Time for another frequently asked potato question. Actually, this is more of an occasionally asked question, but close enough. Do you recall reading a news story about a Russian family who died in their root cellar due to toxic potato gas? This story regularly makes the rounds in gardening groups on social media and has […]
Year after year, potato flower posts rank near the top of the most popular content on this site, so I know you like potato flowers. Due to difficult weather and a late planting, mine are behind schedule this year and really just coming into widespread flowering. With a few exceptions, these are seedling varieties from […]
This is the first of what will be a series of posts about potato characteristics. One of the first things that I recommend to new plant breeders is to thoroughly explore the morphology of the plants that they work with. There are some people who are able to look at the world around them naively […]
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 […]
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 […]
It was tempting to make this post a joke and just leave it a blank page. That would, in fact, have communicated just about everything that it is useful to know about indeterminate potatoes for casual growers. Unfortunately, the proliferation of incorrect information about potato determinacy requires a little more work to correct. Ten years […]