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How Potatoes Evolved

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Re: How Potatoes Evolved

#21

Post by Telemark70 »

benchly wrote: post #20
stevekemp wrote: post #9

Off-topic but I have to say that potatoes are incredibly easy to grow, and doing so is very worthwhile. I have a small planter on my balcony at the moment which is thriving with leaves, and in a few weeks I'll dig out the harvest to see what I got. People grow them in very poor soil, and even in literal bags of compost, or buckets. They're easy-going and almost trouble-free. Growing chillis, tomatoes, or herbs on win…

My wife and I did the same with two planters outside my apartment, first time trying our hand at container gardening. We are about 10ish days from harvest and exited to see what happened. If the amount and health of the leaves are any indication, we should pull a meal or two's worth out of it for what amounted to very little effort and care. Fingers crossed! We tried carrots, but they came out very stunted, even acco…

Try dwarf French beans.

Re: How Potatoes Evolved

#22

Post by stevekemp »

LarMachinarum wrote: post #17
stevekemp wrote: post #9

Off-topic but I have to say that potatoes are incredibly easy to grow, and doing so is very worthwhile. I have a small planter on my balcony at the moment which is thriving with leaves, and in a few weeks I'll dig out the harvest to see what I got. People grow them in very poor soil, and even in literal bags of compost, or buckets. They're easy-going and almost trouble-free. Growing chillis, tomatoes, or herbs on win…

All with you on the general idea that growing potatoes is easy and great. That being said, just a detail: > People grow them in very poor soil, and even in literal bags of compost a bag of compost is pretty much the exact opposite of "very poor soil"; it's about the richest soil there is.

Indeed, the point there as you don't need a planter. Literally just a plastic bag of soil bought from a hardware/gardening store.

Of course the "new soil" would be full of nutrients, etc, it was more that this is possible even if you don't have a garden, or other hardware. (Similar intent behind mentioning the use of buckets!)

Re: How Potatoes Evolved

#23

Post by stevekemp »

benchly wrote: post #20
stevekemp wrote: post #9

Off-topic but I have to say that potatoes are incredibly easy to grow, and doing so is very worthwhile. I have a small planter on my balcony at the moment which is thriving with leaves, and in a few weeks I'll dig out the harvest to see what I got. People grow them in very poor soil, and even in literal bags of compost, or buckets. They're easy-going and almost trouble-free. Growing chillis, tomatoes, or herbs on win…

My wife and I did the same with two planters outside my apartment, first time trying our hand at container gardening. We are about 10ish days from harvest and exited to see what happened. If the amount and health of the leaves are any indication, we should pull a meal or two's worth out of it for what amounted to very little effort and care. Fingers crossed! We tried carrots, but they came out very stunted, even acco…

Exciting times!

I have to say I grew cucumbers for the first time last year, and they were surprisingly good. Otherwise the only other thing that comes to mind immediately is Strawberries, which are also tasty and not so hard to keep up with.

Re: How Potatoes Evolved

#24

Post by darth_aardvark »

foobar1962 wrote: post #15
cariaso wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can easily forgive the statement you highlighted, but there is zero information about potatoes in this one: Along with wheat, maize and rice, they are estimated to account for up to 80% of all calories eaten by people worldwide.

I picked that up too. Awkward. I think they mean that 80% of all calories are provided by wheat, maize, rice, and potatoes.

Yeah, but that statement is basically information-free re: potatoes.

"Boiled squid liver is a popular food. Along with wheat, maize, rice, and potatoes, they make up 80% of all calories eaten by people worldwide."

is technically true, but doesn't tell you anything about boiled squid liver consumption.

Re: How Potatoes Evolved

#25

Post by macromaniac »

stevekemp wrote: post #9

Off-topic but I have to say that potatoes are incredibly easy to grow, and doing so is very worthwhile. I have a small planter on my balcony at the moment which is thriving with leaves, and in a few weeks I'll dig out the harvest to see what I got. People grow them in very poor soil, and even in literal bags of compost, or buckets. They're easy-going and almost trouble-free. Growing chillis, tomatoes, or herbs on win…

I threw potatoes into the back part of my yard without burying them or tending them in any way and they did quiet well. Ended up dying from a freeze, I think I will throw them more strategically next time.

Re: How Potatoes Evolved

#26

Post by allturtles »

darth_aardvark wrote: post #24
foobar1962 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I picked that up too. Awkward. I think they mean that 80% of all calories are provided by wheat, maize, rice, and potatoes.

Yeah, but that statement is basically information-free re: potatoes. "Boiled squid liver is a popular food. Along with wheat, maize, rice, and potatoes, they make up 80% of all calories eaten by people worldwide." is technically true, but doesn't tell you anything about boiled squid liver consumption.

FWIW, the data I found puts potatoes at 1.7% of world calorie consumption [0], but also puts the sum of maize+wheat+rice+potatoes at closer to 50% than 80%.

[0]: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/most-important-staple-fo...

Re: How Potatoes Evolved

#28

Post by BSOhealth »

CoastalCoder wrote: post #19
teslabox wrote: post #3

Nightshades are problematic for stressed and old people because the plants have mild poisons. Old people and addicts tend to not be able to handle the poisons in tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants and chilis. But for people that are nightshade-tolerant potatoes are an excellent food crop. IIRC, someone was annoyed that do-gooders wanted to remove potatoes from the food stamp programs, because the potato is actually an alm…

I thought one of the issues with potatoes is that they have a really high glycemic index, not lack of nutrients. So consistently eating a lot of them increases one's risk of Type 2 diabetes.

This is true. Most of the potatoes eaten are valuable in caloric-deprived situations, but they are not a long-term healthy food due to the thrashing they do to insulin management.

Re: How Potatoes Evolved

#29

Post by ninalanyon »

teslabox wrote: post #3

Nightshades are problematic for stressed and old people because the plants have mild poisons. Old people and addicts tend to not be able to handle the poisons in tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants and chilis. But for people that are nightshade-tolerant potatoes are an excellent food crop. IIRC, someone was annoyed that do-gooders wanted to remove potatoes from the food stamp programs, because the potato is actually an alm…

> do-gooders wanted to remove potatoes from the food stamp programs, because the potato is actually an almost-complete food.

What on earth?!

Re: How Potatoes Evolved

#30

Post by driggs »

cariaso wrote: post #11
pm90 wrote: post #7

> There are around 140 species of wild potato in South America, growing from Mexico in the north all the way down to Argentina and Chile in the south. Super nit, but do authors think Mexico is in South America?

I can easily forgive the statement you highlighted, but there is zero information about potatoes in this one: Along with wheat, maize and rice, they are estimated to account for up to 80% of all calories eaten by people worldwide.

The point is that potatoes are one of the top 4 food sources worldwide, and they collectively dwarf the percentages of the long tail of other food sources.

Proportions vary significantly continent-to-continent and culture-to-culture, such that it'd be more meaningless to try and put a more precise (but less accurate) number on it.

This is not difficult to parse out of the sentence if you choose to take a charitable rather than a pedantic perspective, which I recommend to you generally.

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