Talk:Potato/Archive 1

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Contents

link

there should be a link to the word tuber http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuber

knödel eaten in Bavaria

Bavaria is not Germany! The most eaten Knödel in Bavaria is made with old bread, not potatoes. Correct would be that they're eaten in Thuringia, where the famous "Thüringer Klößen" comes from. Both Bavaria and Thuringia are only parts of Germany and not necesarily representative. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.84.69.20 (talk) 20:04, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

weird paragraph

Any one else think this better left to the Irish Potato Famine page?

"What is less well known is the role of the British during the potato famine. Rich aristocratic British landowners continued to export grain from Ireland to other parts of the world even as tens of thousands of Irish men, women and children were starving to death. Fortunately, this was not the practice of all of them, there were some British owned estates where not one Irish peasant starved during the famine. Authors like Salaman have written in detail about that situation, which has also been recognized by contemporary British historians." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.49.95.99 (talk) 21:19, August 25, 2007 (UTC)

It's not clear what exactly was the distinction between Irish and British landowners. How long did a family need to live in Ireland to qualify as Irish? What about irish landowners who actually lived in London? The truth is that some wealthy landowners of undoubted Irish background let their tenants starve. Food exports continued precisely because rents were often paid in kind, usually in the form of high-value grain, meat and dairy products. The British government did little or nothing to help at first, and it was not really an expectation of the time that governments should actually get involved in anything so mundane as whether their subjects had anything to eat. Later, there were maize imports from America to help bridge the gap. All of these seem like issues best left for a page on the Famine. Blight as a biological fact obviously has a place here, though.Sjwells53 18:00, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

I have removed it because 1) it has nothing to do with potatoes (it discusses export of grain) 2) It has no citations. 3) It uses weasel words ("British historians"). Captain Nemo III 06:24, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

Another important point about other references to the famine on this page is that they seem to imply it was largely confined to Ireland. Its impact was certainly worst there, because Ireland had the largest concentration of peasants living close to subsistence level. However, the blight affected the whole of Western Europe and beyond, and its effects were serious anywhere the population was poor. There was hunger in France and England too, and there was a great deal of distress in Scotland, especially the islands, where conditions were not very different from Ireland. There is a lot of documentary and pictorial evidence of this in, for example, the parish museum at Iona, from which a large proportion of the population emigrated during the famine. Historians often refer to the "Hungry Forties" for this period of British history, and the potato blight must have played some part in setting off the wave of popular discontent that led to the "year of Revolutions" (1848) across Europe. Sjwells53 (talk) 16:19, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

uses:electricity

no-one listed potatoe batteries!!! --Wolfmankurd 17:31, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

There is a mention near the bottom, but my quibble with it is that it mentions it 'generates a current of roughly 0.8 volts'. I know I'm being a bit anal but currents are measured in Amps while Potential Difference is measured in Volts. Could somebody sort that at all by changin 'current' to 'Potential Difference' or 'Voltage', please? Voltage is probably better as lay terminology.

While making this clarification, it should also be noted that the potato itself does not generate any electricity. It only acts as the electrolyte, allowing the copper-zinc electrodes to transfer electrons. --Ektoric 19:33, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Overall Structure

This does seem to need a major re-organisation. It is currently all over the place. A good overall structure might be

- plant description and origin - historical spread and economics - cultural significance - cultivation - cooking recipes etc etc

See the entry for patata in spanish wikipedia for an example of how it might be done

The new section on economics and History of the introduction of the potato into places outside south america would be a better structure than the odds and ends eg irish section, and would give a wider context. As an aside, I saw a programme on the history channel a while back that made some very interesting comments about the place of the potato in European economic history and climate change. basically they argued that northern europe used to be a good place to grow grain (early middle ages) and the staple carbohydrate was bread. Gradually the climate changed getting colder over the middle ages early modern period, meaning that the wheat crop failed more often. Fortunately the potato showed up from south america just as this was getting to be a problem. It was rapidly adopted - except in France where the catholic peasantry rejected it given the Bible talks about bread being the staff of life. That meant the economies of most northern european countries were able to continue. But in France, the peasantry starved, ultimately causing the French revolution. The Irish experience fits neatly into that context then. As may other countries'stories. The introduction and history in Poland and Russia are likely to be very interesting too. Unfortunately I do not have the reference material to write this up, but what is the general view? Nzattitude 17:53, 8 May 2007 (UTC)


Cultural references

Why not add a section of cultural references?

Yeah, that's what I was going to suggest. I say/hear potatoe [sic] at least 10 times a day. [[User:bandgeek100]] 04:23, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Cold chips

"Potatoes are generally eaten hot, but several basic potato recipes involve cooking the potatoes and then eating them cold - potato salad and potato chips"

I would not want to eat cold chips! I think you mean crisps

Potato "chips" is the equivalent of British "crisps" in America.

Along these lines, when you reheat a potato that has already been cooked, it does not revive like other foods do, it stays woody and rather crystalline, for lack of a better word, both as french fries and as baked potatoes. Is there a name for this phenomenon? Chris 03:38, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
yesterdays chips efect --Wolfmankurd 17:30, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Misconception

A common misconception is that potatoes are vegetables. Their actual classification has yet to be known

That assertion strikes me as unlikely. Have you a citation? —Casey J. Morris 03:25, Jun 26, 2005 (UTC)
"Unlikely" is a very generous term here. "outlandish" seems more fitting WormRunner | Talk 04:57, 26 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Here's a simple table I found that the user above might find useful. The vegetable is simply a plant grown for an edible part really. [1] Laundrypowder 18:58, 9 August 2005 (UTC)
Depends which classification scheme you use. Potatoes are garden vegetables in the same way that beets and carrots (roots) and corn (starchy grain) are garden vegetables, although in terms of biology of course potatoes are a tuber, and nutritionally they are starches. They are not a "green leafy" vegetable like spinach, but "garden vegetables" is a more general and loosely/traditionally defined category and is what most people mean when they say "vegetable". Tomatoes are garden vegetables also, although biologists will tell you they are a fruit. --Jonadab, 2007 Feb 6


100% of the nation think that potato's are very yummy, it's no lie —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.243.102.174 (talk) 16:52, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

Raleigh

Raleigh was in Venezuela... He may not have imported the potato into England, but he was certainly in South America...Wetman 22:46, 20 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Absolutely right. I do not have the Raleigh info at my fingertips, but he certainly went to South America. I removed the erroneous phrase, but the statement now looks awkward. I will look up the details in the next couple of days if no one gets to it first. WormRunner 23:18, 20 Dec 2003 (UTC)
I've never been able to nail down a written reference to Raleigh (not from a real source anyway). But I did find multiple references to potatoes being raised in Queen Elizabeth's (the first) ornamental garden. TTFN Ralph --N7bsn 16:20, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

harvesting

Is there more info on the harvesting of potatoes?

"Irish Potato"

The potato is unrelated to the sweet potato. In the United States it is sometimes referred to as the "Irish Potato" to distinguish it.

It would be good to state where in the U.S. this usage occurs, as it surely doesn't in California. --Yath 08:10, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I don't believe it is locality-specific so much as an older usage. I have certainly heard the expression used in Oregon, but not by the younger people. I am quite certain, from people I know, that it has been used in California as well. The great Irish Immigration is no longer part of the national consciousness. WormRunner | Talk 01:43, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)
In the midwestern US (OH, IN, MI, ...) I've never heard this usage (unless you count the phrase Irish Potato Famine, but that is so named because the famine occurred in Ireland, not because of the type of potato involved), much less seen it in print, so I would say that it is not very common and certainly not geographically universal. --Jonadab, 2007 Feb 6
Irish-born American, lived all over the USA and I've never heard the common potato referred to as the "Irish potato". I think this is just a joke about the Irish someone slipped in, and should be deleted. oiguvnuh
I'm not sure how it could be an ethnic joke; if anything the usage implies that the potato as a crop is of Irish origin, which, while untrue, would not appear to be disparaging to the Irish in any way. More likely it is a localized usage (possibly based on a backformation from Irish Potato Famine) that someone assumed was more general. --User:Jonadab
White potatoes are definitely "Irish Potatoes" (actually more like "Arsh" potatoes) in South Carolina, where sweet potatoes are the norm. 03:05, Mar 8, 2005 (UTC)

I think it shows up in The Joy of Cooking which is a fairly authoritative source about American food. FreplySpang 21:09, 8 Mar 2005 (UTC)

People in my parents generation (My mother is 88) used the term "Irish Potato" all the time. It is no longer commonly used, at least in Oregon, but it was. I have heard it used (as a child) by my parents, my grandparents, and by family friends. I have not heard it used by one of my contemporaries (I am 54) in the last 30 years anyway, but my mother still uses it. -- WormRunner | Talk 17:54, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I second listing regions that use the term "Irish potato". I've never heard that name, as most people around here (southeastern Illinois) simply call them potatoes, while sweet potatoes are always called sweet potatoes. I haven't heard it used in southwestern Indiana, either (I often visit Terre Haute and Vincennes). What is the state of origin of the author(s) of The Joy of Cooking? --/ɛvɪs/ 10:09, Mar 21, 2005 (UTC)


Unfortunately the local population had begun to rely on the potato and in the following years when crops failed, many died. Others emigrated, largely to the USA, blaming the British government for the situation.

This is a point of continuing controversy in Ireland but this makes it sound so random: the Irish got hungry decided to move and arbitrarily blame the British. I think it should either be expanded or removed. Temp 11:00, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

The term "Irish Potato" came into use because of the Irish potato famine, which started in 1846 and lasted for six years. The Irish peasant population had become highly dependent on the potato because of the relatively large amount of food that could be produced on small holdings. Immigrant farmers from the Palatinate region of Germany brought their own crops, such as turnips, to Western Ireland and were a lot less dependent on the potato then their native Irish neighbors, and they were largely spared the effects of the potato famine. The disease killing the Irish potato crop was the late blight fungus. The long lasting after effects of this famine are well known and well documented. What is less well known is the role of the British during the potato famine. Rich aristocratic British landowners continued to export grain from Ireland to other parts of the world even as tens of thousands of Irishmen, women and children were starving to death. Fortunately, this was not the practice of all of them, there were some British owned estates, where not one Irish peasant starved to death. Authors like Salaman have written in detail about that situation, which has also been recognized by contemporary British historians.

Weird Grammar

"To reduce the ground till it is completely free from root-weeds, may be considered as a desiderutum in potato husbandry; though in many seasons these operations cannot be perfectly executed, without losing the proper time for planting, which never ought to be beyond the first of May, if circumstances do not absolutely interdict it. Three ploughings, with frequent harrowings and rollings, are necessary in most cases before the land is in suitable condition. "

Normally this is the sort of thing I'd correct grammar on. However, in this case I can't figure out what the hell it's saying. Would anyone be so kind as to translate this into English?

"To reduce the ground till it is completely free from root-weeds, may be considered as a desiderutum in potato husbandry; though in many seasons these operations cannot be perfectly executed, without losing the proper time for planting, which never ought to be beyond the first of May, if circumstances do not absolutely interdict it. Three ploughings, with frequent harrowings and rollings, are necessary in most cases before the land is in suitable condition. " translates into something like, "Weeding is nessecary if you are growing potatoes, but sometimes the process takes too long and the potatoes are not planted on time." I think.

Is it possible to improve the language of the aforementioned jibberish? Even if it is a quote from a cited work, it's barely intelligible. It would be worthwhile to remove the passage and replace it with text not as obnoxiously worded. Kylesobrien 11:24, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

BTW as a side note, I've never heard the 'Irish Potato' thing from anyone of any age, and I'm in Portland.

"To grow potatoes you should till the ground to remove weeds; but in many seasons the ground cannot be tilled before the first of May, the ideal time for planting as far as circumstances allow. The ground should be ploughed three times (with frequent harrowings and rollings, whatever those are :)) before the ground is suitable for planting." (Or something! :)) Adam Bishop 04:00, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC)
The formatting made it unclear that the text was from an 1881 reference work. Since it's a quotation, it shouldn't be corrected! I have created a new section heading to clarify that the text is a quotation. Tomgally 16:52:15, 24 Jul 2006 (UTC)

Chitting

I'm quite surprised anyone has written about cultivation of potatoes without any mention of Chitting William Avery 19:18, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I added a picture of a potato with sprouts, seed tubers are mentioned only briefly in the article unfortunately. I'd write more but my English isn't the best unfortunately, not my native language. /Mathias Karlsson 2006-05-29

Potato Beetle

Why is there a picture of potato beetles on the page? It's a nice picture, but the article doesn't mention them and I think it might be a mistake. Do they eat potatoes, or just leaves? Have I missed something? Am I evil? Yes I am.Ashley Pomeroy 13:49, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)

  • Surprisingly, the current revision of the article doesn't mention the potato beetle at all. - Mike Rosoft 13:57, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Synonyms

Why no mention of tatties or spuds? Bovlb 04:25, 2005 Jan 12 (UTC)

  • or prities...or however you spell it - Admiralsith 14:25, 2007 Jul 01 (GMT)

Genetic Diversity

Genetic diversity of the potato in the Andes, demonstrating its homeland, hasn't been handled yet and needs a subsection. Google: "genetic diversity potato Andes" for a start! --Wetman 10:30, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Have tried to touch on it and still have it in keeping with this article as genetic diversity comes from cross polination of the plant and the production of fruits, see potato fruits. Andham2000 12:25, 4 May 2005 (UTC)

Russet Burbank often called Idaho potato

— Pekinensis 17:19, 27 July 2005 (UTC)

Although the above is not an untruth, calling Russet Burbanks "Idahos" would be considered a misnomer....as well as an injustice to the rest of the Russet Potato growing industry in the U.S.

64.146.249.18 18:42, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Scientific Classification

I may be being stupid, but it seems like the word "Tracheobionta" links to the flowering plants (Magnoliophyta) page, whereon the word "Tracheobionta" does not feature once. Is this right? --David.Mestel 09:09, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

that is correct

Featured article

Why is this not a featured article? It's really good. 64.231.163.172 23:10, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

Cultivation

When does one plant potatoes? In what season? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sreifa01 (talk • contribs) 12:10, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

It looks like the cultivation section was just ripped straight off other pages (or else they ripped straight off Wikipedia--always hard to say, but if they did, shame on them, because the cultivation section is really poorly written). It doesn't really talk about industrial cultivation, just how to do it yourself (I don't know the wikipedia policy on such things, and whether or not how to plant a garden potato is encyclopaedic). Except for perhaps the last paragraph, but I can't actually figure out what that's talking about. The whole section I think needs a complete rewrite, with a much larger focus on the general cultivation of potatoes (how much of the world crop is commercial? what are commercial techniques? compared with home garden? a brief review of where it is grown the most?) but I don't know anything about potato cultivation (and have more pressing things to research). I also unlinked "grape", because it sure doesn't make any sense to dig up potatoes with small, soft juicy fruit, three-pronged or not. I don't know what kind of grape the writer was actually referring to, so I can't relink it to anything. FireWorks 06:09, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

Mentioning when to plant them (which may vary by country I suppose) would not go amiss. (About now, in Devon I think.) Midgley 12:02, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
I would be curious to know how to cultivate potatos at home. The article mentions it but does not give very exact directions, which would be nice. For example, when is a good season to plant them, what kind of watering do they like, and do they prefer light or shade, and how can you tell when they are ready to harvest?
I think people looking for information on potatoes are mainly interested in home cultivating. Some info on commercial cultivation is of course also needed. I'd write more on home cultivating but am not fluent in the English language and don't want to mess up the article. I did add a seed tuber picture though, as that is mentioned in the article. /Mathias Karlsson 2006-05-29
But to understand the inportance of potatoes you need to know about commercial farming, not just how but also the extent of it and the varieties grown (and why). If I can find the time I'll try and add something. Meanwhile, "www.potato.org.uk". is a good source of general information.

Maccheek 10:07, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

"express bake" potatoes

has anyone heard of "express bake" potatos that are microwavable? how do they differ from normal potatoes?

Just a russet with shrink wrap on it, this is just a marketing gimmick, it doesn't cook any faster or better than a normal russet in the microwave, so save your cash and just buy plain bagged potatoes. All potatoes are microwavable, just poke em with a fork. -Munky

Freeze-drying in the Andes

For a very long time potatoes have been laid out to freeze in the dry air, broken up and laid out again and so on, until a fairly dry substance results. This is a storable food, historically of importance in survival. References not to hand. Midgley 12:06, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

Sounds like Smash without the additives to me. Wonder how they dehydrate the potatoes for Smash... Fourohfour 14:12, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

In the Andes (at heights above 4000 m,) the tubers of two potato species are naturally freeze dried. These are the species Solanum juzepczukii and Solanum curtilobum, both contain a mix of toxic glycoalkaloids (not only solanine) and taste bitter if consumed freshly. They are still cultivated because they are fairly resistant to frost, the reason they can be grown at higher altitudes. The freshly harvested tubers are spread out at night and get frozen by the night temperatures, the next day they are thawed again by the sun of the day, and then people walk on them with bare feet to extract the water. This process is repeated several times until a hard naturally freeze dried tuber is left. The product is called chuño in Peruvian Spanish (but the word is of Quechua origin.) Chuño can be kept for many years if stored under dry conditions.PeterSchmiediche 12:23, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Limited/no nutrition when not cooked?

I have previously read that potatoes have no nutritional value when raw because the starch chains are too long for human digestive enzymes or something like that. The article refers to this when it says in the cooking section: "The only requirement involves cooking — to break down the starch and make them edible," but then the "nutrition information" sidebar says that "Raw Potato" has 70 kcal of energy. So if there is a nutritional chemist who could perhaps develop that a little, put in some information about why potatoes need to be cooked, that would be cool.

Origin

Some scientists say that the sixty percent of the potatoes of the world came from Chiloe, Chile. This subject though is the topic of a major fight between Chilean and Peruvian scientists.

Chilean potatoes are adapted to long day conditions, Peruvian ones to short day conditions. There is sufficient evidence that the Andean short day potato was the one that first arrived in Southern Spain in about 1565, from where it spread to the rest of Europe, adapting to European long day conditions in a period of about two hundred years. In order to botanically distinguish potatoes adapted to long days from those thriving under short day conditions, Solanum tuberosum has been split into two subspecies by contemporary taxonomists, Solanum tuberosum ssp. tuberosum (adapted to long days) and Solanum tuberosum ssp. andigena (adapted to short days.) Apart from their different photoperiodic reaction, these two subspecies are also distinct morphologically, you have to be an experienced taxonomist though to spot those differences. Russian taxonomists have, in fact, created two different species in the early part of the 20th century, Solanum tuberosum and Solanum andigenum, to mark the same distinction. There is general agreement between modern day botanists that the potato originated in the Andes and that the process of adaptation to long days has happened once before as the potato moved from the Andes to the south of the continent. This was before the Europeans arrived in South America. Chile still has a large amount of valuable potato germplasm adapted to long days. User:PeterSchmiediche

I think you should add this into the article - just repeat what you have said here Nzattitude 17:53, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

Masses don't add up

The infobox in Potato#Food_value doesn't add up. It shows that every 100g of raw potato contains: 82g water, 2g proteins, 19g carbohydrates, 0.26g potassium, 0.1g lipids, and various other things in smaller amounts. The water plus carbs alone add up to 101g, and since presumably there is no part of the mass of the potato that counts as both water and carbohydrates, this seems odd. --Delirium 06:44, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Children's game

The supposed childrens game if telling the difference between a potato and an apple does not work, and is incorrectly cited.

Potatoes are too starchy, and not sweet enough to be mistaken for apples - even without the sense of smell.

The game is played with apples and onions, not potatoes. Onions are sweet, and with your eyes closed and holding your nose, the similarity in taste is striking. Not so with potatoes.

I have removed the offending sentence.


Whenever I have seen it done, with friends, twice on different TV programs and once in a magazine it has always been potato and apple.

I guess if we take another look at old superstitions they make no sense and can be vastly improved iif you go at them with logic. Tainted Deity 19:42, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Colorado potato beetle

Hey people, something needs to be said about this bug in the article, it is a major pest afterall. Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 18:35, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

etymology

The articles says that the word potato is from the Spanish word batata. Was the word taken from the Arabic word for potato, which is also batata? --Inahet 07:11, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

It seems more likely to me that the Arabs got the word from the Spanish. But what do I know? I thought the potato plant was an annual. Come to think of it some plants could be a thousand years old since the tubers are replanted year after year. Happy and heathy eating! Steve Dufour 04:08, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
Thank you, you too.
You got a point there, but I also think that not only the word but the product itself was perhaps introduced to the Arabs by the Spaniards. I think the answer lies in the date in which it came to the Arabs.

>>>I thought the potato plant was an annual.

Well, everyone learns that at some point. I didn't know that either until last year. I was also surprised to learn that the potato plant has poisonous fruits! --Inahet 05:49, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

The Spanish word for potatoe is patata. Not batata as mentioend above —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.110.1.113 (talk) 17:08, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

The section about Hebrew is misleading. It is called תפוח אדמה, but the statement in brackets is incorrect and should be removed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.170.171.246 (talk) 00:02, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Andean potatoes

Are the potatoes grown in the Andes all the same species? Or several different species? Thanks. Steve Dufour 03:48, 5 July 2006 (UTC)


No, the potatoes grown in the Andes are not all the same species. The major species is Solanum tuberosum ssp. andigena (a tetraploid with 48 chromosomes,) then there are four diploid species (with 24 chromosomes) by the names of Solanum stenotomum, Solanum phureja, Solanum goniocalyx and Solanum ajanhuiri. There are two triploid species (with 36 chromosomes) Solanum chaucha and Solanum juzepczukii, and finally there is one pentaploid cultivated species (with 60 chromosomes) called Solanum curtilobum. PeterSchmiediche 12:22, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Allergy

Has anyone ever met a person who is allergic to potatoes? The reason why I ask is because I am severely allergic to them and when I tell people they are shocked and say they've never heard of someone who has that allergy.

Poisonous.

I've noticed that somebody added , I have no idea why Potato is one of the Poisonous Plants. Could somebody explain on this? In my opinion, Potato is not a poisonous plants because Potato is root vegetable like Carrot. *~Daniel~* ☎ 03:04, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

So, the category that I mentioned is not existed, so I reverted it. *~Daniel~* ☎ 07:03, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

The potato fruit is poisionus and also the plant. Only the tubers are not. When it was first introduced in the UK people ate the leaves of the plant and got ill. - I have no reference for this though. Also when the potatoes go green they are poisionus but you have to eat about 2 sacks of them for it to be deadly. The potato is in the same family as deadly nightshade. If I could think of references for these it could be worth adding them, as it stands - short of saying UKTV history I could not reference them so can't put it in. User:Andham2000

Are potatoes poisonous? No. Potatoes are the number one vegetable in the world and are good for you. Potatoes and other members of the Nightshade family (Solanaceae) such as tomatoes and eggplants do contain specialty chemicals know as steroidal glycoalkaloids. These compounds are bitter and guidelines establish upper limits for the occurrence of these compounds in new potato varieties. The compounds are abundant in the leaves, not a problem in tomato fruit, but do accumulate in potato tubers. Bruised or sunburned – greening potatoes can have more of these compounds. This is why you peel away green skin and sprouting eyes before cooking and eating. Eating about 10 pounds of green potatoes could kill you but you would never finish the job because your mouth would be burning.Phytoman 20:26, 21 December 2006 (UTC)PhytomanPhytoman 20:26, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

GA Re-Review and In-line citations

Note: This article has a very small number of in-line citations for an article of its size and currently would not pass criteria 2b.
Members of the Wikipedia:WikiProject Good articles are in the process of doing a re-review of current Good Article listings to ensure compliance with the standards of the Good Article Criteria. (Discussion of the changes and re-review can be found here). A significant change to the GA criteria is the mandatory use of some sort of in-line citation (In accordance to WP:CITE) to be used in order for an article to pass the verification and reference criteria. It is recommended that the article's editors take a look at the inclusion of in-line citations as well as how the article stacks up against the rest of the Good Article criteria. GA reviewers will give you at least a week's time from the date of this notice to work on the in-line citations before doing a full re-review and deciding if the article still merits being considered a Good Article or would need to be de-listed. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us on the Good Article project talk page or you may contact me personally. On behalf of the Good Articles Project, I want to thank you for all the time and effort that you have put into working on this article and improving the overall quality of the Wikipedia project. --- The Bethling(Talk) 23:30, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

Reasons for GA Delisting

This article's GA status has been revoked because it fails criterion 2. b. of 'What is a Good Article?', which states;

(b) the citation of its sources using inline citations is required (this criterion is disputed by editors on Physics and Mathematics pages who have proposed a subject-specific guideline on citation, as well as some other editors — see talk page).

LuciferMorgan 01:06, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Starch

The article says:

Storage facilities need to be carefully designed to keep the potatoes alive and slow the natural process of decomposition, which involves the breakdown of starch. It is crucial that the storage area is dark, well ventilated and ideally maintained at a temperature of about 4 degrees Celsius. Potatoes must not be kept in a refrigerator. Cold temperatures convert potatoes' starch into sugar, which alters their taste.

Which, since refrigerators work at 4 degrees celsius, cannot possibly be true - either 4 degrees prevents starch breakdown or encourages it, not both.

The best information i've been able to find on this is from the International Starch Institute's memorandum on The Production of High Quality Potato Starch. It sounds like fridge temperatures are good, but if it gets towards freezing, that's bad.

-- Tom Anderson 2006-11-09 16:50 +0000

According to the 1990 British Crop Protection Council Handbook on potatoes (ISBN 0-948404-34-5) the ideal temperature for ware potatoes is 7°C. Tubers for processing in crisps should be kept at 8-10°C to prevent the formation of reducing sugars (which burn and cause the crisps to be too dark). Tubers for chipping or french fry production should be kept at 7-8°C. If there is a risk of bacterial soft rots the temperatures should be reduced to 4°C. If sugars have formed it may be possible to recondition tubers by raising the temperature to 20°C for 2-3 weeks. This works well with some varieties but not others. On first entry into store it is important to cure potatoes, to seal any wounds and harden (suberise) the skin. This normally involves keeping them at 15°C for 2 weeks. However, this may need to be varied depending on disease presence, damage or if the weather was wet at lifting. As an aside, most potatoes that are expected to be stored for any length of time will be sprayed with a formulation of maelic hydrazide as a sprout suppresant before harvest (it also slows down the sprouting of volunteers in the following crop making them easier less of a problem).

Maccheek 08:47, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

History

I came to this page hoping to see some history of the potato -- origins, how it spread to Europe and Asia, etc. The page seems to be lacking any consistent section on this -- compare to the Tomato page, for example.

I recently heard a story which prompted my curiosity. It says that the potato was first promoted in France by placing a large pile of potatoes in a public square in Paris and posting a guard with a bayonet, thus encouraging people to "steal" a potato to take home and cultivate. Can anybody confirm or deny this, or at least say whether it's a common legend? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.186.100.114 (talk • contribs) .

For what it's worth, the French article on potatoes mentions this story, along with a few more details. Daniel Schepler 15:37, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Are potatos fruits or vegetables?????????????

Botanically they are tubers not fruits so they count as root vegetables Maccheek 10:07, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Chef Spudnik?

Someone has inserted two references to "Spudnik".

Fourth largest crop?

The article states that potato is the "fourth largest crop in terms of fresh produce". The same is stated under the Banana article ("bananas rank fourth after rice, wheat and maize"). What is correct?

--User:kjellesvig 01:15, 22 December 2006 (GMT +1)

The potato is the fourth of the major food crops of the world, following rice, wheat and maize. There might be more bananas than potatoes in volume although I doubt that. Bananas are a fruit, whereas the potato is both a staple and a vegetable. Rice, wheat and maize (or corn for Americans) are all staples. However, and this is where this issue becomes interesting or even contradictory, in many parts of Africa, the banana is also a staple. PeterSchmiediche 12:29, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

The potato is the world's 4th food crop , but what is the 1st, 2nd and 3rd? I know they are rice, maize and wheat, but is the 1st food crop maize or wheat or rice? AACCBB (talk) 09:32, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Varieties?

Any chance of a listing of potato varieties - such as is included in the article for apples? (Some very strange spuds are appearing in my supermarket.) Mfgreen 04:07, 3 January 2007 (UTC)


Much like apples, potatoes have an abundance of varieties, but they are mainly categorized into a few main groups: Russets, Reds, Whites, Yellows (Sometimes called Yukons). Some varieties of Potatoes are specialized in that their starch/sugar content (an index referred to as 'gravity') may be more suitable for frying, chipping, or the fresh market. Although various, some common russet varieties in the U.S. are: Russet Burbank, Russet Norkotah & ranger. Some common red varieties are: Red Norland, Red Sangre, Calred & Lasoda. Although not as numerous, there are several yellow and white varieties. Some would consider 'chipping potatoes' a variety of their own, some of these being: Atlantic, Norchip & Willamette.

Nearly all of the above referenced varieties have their own sub-groups that are either already developed or are in the process of being developed. Some varieties are popular with the fresh market because of taste or looks, others are popular for processing because of their particular starch/sugar make-up. Most newer varieties also combine the desired traits with other benefits, such as resistance to pests or disease. I thought the article was good from a historical perspective, but overly emphasized the negative. Potatoes are incredibly nutritious and would be a welcome alternative for today's busy lifestyle.

Mxwl99 05:49, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

The following are all commercialized in Europe; Bintje, Cara, Charlotte, Desiree, Estima, Hermes, King Edward, Maris Peer, Maris Piper, Marfona, Nadine, Nicola, Pentland, Russet Burbank, Rosetta, Sante, Saturna, Saxon, Shepody, Wilja Franceline, Mona Lisa, Ty Bodaveri;

Variety is critical depending on the market a farmer is aiming at. Specific varieties are grown for different sorts of processing, crisping, chipping (i.e. making into french fries) etc. Useful information is available at "www.potato.org.uk".

Maccheek 10:07, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

There are about five thousand potato varieties world wide, three thousand of them are found in the Andes alone, mainly in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia. They belong to eight or nine species, depending on your taxonomic school. Apart from the five thousand cultivated varieties, there are about 200 wild species, many of which can be cross-bred with cultivated species, which has been done repeatedly to transfer resistances to certain pests and diseases from the genepool of wild to the genepool of cultivated potato species. The list of varieties found in European, North American or Asian markets is very short, and these varieties are all of the same species, Solanum tuberosum ssp. tuberosum. PeterSchmiediche 13:58, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Contradictory Sentence

"Dr. Douglas L. Holt, the State Extension Specialist for Food Safety at the University of Missouri - Columbia, notes that no reported cases of potato-source solanine poisoning have occurred in the U.S. in the last 50 years and most cases involved eating green potatoes or drinking potato-leaf tea."

Make up your mind. - MSTCrow 00:39, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Makes perfect sense to me. No cases in the last 50 years and most of the cases (ones over 50 years ago) involved green potatoes or leaf teas. Involved... past tense. --Crimson30 16:43, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

There was a case of fatal solanine poisoning in Ireland in the early twenties of the last century. In an exceptionally dry summer, potatoes had grown under extreme stress, and many tubers contained high amounts of solanine. Normally, a tuber that contains very high amounts of solanine is green if it was exposed to light because certain wave lengths of light cause the synthesis not only of chlorophyll but also of glycoalkaloids. However, it appears that extreme stress will also support the synthesis of glycoalkaloids. So far, this has not been conclusively proven. PeterSchmiediche 12:40, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Cooking away toxins/solanine...

This sentence is a bit vague: "Cooking at high temperatures (over 170 °C or 340 °F) partly destroys these." I found a reference here that states: "Solanine is not destroyed in the cooking process." and thought maybe some consolidation of the two statements might be in order. Also, the wiki page on solanine mentions that boiling will not reduce levels of solanine. --Crimson30 16:52, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Boiling will not reduce levels of glycoalkaloids, of which solanine is only one. Dehydration, however, will. User:PeterSchmiediche 12:14, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Most potatoes eaten in 24 hours

I deleted this trivia comment, because I can't find any other reference to it anywhere on the internet, and in particular on the Guiness book of records website. If anyone has a reference to it they can add it back in. Mrjeff 19:36, 19 February 2007 (UTC)



'low-growing habit'

From the second section: 'potatoes have a low-growing habit'. I think I know what this means, but I'd like to be sure. Whoever knows what it means, please expand/rephrase. Vranak

"low-growing habit" refers to the growth habit of the potato, which, depending on variety and species, is normally very low (around 30 to 40 cm in height), some specially bred varieties may even have a kind of rosette habit. However, under some growing conditions potatoes can grow 60 even 75 cm high. PeterSchmiediche 12:14, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

Removed sentence

[2] If "4 to 9 good potatoes" would suffice to be seriously sick, why are there no reported cases in the last 50 years? ("Dr. Douglas L. Holt, the State Extension Specialist for Food Safety at the University of Missouri - Columbia, notes that no reported cases of potato-source solanine poisoning have occurred in the U.S. in the last 50 years and most cases involved eating green potatoes or drinking potato-leaf tea." -- from the article). Fred-Chess 20:28, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

The data in that section does seem somewhat contradictory. If 12.5mg were the safe limit, then @ 200mg/kg solanine you would only need to eat 60g of potatoes to be poisoned! However it seems from solanine that the fatal dose is typically around 10-20 times this; but this still leaves a 1 kg limit which is inconsistent with the rarity of poisoning. I have done some digging and found that the actual content varies and may be as much as 25 times lower than the limit. Moreover, since it is mainly in the skin, you could avoid 90% of it by peeling the potatoes. On average, it would seem the toxic limit is likely to be around 2 kg unpeeled or 20 kg peeled potatoes. Samatarou 20:18, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Addition?

In the third point in the trivia subsection one could add that a potato is sometimes called γεώμηλο in Greek, which also means the apple of the earth.

Also "pomme de terre" in French, which means the same thing. If it occurs in several languages, is it even notable? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.5.36.1 (talk) 00:18, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Purple potato

I just ate purple potatoes that I bought from the supermarket. They're bloody PURPLE. Anybody know anything about them?

Potatoes with purple or red flesh are found in the Andes of Peru and neighboring Andean countries. They are not very common but also not rare. Some of the Andean red or purple fleshed varieties have made it to Europe and other parts of the world where they are cultivated as a curiosity. The red or purple color is caused by a concentration of anthocyanin, which is also produced in flowers and stems. Anthocyanins are not toxic, but do not add much to the taste of the purple potato either. PeterSchmiediche 08:23, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

Non Functional Links

Four links in the references section of the potato page are not working. These links are:

1. Munsters http://www.munters.com/www/uk/home.nsf/FS1?ReadForm&content=/www/uk/home.nsf/ByKey/ABRL-5JRFH5

2. Ronniger's Potato Farm http://www.ronnigers.com/HTML%20Pages/growingframe.html

3. Organic Facts http://www.organicfacts.net/organic-vegetables/organic-potato/organic-control-of-potato- Another link has been pasted in this link

4. http://www.the-spud-taste.co.uk/

How does one correct them?

History

I noticed that articles about potato in other languages often have history of potato in country of that language (for example, Serbia, Russia or Belarus), so I'd like to merge it into this article. Any suggestions? Nikola 12:14, 7 July 2007 (UTC)


there is no reference to parmentier who promoted potatoes in france and europe to fight famine. it's an important person in the history. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 83.195.251.28 (talk) 18:51:17, August 19, 2007 (UTC)

It's over nine thousand

From the article's "Regional Dishes" section:

Peruvian Cuisine naturally contains the potato as a primary ingredient in many dishes, as over 9,000 varieties[citation needed] of this tuber are grown there. Some of the more famous dishes include Papa a la huancaina, Papa rellena, Ocopa, Carapulcra, Causa and Cau Cau among many others.


And from the "Origin and history" section:

There are about five thousand potato varieties world wide. Three thousand of them are found in the Andes alone, mainly in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia. They belong to eight or nine species, depending on the taxonomic school.

There seems to be a slight contradiction, there. I wonder what Vegeta would have to say about this. kenohki 20:19, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

I changed this yesterday to 3000 in Peru, supported by a cite. There's also another reference I found though which talks of "over 100 varieties" per valley and which suggests the total number of Peruvian varieties is not really known and has probably been underestimated. (I've added the "hundred per valley" mention (and cite) to the bit at the start of the article to give some substance to the reference to a "remarkable diversity" of varieties being grown in Peru.) Samatarou 16:47, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

The International Potato Center in Peru (it's Spanish acronym is CIP) holds the World Collection of potato germplasm, and there are indeed about 3000 varieties of Peruvian potatoes, the exact number is naturally not known, but 3000 must be pretty close to the true number because Peruvian and other explorers, such as the legendary Peruvian botanist Carlos Ochoa or the equally famous Englishmen Jack Hawkes, but also collectors from other countries, notably Russia, Germany or Denmark, have really searched every nook and cranny of the Andes. A good place to start searching is still the local market of any given region. There are about 5000 varieties world wide, which can be verified in official registers, however, not everywhere do such registers exist. PeterSchmiediche 03:51, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Potatoes (varieties) navbox

This does not seem to be very useful. It's only a small subset of the 1,000's of varieties with no clear selection based on importance. Papalisa isn't a potato. Almond potato is a direct translation whereas it should be just called Mandel as in the original Swedish--JBellis 21:50, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

Agree - given the large number a List on a separate page would be the best bet. No-one is editing this page in a concerted fashion though I did intend to in the future at some stage. It'd be worth looking at the template to see who authored it and drop them a note. I may get round to it in a month or so. cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 22:53, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
The navbox was added by anon user 81.104.177.44 with the comment Added navbox for varieties. Is a bit rough and ready, but useful. but it doesn't seem to have worked as it was blank and was fixed to show titles much later. I'm proposing to get rid of it soon rather than later.--JBellis 19:04, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
Sounds good to me. cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 22:53, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Edit according to...

I think this potato article can be further improved by using the International Year of the Potato website: www.potato2008.org , as a reference, but do state this source/reference. I find the website very informative, and I think it can solve many qns.

AACCBB (talk) 09:25, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Someone please add a popular culture section, with the following entry:

  • In the Simpsons episode Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song, Marge tries to give Bart a potato, and Bart says "Mom, you're always trying to give me potatoes. What gives?". She replies "I just think they're neat". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.88.29.195 (talk) 00:37, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

Potato Bootatah

Bootatah is the greatest vegetable, the reason i am writing bootatah is because bootatah is potato in arabic with an indian accent,

FIGHT THE POWER —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.240.74.195 (talk) 01:21, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Tater Tots/Hash Browns

It seems unnecessary to specify a type of hash browns. Better to use the general term. Besides, without a reference to substantiate it, how do we know that Tater Tots are more prevalent? That's not my experience. Tmangray (talk) 16:03, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Varieties

I'm surprised that the article did not mention the wide variety of potato types available, of both traditional and modern breeds. I got the impression from it that most potato varieties are North American, as even the listing seemed to support that impression. In fact, according to The European Cultivated Potato Database, Germany has 941 of its own potato varieties, The Netherlands has 647, the UK has 427 home-grown breeds whilst the USA has 210.

(Lambrettaguy2008 (talk) 08:07, 30 March 2008 (UTC))

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