Perfect Potatoes
Potatoes are officially the world’s number one most popular vegetable! The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the deadly night shade family. The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well. Potatoes are the world’s fourth largest food crop, following rice, wheat and maize. The potato is grown across the world in a wide variety of conditions.
Grow potatoes
Potatoes are grown from ‘seed potatoes’, which need to be sprouted or ‘chitted’ before planting. Place the seed potatoes with the buds or ‘eyes’ upwards on a tray in a frost-free place in good light, so they do not get drawn until the shoots have grown to about 2.5cm (1inch). To grow potatoes plant them 35-40cm (14-16in) apart in April. It is good to earth up potatoes to encourage a larger crop. When they are 10cm tall, the leafy shoots can be mounded around with soil to their full height. This will increase the length of underground stems that will bear potatoes, it is important to make sure the tubers are not exposed to sunlight otherwise they will go green. This mounding can be repeated once or twice more at 2 – 3 week intervals
Nutrition
The potato tuber grows underground attached to the root and is a winter food store for growth the following spring. Early new potatoes are sweet as they contain sugars. These later turn to starch so that main crop potatoes can be stored for longer. Potatoes provide carbohydrate energy, vitamins and minerals including Vitamin C. They are not one of the five a day vegetables.
Origins
China and Russia are the world’s top potato producers but the potato originated in the region of southern Peru. But the potato most widely cultivated worldwide is believed to have come from the Chiloe Archipelago where it was cultivated as long as 10,000 years ago (phew!). Potatoes can be attacked by beetle larvae or be affected by potato blight. They need a rich soil and plenty of water when it’s dry.
