The Potato Association of America (PAA) will host a free webinar titled “Tuber Skin Set Testing: A Demonstration and Discussion of a Torque Wrench-Based Skin Set Tester” on Dec. 17 at 1 p.m. EST.
This 30-minute session offers a hands-on demonstration of a torque wrench-based skin set tester — an often-misunderstood tool designed to quantify skin set in potatoes.
Accurate skin set quantification is crucial for agronomists, storage managers, and potato researchers, as it directly impacts post-harvest handling and storage efficiency, says James Busse, a biological science technician with the USDA ARS Vegetable Crops Research Unit.
“The potato tuber skin is a first line defence for preventing water loss as well as protecting tubers from pathogens,” Busse says. “The removal of skin, skinning, can happen through insults during harvest and handling at storage facilities. The tuber skin ‘sets,’ becomes tightly adhered, as growth slows and stops at the end of the growing season.”
Busse says understanding skin set is one of the critical factors that agronomists take into consideration when deciding the best time to harvest the crop.
“Anecdotal assays such as a ‘thumb test’ for skin set can be used to make harvest time decisions,” he says. “It takes time for agronomists to learn the art of using such a measure of skin set. Moreover, this is not really a quantitative approach.”
During the webinar, Busse will talk about the periderm shear tester referenced by Lulai and Orr (1993.) This torque meter-based system is readily usable in an office or field setting.
“The shear force necessary to break the potato skin cell walls, to skin the potato, is directly assayed,” he says. “People have expressed frustration using such a device and it is our goal to demonstrate how to effectively use it. There should be limited user bias generating data with this shear tester.”
Busse says the Physiology Section of the PAA plans to host additional webinars in the coming months with topics relevant to potato researchers as well as others in the industry.
For more information or to register for the Dec. 17 webinar, click here: https://tpaoa.wildapricot.org/event-5852216
