Potato, Blue Bolivian (S. curtilobum)

Andean potato information and growing instructions

Potato products and sizes

Phytosanitary information

Tubers of this variety are offered alternately, in even years, barring crop failure.

Blue Bolivian is a variety of Solanum curtilobum, a frost resistant pentaploid potato species grown at the upper limits of cultivation in Bolivia and Peru. In our trial of the available accesions of this species, this variety did the best, producing the largest yields and surviving heavier frosts than any other domesticated potato.  Blue Bolivian was provided by the USDA Potato Introduction Station as PI 604206 and I gave it a friendlier name for the catalog. I plan to offer this variety indefinitely as our representative of S. curtilobum.

Culinary Traits

Blue Bolivian is an all purpose potato, with medium density flesh and thick, chewey skin. It has the mild bitterness that most people describe as a strong “potatoey” flavor. In the Andes, this species is most often used in a preserved, freeze-dried form, but this variety is good for fresh eating.

Agronomic Traits

Blue Bolivian plants are large and vigorous.  The tubers are formed in the short days of fall, so this variety is best harvested no earlier than November.  At that point, yields are typically in the range of two to three pounds.  Plants survive light frosts and overnight temperatures into the upper 20s.  Tubers have very long dormancy,  The plants flower heavily and set plenty of berries but the seed count in those berries is generally low.

Fertility:  MF4, FF9

True Seed (TPS)

TPS from this variety is open pollinated.  The plants were grown in a block with other accessions of S. curtilobum and with selections made from earlier generations of S. curtilobum seed.  These plants were also grown in farly close proximity to Andean tetraploid potatoes, so the results should be fairly diverse.