Potato Pictures By Variety
(continued - page 4)

New varieties of potatoes are constantly being introduced. The aim of potato breeders nowadays is to maintain a good taste, but make the potatoes resistant to slugs and blight. This is where the 'Hairy Bolivian Potatoes' make their comeback!

Many of our potatoes today originate from potatoes from Bolivia. These potatoes were capable of growing on the snowline of mountains at very high altitudes. They survived through these cold conditions because the foliage was covered with fine hairs. This gave the leaves an insulating layer to protect them from frost. Potato breeders are inter-breeding these old original potatoes with our new varieties to get the best taste and also better frost resistance.

Another benefit of the layer of hair on the leaves is increased resistance to 'blight', the major potato disease. Blight is an airborne disease where the blight 'spores' are blown by the wind onto the leaves of potatoes. Here, they send out little roots which enter the potato leaves and infect the entire plant. With the layer of hair however, the spores land on the hairs and have to send out their little roots much further to infect the leaves. In most instances, the spores are so exhausted by the time they reach the leaves, that they die before infecting the plant.

So, if you notice that new varieties, after 1990, have hairier leaves, don't worry, it's the latest in potato fashion.