Spring is around the corner and it is the time of year when I start to see a lot of discussion about growing those old, heavily sprouted potatoes that you find at the bottom of your pantry or about purchasing potatoes to plant from the grocery store because seed potatoes are so expensive. Like so […]
Note: This article is focused on the USA because that is where I live. I know less about the status of GMO potatoes in other countries, although I am under the impression that they are rare outside of the USA, Canada, and China (PRC). If you know more about the status of GMO potatoes in […]
Recently, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about “landracing” potatoes and some of the other crops that I work with. I take this as a sign that Joseph Lofthouse‘s new book, Landrace Gardening, is selling well. I highly recommend it. If you have any interest in backyard vegetable breeding, click on that link and […]
There are some questions about potatoes that I get over and over again, like whether or not potato towers work, what the mysterious fruits on potato plants are, and whether or not greened potatoes are dangerous. This post is about one of those frequently asked questions that I hadn’t gotten to yet: why is my […]
Potatoes come in many colors. Tuber skin can be white, yellow, blue, or red and so can the flesh of the tuber. (I am referring here to the color of the pigments produced by the plant, so what you might describe as colors ranging from pink to magenta or powder blue to violet, I will […]
I have been a lucky potato grower for many years because, although I live in a climate that is favorable to light blight, it has never been more than a minor problem toward the end of the growing season. That has now changed. Last year, I rogued out a small number of plants spread around […]
Several varieties of uniform true potato seeds are available from eastern Europe and these are commonly offered through online marketplaces like eBay and Amazon. The names of these varieties include Asol, Diva, Empress, Fermer (Farmer), Ilona, Krasa (Beauty), Milena, Revansh (Revenge), and variations and translations of these names. These varieties are not legal to grow […]
Ten years ago, almost nobody was talking about indeterminate potatoes. Over the years, interest has crept up to the point where I now receive many inquiries each year about which of the varieties that I offer, or which potato varieties in general, are indeterminate. This is surprising, because it is a rather obscure topic when […]
In part 1 of this post, I discussed the reasons for attempting to hybridize domesticated diploid potatoes with Solanum maglia. The major reason is simple exploration, but S. maglia also has some interesting traits that could be valuable. For one thing, the plants are large, with broad foliage, and might help to produce larger, higher […]
Solanum ajanhuiri is a native Andean potato, grown at the highest elevations suitable for cultivation (around 13,000 feet) in Bolivia and Peru, where it can survive due to its frost and drought resistance. There is a Bolivian folk song for the planting of this potato, given here from Huaman (1980), after translation from Aymara to […]