Ideas for community gardens < roots

There are many varieties of potato. These are Purple Congo.

POTATO

Botanic name

• Solanum tuberosum

Family

• Solanaceae (tomato family)

Growth form

• small annual shrub

Edible part

• tuber - boiled, fried, roasted, steamed

Cultivation

• there are numerous varieties of potato
• high productivity achievable in good growing conditions
• plant in well drained soil

Propagation:

• vegetative
  • from sprouting tuber
  • from seed potato from a nursery

Insect pests:

• scab; viruses; aphids; slugs

Diseases:

• potato blight.

Centre of diversity

• Central and South America
• potato is an ancient crop of Indian cultures
• recorded in Europe for the first time in the 1560s.

PAGE UPDATED... Wednesday, 16 January 2002