Europa: Potato variety Tyson – heavyweight for potato growers

Greenvale Seed have been supplying UK potato growers with high quality seed for over 40 years and has brought many exclusive varieties to the UK for growers with the end results now firm favourites with many retail and processing customers as well as end consumers.

Niall Arbuckle, Head of Greenvale Seed has high hopes for Tyson and has been working with potato breeder STET on the project since 2005 and is delighted to have now secured the exclusive rights to market the variety in the UK. Arbuckle explained: "We finally selected Tyson from a large number of promising varieties in 2015, as we were looking for an early baker to replace Marfona."

"Tyson has very good resistance to both common scab and powdery scab and has tolerated this year’s dry weather very well with high marketable yields. Early bulking is similar to Marfona, particularly under fleece or plastic. In a departure from our normal marketing plan, we plan to offer the variety to all sectors of the UK potato trade and it will not be aligned to any specific retailer.”

Henk Holtslag, Fresh Manager at STET, told farminguk.com: “Tyson is a cross between from Sylvana and Cyrano. This round-oval variety has excellent characteristics including very bright skin, large size tubers needed for the baker market, cream flesh and a good dry matter content of 20% with a low bruising index. Additionally, Tyson has good resistance to blight, PCN A and wart disease, together with a high yield and an excellent baker percentage. Tyson has been introduced successfully in the demanding markets of UK and Israel."