Potato

The potato is a crop which can be grown on fields.The potato is rich in nutrients like carbohydrates and could be an essential part of a energy-rich diet.

1. Definition
2. History
3. How to grow potatoes

3.1. Right soil

3.2. How to get seed potatoes

3.3. How to plant the potatoes

3.4. Watering

3.5. Feratelizing

3.6. Harvest

3.7. Potato pests

4. Prepare potatoes for consumption

1. Definition

The potato (/pəˈteɪtoʊ/) is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground tubers of the plant Solanum tuberosum, a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.

2.History

Domestication Wild potato species occur from the southern United States to southern Chile.[14] The potato was first domesticated in southern Peru and northwestern Bolivia[15] by pre-Columbian farmers, around Lake Titicaca.[16] Potatoes were domesticated there about 7,000–10,000 years ago from a species in the S. brevicaule complex.[15][16][17]

The earliest archaeologically verified potato tuber remains have been found at the coastal site of Ancon (central Peru), dating to 2500 BC.[18][19] The most widely cultivated variety, Solanum tuberosum tuberosum, is indigenous to the Chiloé Archipelago, and has been cultivated by the local indigenous people since before the Spanish conquest.[13][20]

Spread Following the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, the Spanish introduced the potato to Europe in the second half of the 16th century as part of the Columbian exchange. The staple was subsequently conveyed by European mariners (possibly including the Russian-American Company) to territories and ports throughout the world, especially their colonies.[21] European and colonial farmers were slow to adopt farming potatoes. However, after 1750, they became an important food staple and field crop[21] and played a major role in the European 19th century population boom.[17] According to conservative estimates, the introduction of the potato was responsible for a quarter of the growth in Old World population and urbanization between 1700 and 1900.[22] However, lack of genetic diversity, due to the very limited number of varieties initially introduced, left the crop vulnerable to disease. In 1845, a plant disease known as late blight, caused by the fungus-like oomycete Phytophthora infestans, spread rapidly through the poorer communities of western Ireland as well as parts of the Scottish Highlands, resulting in the crop failures that led to the Great Irish Famine.[23][21]

The International Potato Center, based in Lima, Peru, holds 4,870 types of potato germplasm, most of which are traditional landrace cultivars.[24] In 2009, a draft sequence of the potato genome was made, containing 12 chromosomes and 860 million base pairs, making it a medium-sized plant genome.[25]