Russets: The Idaho Potato
Nearly all of the potatoes grown within the borders of the state of Idaho
used to be one variety, the Russet Burbank.
From New England
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| Luther Burbank |
- The origin of this famous Idaho baker goes
back to 1872 and a New Englander named
Luther Burbank who kept meticulous records
of his garden plantings.
- He found in his garden a single fruit or seed
ball of the potato variety Early Rose. The seed
ball contained 23 seeds, all of which he
planted and all of which grew and produced
tubers.
- Two seedlings, he thought, did better than the
Early Rose parent and one of the two was
distinctly better in yield and size of tubers.
- Burbank felt that this new seedling, which
would produce two or three times as much as
ordinary potato varieties, should be introduced to the public.
- He sold the new potato to a J.H. Gregory of Marblehead,
Massachusetts, for $150. Gregory named the variety Burbank
Seedling, which later became known as simply Burbank.
To California
- Luther Burbank used the money to move to California, taking
with him ten tubers that Gregory allowed him to keep. These
ten tubers appear to be the nuclear stock of the Burbank
variety that was introduced on the West Coast.
- Burbank's potatoes were a success
with more than 6 million bushels being
produced in California, Oregon, and
Washington by 1906.
- But Burbank's original potato variety,
which was a smooth-skinned long white
potato, was still not the slightly rough
reticulated-skinned potato that made
Idaho famous.
With Help from Colorado
- According to Luther Burbank, the Russet Burbank was
originated by a Lon D. Sweet of Denver, Colorado, who
evidently selected a chance sport, or bud, out of Burbank's
variety.
- Burbank noted, "These potatoes have a modified coat in a way
that does not add to their attractiveness. It is said, however,
that this particular variant is particularly resistant to blight,
which gives it exceptional value."
To Idaho
- It was the Burbank variety that was mutated in Colorado which
would eventually be known as the Netted Gem or the Russet
Burbank.
- The Russet Burbank also became known as the potato that
made Idaho famous.
