Archive for the ‘Growing’ Category

Potato Growing Success Story in the UK

by Annette Welsford No Comments
growing potatoes

We were delighted to receive a wonderful email from one of our valued customers who purchased our book How to Grow Great Potatoes, an avid potato grower who lives in the UK. He has had great success this growing season and kindly shared his experiences with us. Potato Growing with Rhys Jaggar Rhys Jaggar lives in London, ...

Controversial Quest to Protect Potatoes in Ireland from Blight

by Annette Welsford No Comments
08 12potatoes1

Once the basic diet of the Irish, potatoes are once again the centre of attention in Ireland, with a decision by the country’s environmental protection agency to approve a trial of genetically modified potato crops. According to scientists, the motivation is to improve resistance of potatoes to blight. Various strains of this fungal disease have continued ...

What Causes Green Potatoes

by Annette Welsford No Comments
green potato

Potatoes are one of the most nourishing foods on earth. But they can also be poisonous. You must never eat potatoes leaves. Commonly referred to as “potato greens”, the leaves are poisonous, and even eating the smallest amount, can make a person extremely ill. While the tuber itself is normally totally safe to eat, if any part ...

How to Harvest your Home-grown Potatoes

by Annette Welsford No Comments
potatoes picked

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 by ...

How Potatoes Grow, Step-by-Step

by Annette Welsford 2 Comments
11.11chitting potatoes

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 – the tuber ...

Structure of the Potato

by Annette Welsford No Comments
Cut potato

Understanding how a potato is made – or structured – is not only interesting, but it also explains how we are able to reproduce potato plants from the tubers themselves. While true potato seed comes from the berries that form in the foliage of potato plants, this type of seed forms fewer and smaller tubers than ...