Archive for 2011

Review of Potato Varieties

by Annette Welsford No Comments
Potato varieties

It is amazing to discover that the humble potato comes in many varieties and colours. The sad part though is that if you aren't aware of the possibilities, you may find yourself severely limited in terms of choice when it comes to seed and stock possibilities to plant in your home veggie garden. Depending where ...

Ancient History of the Potato

by Annette Welsford No Comments
History of Potato

Ancient Inca Terraces constructed for farming Source: www.travelblog.com The potato has a fascinating, if rather contradictory history that goes back many centuries. Now considered to be the world's fourth most important crop (after wheat, rice and maize), the potato (Solanum tuberosum) originally grew wild throughout the South American Andes. There are known to be more 200 wild ...

The Nutritional Benefits of Potatoes

by Annette Welsford No Comments
Potato Recipe

Healthy Italian New Potato Salad from our How to Cook Yummy Potatoes ebook. Forget the old adage that potatoes are fattening. Well they can be, depending largely on how they are cooked. But they are also jam-packed with nutrition. Apart from anything else, they are one of the very best sources of potassium and fibre, and ...

Protecting Your Potatoes From the Cold

by Annette Welsford 1 Comment
Potato Igloo

Potatoes are easy to grow but prefer cool weather, so it is important to plant them at the right time to take advantage of that.  The right time to plant depends on your climate. Since it takes potatoes two to three weeks to emerge from the ground, the earliest you should plant seed potatoes in ...

Growing Potatoes in Tyres

by Annette Welsford No Comments
Potatoes growing in Tyres

Potatoes growing in tyres Just when you thought it would be impossible to grow potatoes in your own backyard, someone tells you about the ingenious – although no longer new – idea of growing potatoes in old car tyres. What could be more sustainable than this? You get to find a use for what would probably ...

How Much Space do You Need to Grow Potatoes at Home?

by Annette Welsford No Comments
Field of Potatoes

Field of Potatoes Potatoes are an incredibly important commercial crop all over the world. They also, undeniably, take up a lot of space. If you look at farmers' fields of potatoes you will surely imagine they go on forever. This is probably why relatively few home gardeners bother with potatoes. Another reason is that they are ...

Potato Greens are Poisonous

by Annette Welsford No Comments
Potato Greens are Poisonous

NEVER eat potato greens. It may not seem obvious, but the green leaves of potatoes that grow above the ground are poisonous. Even eating small quantities of what we call "potato greens" can make a person very sick. Indigenous to parts of South America, including Peru, Chile and Bolivia, the potato has been grown ...

Which Pests like Eating Potatoes?

by Annette Welsford 3 Comments
Potato Leafhoppers

Growing your own potatoes can be a lot of fun, and if you get it right, rewarding too. But we aren't the only creatures that like potatoes, and you need to take steps to ensure that pests don't eat your potato crop before you get a chance to harvest it. Whilst you can't see the potato ...

The Difference Between Irish Potatoes And Sweet Potatoes

by Annette Welsford No Comments
Sweet Potatoes and Irish Potatoes

Home gardeners who know nothing about horticulture are often amazed to discover that everyday potatoes and sweet potatoes not only taste different, but come from different families – even though they have a common "surname" (potato). Solanum tuberosum is a potato that the Irish, more than any other nationality, have produced for centuries, which is why ...

The Best Companion Plants for Potatoes

by Annette Welsford 1 Comment
Marigolds

There is absolutely no doubt that some plants grow better alongside others, and the potato is no exception. While not all companion planting is based on horticultural science, there are some quite significant scientific foundations for the concept. There are multiple reasons why certain plants do particularly well together. These reasons range from making certain plants ...