San Luis Valley Research Center

06/09/2026

PAA 2026 is coming up very soon, it's time to get registered if you haven't already! Come support the CSU folks that are presenting this year😁

06/05/2026

Check out this cool article published by CSU SOURCE!

Before CSU Extension was a thing, there was the "Spud Special", a four-car train containing educational potato exhibits. In 1908, the Spud Special made its debut with 23 stops throughout Colorado, from as far west as Grand Junction and down south into our Valley. Shortly after the smashing success of the Spud Special, county Extension agents are employed across the state to share agricultural knowledge.

As the decades passed, more educational trains started traveling through the state, focusing on topics such as growing apples, showcasing purebred bulls, dairy and poultry, and crop rotation techniques. These exhibits arguably hit their peak during WWII as the "Food for Freedom" train pushed to increase food production to aid in the war effort. People from all over the state traveled to see these roving education trains!

Read the full article using the link below:

In 1908, Colorado had no paved highways and few automobiles. Electricity and indoor plumbing were luxuries for well-heeled city dwellers.

05/29/2026

Good news! We are releasing two new russet varieties with Canadian Eastern Growers!

Horizon Russet and Crystal Russet are both drought and heat tolerant with low percentages of defects.

Horizon Russet is early bulking at about 80 days. A few years ago, it produced a nice crop with only 1.25 inches of rain!

Crystal Russet has great fry potential for quick service restaurants! After a recent hot and dry growing season (about 6 inches of rain), Crystal was harvested with an abundance of potatoes weighing over 8oz and was the only row of plants that remained green! We will be publishing a paper on this cultivar soon so keep an eye out for more information.

05/22/2026

Planting is complete at the SLVRC! Teamwork and (mostly) good weather made it fly by with virtually no hangups this year! Here are a few photos shared by the Potato Improvement Program from the one day we had some nasty weather.

We hope everything is going smoothly for the other potato operations here in the Valley. Happy planting!

05/15/2026

Potato Fact Friday!

Did you know that there are over 4,000 varieties of potatoes worldwide? The CSU-SLVRC Tissue Culture Lab maintains about 500 varieties between its Active Clone Bank and long-term storage. While that number is only about an eighth of what exists across the globe, our tissue culture specialist sure works hard to maintain them!

For those of you who don't know, tissue culture is a process where nodes (where leaves attach to the stem) are cut off a mother plant and grown in agar within a sealed, sterile environment such as a test tube or vessel. There's a lot more to the tissue culture process than just that- days of sterilizing procedures, an unbelievable number of hours cutting plantlets under a ventilated hood, and yearly testing- just to name some of the work that goes into it. Tissue culture is such an interesting and unique aspect of agricultural work!
https://extension.colostate.edu/tissue-culture-lab/

https://pacooppotatoes.com/2026/01/10/think-you-know-potatoes-these-mind-blowing-potato-trivia-facts-will-surprise-you/

The Colorado State University Tissue Culture Lab is located at the San Luis Valley Research Center. This location houses approximately 500 potato varieties.

05/08/2026

Potato Fact Fry-Day

Did you know that the French fry did not originate in France? They were actually invented in Belgium but later popularized by French cuisine in the early-mid 1800s.

https://pacooppotatoes.com/2026/01/10/think-you-know-potatoes-these-mind-blowing-potato-trivia-facts-will-surprise-you/

04/30/2026

Check out this yummy, smashed potato pizza recipe- it's quick, easy, and the best of both potato and pizza worlds! You don't need this specific variety of potato, any smaller red or yellow at the grocery store should work just fine.

We are intending on sharing potato recipes once a month (time permitting) so keep an eye out and feel free to share your own favorites in the comments or as a DM we can share!

1 bag Upstate Abundance potatoes 45g olive oil 8g kosher salt 3g freshly cracked black pepper 5g garlic powder 180g marinara sauce 200g mozzarella cheese, shredded 100g sharp cheddar cheese, shredded 150g pepperoni slices 60g red onion, thinly sliced 45g fresh basil leaves 15g extra virgin olive oil...

04/28/2026

Please take a minute to read through our quarterly newsletter! We started this project a year ago and have been so grateful for everyone's support😄

04/24/2026

Potato Fact Friday!

Did you know that Russet Burbank was developed in 1872 or 1873 (depending on the source) and was released in the early 1900s under the name of Netted Gem? While it didn't gain popularity until the 1930s when irrigation was introduced to Idaho, it has since become one of the most popular and versatile cultivars available for both fresh market and processing.

https://www.montana.edu/extension/pspp/funspudfacts.html

04/03/2026

Potato Fact Friday!

Did you know that Marie Antoinette was known to wear potato flowers in her hair while traveling the French countryside? I imagine the purples ones would be her favorite. Pictured here are the SLVRC's Masquerade (whole tuber) and TC17742-1PW/PW (chipped), both have incredibly beautiful purple flowers and skin coloration (plus they're both delicious)!

Also, thank you to everyone who turned out to vote for potatoes in Veggie Madness, we won by about 36 votes!

https://www.montana.edu/extension/pspp/funspudfacts.html