Blight Buster Potatoes

It looks as though spring might be on its way in the northern hemisphere, and gardeners’ thoughts are turning towards tomatoes and potatoes. You may have already sown your first tomato seeds; your seed potatoes may be chitting on the windowsill. But what if you could get both potatoes and tomatoes from the same plant – a TomTato?

Header image: Andrew Taylor. Spud Fit/Facebook

At times, usually when I supposed to be doing something else because I’m a grad student and procrastination of some form seems to be part of the gig, I find myself planning what plants I would include in an imaginary biodome on a inhospitable planet many astronomical units away. Imaginary biodomes are one of my favourite thought exercises – to me it is the perfect fusion of my love of space exploration and my attempts to grow as much as my own food as I can in my small backyard.

This year is the first I have ever planted my potatoes on the traditional planting day of Good Friday! They almost got the traditional addition of comfrey leaves in the planting holeas (which would have been another first!), but in the end I decided to leave the comfrey flowering for the bees. They need food more than my spuds do, at this time of year. Although, in the end, the spuds got something better…

Have you noticed that potatoes left in the fridge, or in the bottom of a sack, tend to grow long white sprouts after a while? Discarded tubers can do the same in the compost heap, and it’s the way that seed potatoes start to grow when they’re planted out in the garden. Those long, white shoots are fragile and easily broken, and they can carry on growing to gargantuan proportions.

I’m hoping to go and see The Martian soon, one of the few films to feature a botanist as the hero. Astronaut Mark Watney is one of the first humans to set foot on Mars, but accidentally gets left behind and has to survive on his own – and to do so he grows potatoes. He wouldn’t be the first person (or even population) to rely on potatoes for survival, but here on Earth there’s a slight snag. The potato (Solanum tuberosum) has an arch nemesis – late blight, caused by an organism called Phytophthora infestans. It cuts down both potatoes and tomatoes, and was the biological cause of the Irish Potato Famine in the 19th century.

A seed potato is a potato that has been grown to be replanted to produce a potato crop. It’s the usual way that potatoes are made available to farmers and growers – although it is possible to produce potato seeds (also known as True Potato Seed, TPS), it is unusual to do so.

The 2015 blockbuster “The Martian“(based on a 2011 novel of the same name by Andy Weir) tells the story of astronaut Mark Watney’s struggle to survive on Mars and the rescue efforts to bring him home after he was left behind when his team’s mission was aborted. Part of this story is devoted to Watney’s efforts to keep himself alive by growing potatoes on Mars. But would this really be possible?

It’s hot, it’s humid, and I am longing for the shorter, cooler and damper days of autumn. My forays into the garden are brief; I am grateful that it has rained enough recently for me to avoid having to water. I am still waiting for the courgettes to produce edible fruit, but the climbing French beans (‘Helda’) are producing a handful every few days, and they are delicious.

The long weekend has given me the chance to have a little play with video today, and this is the result.

By following Kennebec Potatoes Growing Tips and Facts, you can enjoy homegrown, delicious, and nutritious Kennebec potatoes in your meals!

For generations, gardening has been a popular pastime in the UK. Regardless of whether it is an ornamental or vegetable garden, the act of sculpting the land around us to create our very own oasis of tranquillity provides a sense of comforting accomplishment, as well as a great way to express creativity and individuality.