Potato improvement for tropical conditions: I. Analysis of stability
Eduardo de Souza Lambert, César Augusto Brasil Pereira Pinto, and Cícero Beserra de Menezes
The development of cultivars adapted to high tropical temperatures is the chief objective of potato improvement in the tropics. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to select for more stable genotypes adapted to many environments. The objective of this research was to analyze 51 potato clones for stability regarding tuber yield, percentage of large tubers and tuber specific gravity at different sites, years and planting seasons in southern Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Clones with sound stability for all traits were selected. Greater efforts should be invested specifically into simultaneous selection for several traits under environmental stress, targeting above all the absence of physiological defects in tubers, apart from the abovementioned traits.