Category: Potatoes

Potatoes

By Jane Lamb Say what they will about the “two Maines,” there are really three, as a drive north on Interstate 95 clearly illustrates. Notwithstanding arguable differences between settled coast and rural upland, the definable southern third of the state ends a few miles north of Bangor, when it gives way suddenly to endless forest

Read More »

Ideal Organic Potato

Blue flags mark rows of variety trials. At far left, ‘Papa Cacho.’ From left to right: ‘Chieftain,’ ‘Peter Wilcox,’ ‘Early Ohio,’ ‘Daisy Gold.’ Photo by Theresa Joseph, NOSP trial grower. By Sue Smith-Heavenrich In a country where french fries reign supreme, how does an organic grower find great-tasting potatoes that not only appeal to chefs but

Read More »

Solanum Tuberosum

By Jean Ann Pollard Once upon a time Maine was covered by ice a mile high. Every school kid knows that. What most of them don’t know is that even on the fringes of North America’s ice sheet, and in the cold, high Andes of Peru, a nutritious root vegetable called the potato provided people

Read More »

Black Scurf

Biofumigation May be a Good Bet for Organic Growers Black scurf, or Rhizoctonia, is a fungal disease of potatoes. New research shows that it may be controlled by compounds released from mustard crops. Photo by Eric Sideman. by Eric Sideman, Ph.D. If you have ever had lots of little black, irregular lumps on the skin

Read More »

Greensprouting Potatoes

Greensprouted potatoes. Photo courtesy of New Brunswick Dept. of Agriculture and Aquaculture, www.gnb.ca/0029/00290048-e.asp by Sue Smith-Heavenrich Last spring I was intrigued when Andy Leed, an upstate New York grower, mentioned that he was “greensprouting” his potatoes. He’d been growing table-crop spuds for many years and, frustrated by the lack of organic seed tubers in smaller

Read More »
Categories
Scroll to Top