Potato, Chiquilla Pitiquiña, 3 in vitro plantlets

In Vitro Plantlets Information and Growing Instructions

Andean Potato Information and Growing Instructions

This variety is covered by a material transfer agreement.  See below for details

Chiquilla Pitiquiña is a Peruvian heirloom potato. It is a diploid with strong dormancy.  While it does form tubers under long days, it does so fairly slowly and yields tend to be low.  It is a better producer in the fall and will do best where it can be grown into November.  Other than the difference in color, this variety and Cuchipa Ismaynin are quite similar, although they were found not to be closely related in a study of their genetic markers.

Chiquilla Pitiquiña was provided by the USDA Potato Introduction Station as PI 664475.

Culinary Traits

Chiquilla Pitiquiña has a fairly waxy texture and moderately thick skin.  The flesh is white with a red ring and becomes light pink when cooked.  It will hold up under most cooking methods, although it is probably less ideal for frying or mashing due to the smaller tuber size and deep eyes.

Agronomic Traits

Chiquilla Pitiquiña produces modest yields, around a pound per plant from a late August harvest, with most tubers smaller than three inches.  When grown into the fall, both yield and tuber size are increased, with yields around two pounds per plant and some tubers exceeding five inches.  It is not unusual for some of the tubers of this variety to be sprouting at harvest, which is kind of weird given that the tubers have dormancy, but it has done this reliably over several seasons.  This variety has deep eyes and will grow best in a loose, more sandy soil.  In clay soils, the tubers may prove challenging to clean.  The trick with deep eyed tubers is to wash them as soon as they are harvested, before the soil dries to the tubers.  Plants flower abundantly and set seed easily with a diploid pollinator.  This variety has moderate late blight resistance.  It survives bight very well here, but does form lesions that sporulate.

Licensing

This variety is covered by a material transfer agreement:

The germplasm was provided to the NPGS by the International Potato Center (CIP) where it is held in trust under the terms of an agreement with FAO. As per terms of the FAO-CIP agreement, it was provided with the understanding that it is freely available for any agricultural research or breeding purposes. No recipient can claim ownership over the germplasm received or obtain Intellectual Property Rights on it or related information. Recipients may reproduce the material and distribute it to other parties provided they are also willing to accept the conditions of this agreement. The material is supplied expressly conditional on acceptance of the terms of the FAO-CIP agreement. The recipient’s retention of the material constitutes such acceptance.