Potato, Lookin’ Waqy, 3 in vitro plantlets

Lookin’ Waqy comes from a project attempting to produce a potato similar to the famous Andean variety Llumchuy Waqachi that will grow better in the long days of summer in North America.  This is definitely an improvement, although not everything that I want.  It grows larger tubers, earlier, and with a much better yield.  It has beautiful red flesh and good flavor.  It is a full sibling of Lookin’ Lumpy, which is a more successful result overall, but I kept this variety around specifically to make sibling crosses.  It has now done its work and I do not plan to grow it again, but I am offering the remaining seed.  The cross that produced this variety was Loowit x (GB seedling x Llumchuy Waqachi) and the name reflects that parentage.

Reproducibility Score: 20

Practicality Score: 70

Culinary Traits

Lookin’ Waqy has all purpose texture and moderately thick skin.  At full maturity, tubers fall mostly into the 3-6 inch range.  Flavor is good, well balanced, and texture is just to the starchy side.  When cooked, the flesh becomes uniformly red.

Agronomic Traits

This is a late variety with yields approaching three pounds per plant.  Tuber dormancy is long.  Stolons are short and tubers cluster closely under the base of the plant.  Plants are very large and I would not space them any closer than 12 inches.  Fairly vulnerable to common scab under dry conditions, a trait that is unfortunately common in progeny of Loowit.  This is a tetraploid variety and is self-fertile.  Plants flower moderately and set plenty of seed, but considerably more with some pollination help, at least under my conditions.

True Seeds (TPS)

True seed of this variety was open pollinated.  It grew in a block with other progeny of Llumchuy Waqachi and I hand pollinated heavily with Lookin’ Llumpy.  A majority of the seed is likely to be from that cross.  In previous batches of related varieties, I found that about a quarter of the progeny produced the same kind of lumpy, deep-eyed form as the parent.