 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
A really nasty seed-borne bacterial blackleg disease, Dickeya solani is causing concern to potato farmers. First identified in Holland in 2005, Dickeya solani is an aggressive form of another type of blackleg disease, Dickeya dianthicola that has established itself in several countries in Europe, including Spain, France and Belgium, as well as in Finland and Poland. It has also spread to…
Read the Rest of This Post…
Growing potatoes can be incredibly rewarding, particularly if you have the space to plant a fair number of them. Better still, if you get a particularly good crop, you can process some of them and store them for times when there aren’t any fresh tubers to harvest from your garden. The Best Ways to Process…
Read the Rest of This Post…
With potatoes being the number one veggie crop in the USA, it's not surprising that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has dedicated a lot of time and money to doing all it can to develop potatoes that will resist the typical diseases that attack potatoes. It's not just the damage from potato…
Read the Rest of This Post…
All living organisms are prone to certain diseases, not least of which is the humble potato which, by the way, is the fourth largest crop in the world after wheat, rice and corn! In fact the potato is prone to so many different diseases, and is attacked by so many lethal pests, that horticulturists have…
Read the Rest of This Post…
And now for a bit of light hearted fun! A Girl Potato and Boy Potato had eyes for each other,and finally they got married, and had a little sweet potato, which they called 'Yam'. Of course, they wanted the best for Yam. When it was time, they told her about the facts of life. They…
Read the Rest of This Post…
The great Irish famine of the mid-19th century shows us how vulnerable potatoes can be when it comes to disease. Potato blight, caused by a rampant fungus caused a massive crop failure throughout Ireland, leading to famine and starvation. Many of those who survived the famine decided to emigrate to far-off lands like North America…
Read the Rest of This Post…
A successful potato crop will keep you stocked up with freshly grown potatoes for as long as eight weeks, from the time the plant flowers. The first potatoes you can harvest will be little, baby potatoes – normally referred to as "new potatoes". This could be as early as six weeks after planting; be guided…
Read the Rest of This Post…
If you have never grown potatoes before, it is a good idea to familiarise yourself with the growing process of tubers, so that you can take appropriate and progressive action to ensure a successful crop. While stems, leaves and flowers do form above the ground, it is the expanding section of the plant –…
Read the Rest of This Post…
Potatoes are a staple and potentially delicious food, although a large number of people are surprisingly unimaginative and uninventive when it comes to cooking processes. Mashed potato is a perfect example of a dish that may be totally mundane, or marvellously cordon bleu! At its most mundane, mashed potato is made by boiling…
Read the Rest of This Post…
Many people think of potatoes as being dull-looking, brown-skinned vegetables that you can bake, boil or fry. But not only are there numerous ways to cook the common potato, there are also a multitude of different types of potato – more than 5,000 varieties in all. Perhaps even more surprisingly, potatoes come in a myriad…
Read the Rest of This Post…
