California state seed report 2024
California has four major commercial potato production regions. The Klamath/Tulelake Basin in Siskiyou and Modoc counties is mostly for fresh, processing and seed potatoes. Kern and Los Angeles Counties are mostly for fresh, chipping and seed potatoes. The Delta Region in San Joaquin County is mostly for seed potatoes and the desert and valleys of Imperial, Riverside and San Diego Counties are for fresh potatoes.
Our potato seed certification program declined significantly in 2024. About 48% of the certified seed potatoes were produced in the Arvin area, about 15 miles south to southeast of Bakersfield in the Central Valley of Kern County at 450 feet above sea level. About 52% were produced on the McDonald Island and
“The Central Valley crop is sometimes hit by frost but was largely spared this year. ”
the Terminus area of the Delta region in the San Joaquin Valley near Stockton about 30-60 miles south of Sacramento at 26 feet above sea level.
The seed potatoes produced annually in the Tulelake area close to the northern border of Oregon, about 300 miles from Sacramento at about 4,000 feet above sea level, were again inspected and certified by the Oregon Seed Certification Service under mutual agreement between our agencies. This year one grower in the Klamath Basin had 44.7 acres.
Field planting started on Dec. 12, 2023, at 64° F maximum temperature in the Central Valley and ended on Jan. 16. It started on May 9 at 80° F maximum temperature in the San Joaquin Valley and ended on July 9.
The Central Valley crop is sometimes hit by frost but was largely spared this year. There were no significant rainfall events during the production season and fields were fully irrigated. The Mediterranean weather conditions (no rainfall and low humidity during the summer) that prevailed across the state were not conducive for disease development, so high-quality crops were produced.
Our field inspections started on April 18 in the Central Valley and on June 19 in the San Joaquin Valley. The last field inspections were completed in San Joaquin Valley on Aug. 27.
California’s total production of commercial potatoes was 30,000 to 40,000 acres in 2024. But the average annual production of certified seed potatoes in the state was about 790 acres for 2017-2021 crop years.
We had higher-than-average (1,174) acres in 2023 but the acres declined by 65.4% in 2024 to only 406 acres. This was a result of fewer acres in Central Valley (Kern County) and none in Coachella Valley (Riverside and San Bernardino counties). On these acres we had a total of 23 varieties in the certification program.
Apart from proprietary varieties, the four varieties with the most acres were Sifra, Alegria, Cristina and Red La Soda, in that order.
— Alexander B. Mkandawire, potato seed certification manager, California Crop Improvement Association
