Origin of the First European Potatoes and their Reaction to Length of Day

Abstract

THE point at issue between Dr. van der Plank and ourselves seems to be whether the Andean short-day potatoes were or were not at a disadvantage when brought to Europe in the late sixteenth century. We have stated that we consider they were at some disadvantage¹, at any rate in Great Britain, where they would normally have been cut down by frost before maturity. Although occasionally we have been able to leave some of our S. andigenum varieties in the field so late as November 26, even then they were far from being mature, nor was the yield so high as was obtained from commercial varieties under similar conditions. Under such conditions the potato plants would have been subjected to short days for at least ten weeks, but possibly the temperature and light intensity at that time of the year were unsuitable for rapid tuber development. The experiment to which Dr. van der Plank makes reference² was conducted under glass and hence is scarcely referable to the point at issue.