Donata potatoes are a medium early fries variety from the German company Europlant, with long-oval tubers, light yellow flesh and high suitability for fries and purée. We grow it in Żuławy as our second fries variety, alongside Innovator, and supply it wholesale. Below we set the variety sheet against Innovator and describe how we lift, sort and pack Donata.
Where Donata comes from
In the plant breeders' rights register of the Canadian agency CFIA, Donata's breeder is listed as J. Böhm of Böhm-Nordkartoffel in Lower Saxony, and the rights holder as Europlant Pflanzenzucht of Lüneburg. According to the same CFIA entry, the cross was made in 2003 in Ebstorf, and Donata was selected from it a year later.
Donata potatoes on the variety sheet
We take the variety's traits from the variety sheet of Europlant, which holds the rights to Donata, not from seed potato sellers' descriptions. We keep the German terms in brackets, so anyone can check them at the source.
| Trait | Entry on the Europlant sheet |
|---|---|
| Earliness | medium early (mittelfrüh) |
| Tuber shape | long-oval (langoval) |
| Skin and flesh | yellow skin, smooth to netted, light yellow flesh |
| Eyes | shallow to medium |
| Suitability | high for fries and purée |
| Culinary type | floury, low after-cooking blackening |
| Dry matter and starch | no figure on the sheet |
| Dormancy | very long, storage until May or June |
| Potato cyst nematode (Ro) | resistant to Ro1 (9) and Ro4 (9) |
| Potato wart | resistant to pathotype 1 |
| Common scab | low susceptibility |
| Internal rust spot (Eisenfleckigkeit) | high susceptibility |
| Mechanical damage | low to medium susceptibility |
| Foliage health | medium, regular blight treatments recommended |
Europlant does not give a dry matter percentage on the sheet. On the English version of the sheet Europlant writes about a reliable dry matter content and a stable colour when processed after storage. The company's American subsidiary, Europlant America, gives a tuber specific gravity of 1.080-1.087 and recommends storage at 48°F (around 9°C) for the frozen fries market.
Shape is also worth reading with care. The Europlant sheet says "langoval", the Europlant America sheet says "oval to long oval", and in the variety description from Canadian trials by CFIA the tubers range from short oval to oval. The takeaway for a buyer: check tuber length in the specific batch, not in the variety name.
Donata and Innovator through the eyes of a processing plant
We describe Innovator from the growing guide of its breeder, HZPC.
| Trait | Donata (Europlant) | Innovator (HZPC) |
|---|---|---|
| Earliness | medium early | medium early |
| Tuber shape | long-oval | oval to long-oval |
| Skin | yellow | brown, russet type |
| Dry matter | no percentage on the sheet; specific gravity 1.080-1.087 according to Europlant America | 20.6% (starch 14.8%) |
| Dormancy | very long | medium |
In its growing guide HZPC gives 20.6% dry matter and 14.8% starch for Innovator. Europlant gives no dry matter percentage for Donata, while Europlant America gives a tuber specific gravity of 1.080-1.087. We check dry matter ourselves in every batch anyway.
The second difference is dormancy. Europlant rates Donata's dormancy as very long and writes about storage until May or June. For Innovator HZPC gives medium dormancy.
The third is nematodes: on its variety page HZPC lists resistance to Pa2 and Pa3 for Innovator, while Donata, according to Europlant, is resistant to Ro1 and Ro4.
How we read Innovator from the plant's side, we describe in our post on the Innovator potato. The general traits of a fries tuber, that is shape, dry matter and sugars, we have gathered in our post on which potatoes for fries.
Donata on Żuławy alluvial soil
Everything we sell grows on our own fields in Wocławy near Cedry Wielkie. We farm more than 800 ha, including around 400 ha of vegetables, and we work with 87 machines. Żuławy means alluvial soils: heavy, humus-rich soils laid down by water, rich in nutrients and good at holding moisture.
Europlant recommends medium and better soils for Donata, and advises avoiding sites prone to internal rust spot. We steer our machines with Trimble GPS navigation with RTK correction, and we apply fertiliser at variable rates, giving each part of the field as much as it needs.
The same alluvial soils grow our speciality, which we describe in our guide onions from Żuławy.
How we lift Donata with the AVR Puma 3 harvester
Europlant asks for gentle lifting and rates Donata's susceptibility to damage as low to medium. Europlant America recommends lifting when the flesh is between 50 and 65°F (around 10-18°C), and limiting impacts on the tubers.
We lift potatoes with a self-propelled AVR Puma 3 harvester. It takes four rows at once and has a 469 hp Volvo engine and an 8-tonne tank, so it works fast and without downtime, at night too. It harvests gently, sparing the tubers, and we use the same harvester to pick up onions from the windrows.
How we sort and pack Donata
After harvest the potatoes go through the DOWNS CropVision optical sorter. Cameras and AI scan every tuber through 360 degrees and reject stones, soil clods and defective pieces, at up to 100 tonnes per hour. We select every batch for firmness, colour and dry matter content.
Then we grade and pack to the customer's needs:
- loose,
- in big bags,
- in sacks of 15 kg, 10 kg and smaller.
We produce using a technology free of pesticide residues, in line with the principles of Integrated Plant Production. We test every batch for pesticide residues, heavy metals and substances harmful to health. We hold GlobalG.A.P., GRASP, FSA Gold (Farm Sustainability Assessment) and GMP+ certificates. We have gathered both fries varieties and the delivery forms in our potato offer.
A variety sheet tells you what to expect from a variety, but it does not describe a specific batch. If dry matter or tuber length matters to you, ask for a free sample and test it yourselves.
Price, availability and sample
The price of Donata potatoes is calculated based on current market prices, so we give it after a conversation about quantity, timing and form of delivery. How much Donata we have in a given season and when, we tell you on request. On request we send a free sample. Write to us via the contact form.
