maintenance breeding have emerged. Single plants are no longer the basis of seed potato production. They have been replaced by plants from test tubes, so-called in-vitro-plants, which grow in our laboratory.

Tubers of disease-free and true-breeding parent material are used for the establishment of tissue cultures. The tops of the sprouts of these tubers are first disinfected and then cultivated in test tubes with specific nutrient media under sterile conditions. A few weeks later, small plants are developing in the test tubes.

For multiplication purpose the plants are cut into two or three pieces under sterile conditions – each part must show at least one leaf, as the leaf axil contains a resting bud, which develops into a new shoot. This technique has the advantage of high multiplication rate and all season availability.

Each year, our laboratory delivers more than 450,000 in-vitro plants to our maintenance stations. Our maintenance stations are located in:

• Freiburg on the Elbe (Lower Saxony/GERMANY)
• Böhlendorf (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania/GERMANY)
• Kruckow (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania/GERMANY)
• Hohenbrünzow (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania/GERMANY)
• Obliwice (POLAND)

The first generations of seed potatoes are multiplied in the healthiest EU-regions. The multipliers are situated in:

• Böhlendorf (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania/GERMANY)
• Kruckow (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania/GERMANY)
• Hohenbrünzow (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania/GERMANY)

The propagation areas of our contract farmers are located in the best potato cultivation areas in Germany.

Through our European EUROPLANT subsidiaries, we also multiply seeds in the preferred European propagation areas, such as in Finland, the Netherlands and France.