How a potato plant does not grow.
- Thread starter Durgan
- Start date
897tgigvib
Garden Master
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2012
- Messages
- 5,439
- Reaction score
- 923
- Points
- 337
Can you post the photo so it's visible?
baymule
Garden Master
Never. Is that an old botanical print from when fantasy mixed with reality?
- Thread starter
- #4
Durgan
Attractive To Bees
Yes. The vertical potato grower getting 400 virtual pounds in a small area using vertical hilling. The Seattle Times has an article each year as do many other people who plagiarize such articles and grow nothing.baymule said:
How a potato plant really grows.
http://www.durgan.org/URL/?QHBIN 21 August 2009 How a Potato Plant Grows
There is a great deal of information on the Internet about growing potatoes in tires, boxes and indicating that large quantities of new tubers can be produced with high vertical hilling. The view propagated is that potatoes grow from branches all along the main stalk. This is utter nonsense, as the pictures indicate. New tubers are formed around the seed potato and always slightly above it.
My potato growing test box was opened today. The pictures speak for themselves. Clearly there is no advantage in carrying out excessive hilling when growing potatoes. The purpose of hilling is to insure the tubers are covered, since light affects potatoes producing a green appearance, which is an indication of solanine, which is harmful if ingested in large quantities.. For comparison one Pontiac Red was dug in the same row, which was almost identical to the test box potato in appearance.
Ridgerunner
Garden Master
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2009
- Messages
- 8,227
- Reaction score
- 10,049
- Points
- 397
- Location
- Southeast Louisiana Zone 9A
The purpose of hilling is to insure the tubers are covered, since light affects potatoes producing a green appearance, which is an indication of solanine, which is harmful if ingested in large quantities.
There is some good stuff in this quote. Another purpose of hilling to me is so they are easier to dig. You could adjust your planting method, say start them in a pretty deep trench, and avoid having to hill them to keep them out of the sun but I'd hate to dig them planted like that. Too much work to dig the trench deep enough to plant them and too much work to dig them for harvest. I'd expect to damage a lot of them digging them that way too. Not to argue with you, just another reason why hilling them in an open garden is the way to go. And an advantage to someone growing them in tires or such.
The green is an indication of solanine. The actual green color is due to chlorophyll and not due to the solanine. Sunlight hitting the potato causes it to turn green and also causes it to form solanine. So the green is a real good indication solanine is probably present and its best to not eat it. I dont know how far the solanine spreads beyond the green.
Another indication solanine is present is that it tastes bitter. How are you going to know that until you cook it and taste it? Still, if your cooked potatoes are bitter, dont eat them. Cooking does not make the solanine go away.
The other part that is phrased right is the ingested in large quantities. It depends on the health and condition of the human, the size of the human, and the concentration of solanine in the potato. Ive read that the average adult human would need to eat about two to four pounds of the solanine potato for it to harm them. One bite wont kill you but I try real hard to avoid it. One bite of that stuff doesnt help you either.
This comes up on the chicken forum all the time. There are a lot of people warning to not feed potatoes or potato skins to the chickens. Potatoes and potato skins are fine for chickens. Green potatoes and green skins are not fine. Solanine can hurt the chickens too. They are a lot smaller than humans so it would take less to harm them, but even then, one bite wont kill them.
I just wanted to emphasize those two points on the solanine. The first one, that the solanine is not because of the green, may be a bit picky but it being green is a good warning to not eat it. But dont panic if somehow a small bit gets through your defenses. As long as you know that it being green is a strong indication to put it on your compost heap instead of doing something else with it and you take reasonable precautions, youre not going to feed enough to your family to do them any harm.
There is some good stuff in this quote. Another purpose of hilling to me is so they are easier to dig. You could adjust your planting method, say start them in a pretty deep trench, and avoid having to hill them to keep them out of the sun but I'd hate to dig them planted like that. Too much work to dig the trench deep enough to plant them and too much work to dig them for harvest. I'd expect to damage a lot of them digging them that way too. Not to argue with you, just another reason why hilling them in an open garden is the way to go. And an advantage to someone growing them in tires or such.
The green is an indication of solanine. The actual green color is due to chlorophyll and not due to the solanine. Sunlight hitting the potato causes it to turn green and also causes it to form solanine. So the green is a real good indication solanine is probably present and its best to not eat it. I dont know how far the solanine spreads beyond the green.
Another indication solanine is present is that it tastes bitter. How are you going to know that until you cook it and taste it? Still, if your cooked potatoes are bitter, dont eat them. Cooking does not make the solanine go away.
The other part that is phrased right is the ingested in large quantities. It depends on the health and condition of the human, the size of the human, and the concentration of solanine in the potato. Ive read that the average adult human would need to eat about two to four pounds of the solanine potato for it to harm them. One bite wont kill you but I try real hard to avoid it. One bite of that stuff doesnt help you either.
This comes up on the chicken forum all the time. There are a lot of people warning to not feed potatoes or potato skins to the chickens. Potatoes and potato skins are fine for chickens. Green potatoes and green skins are not fine. Solanine can hurt the chickens too. They are a lot smaller than humans so it would take less to harm them, but even then, one bite wont kill them.
I just wanted to emphasize those two points on the solanine. The first one, that the solanine is not because of the green, may be a bit picky but it being green is a good warning to not eat it. But dont panic if somehow a small bit gets through your defenses. As long as you know that it being green is a strong indication to put it on your compost heap instead of doing something else with it and you take reasonable precautions, youre not going to feed enough to your family to do them any harm.
digitS'
Garden Master
Yes, it is.baymule said:
The image is from a 1913 book on commercial vegetable production. However, the caption is "Tomato Plant, partially defoliated and injured." The chapter is on tomato growing. (You can click the image to go to an online version of the book.)
Steve
GardenGeisha
Deeply Rooted
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2012
- Messages
- 573
- Reaction score
- 72
- Points
- 147
What I love about growing potatoes is how they will work the soil for you! Last year I had to plant in an area that had been stomped by donkeys and horses and was so hard-packed I couldn't dig it much at all. So I just threw potatoes in some natural holes and hoped for the best. Sure enough, their sprouts poked up through that mess and I had lovely potatoes! Aided no doubt, by all that manure! They are so pretty growing.
If you'd like to vote for my recipe, I'd sure appreciate it. All that is needed to register to vote is your name, e-mail address and a password. Date of birth, phone number, etc., are NOT required. Thank you:
http://biggestoliveoilcookbookcontest.com/recipe/249
If you'd like to vote for my recipe, I'd sure appreciate it. All that is needed to register to vote is your name, e-mail address and a password. Date of birth, phone number, etc., are NOT required. Thank you:
http://biggestoliveoilcookbookcontest.com/recipe/249
ohiogoatgirl
Chillin' In The Garden
i thought that looked like a drawn tomato plant... 
reading things before i saw the pic i was wondering if this was about the potato/tomato plants. the ones they splice the tomato plant on the top of a potato plant. like tree grafting. and you get tomatoes on the plant and potatoes in the ground. never actually talked to anyone who had them though. sounded neat if it worked though.
reading things before i saw the pic i was wondering if this was about the potato/tomato plants. the ones they splice the tomato plant on the top of a potato plant. like tree grafting. and you get tomatoes on the plant and potatoes in the ground. never actually talked to anyone who had them though. sounded neat if it worked though.
