Potato

The potato (plural form: potatoes) (Solanum tuberosum) is a perennial plant of the Solanaceae, or nightshade, family, grown for its starchy tuber. Potatoes are the world's most important tuber crop and fourth most important source of food energy (after rice, wheat, and maize): farmers and gardeners grow them world-wide. Growers cultivate thousands of different varieties of potato. The potato originated in the Andes, in the area of present-day Peru. Pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Andean cultures cultivated around 200 different kinds of potatoes.

Cultivation

Seed potatoes should be planted twelve inches deep, if the soil will allow it; after this, the gardener should open a hole (about six inches (150 mm) deep and not more than twelve inches (300 mm) in diameter) and place horse-dung or long litter therein, about three inches (75 mm) thick. When the young shoots make their appearance they should have fresh mould drawn around them with a hoe; cover the tender shoots to prevent the frost from injuring them; and earth them (but do not cover them) when the shoots make a second appearance, as in all probability the season will become less severe.

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At harvest time, workers generally dig up potatoes with a three-prong grape or fork, but at other times, in dry weather, the plough can serve as the most expeditious implement for unearthing potatoes. After gathering the interval, break and separate the furrow taken by the plough, thus gathering the crop more completely than when taken up by the grape.

Related Topics:
Grape - Fork

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