How Potatoes Evolved | Hacker News Reader

How Potatoes Evolved

nhm.ac.uk

120 pointsgmays54 comments

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 window-sills is kinda fun and rewarding, but growing a "proper crop" feels even more rewarding. And surprising because you have to wait until you dig things up to see how well you did!

Where I am it's often not warm and dry enough through summer for chillies and tomatoes. If there are a few cooler, wetter weeks then they do poorly.

Potatoes are a bit better in that respect.

But in poor weather conditions, blight can easily set in on the potatoes and tomatoes. Which makes it a lot less worthwhile.

I tried planting ones I've left in storage for too long once, even buried them a bit underground. The next day the only thing left was snail trails ):

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!)

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 accounting that they were a smaller variety. The container we used was likely too shallow.

Does anyone have other vegetable suggestions for us apartment-dwelling container growers to try? We have a few different size containers available ranging from about (in inches) 12x12x36 to 24x24x24 and space for more.

Try dwarf French beans.

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.

The most productive things I grow (temperate/cool climate in coastal BC) and then actually eat/enjoy:

- Zucchini always grows more than we can use, but they're really good. I pick them very small (~6") so the plant continues producing and growing more

- Chard grows year-round and is very resilient and low-maintenance. It's great in casseroles, soups, sautees, and other cooked formats

- Kale is similar. It'll just keep on giving

- Bush beans are amazing in summer, and if you've got vertical space, pole beans can be incredible producers too. My 8 foot raised bed has a single row of pole beans, and I've been harvesting from them for about 6 weeks with plenty more to come. This single row is very densely planted, but I feed it heavily and ensure it's fully exposed to the sun. With enough nutrients and water, you'll get pounds of beans. Again I pick them relatively small and often

- Nasturtiums make a beautiful flower but the leaves and flowers are incredible in salads, and their seed pods can be used to make a really delicious pickle/ferment as well. Throw them in hanging baskets and use them to make fun salads

- Scallions are a fun one that can be densely planted and only need 6" or so of depth. Bulb onions can be a bit more sensitive and demanding, but scallions are pretty easy going. I stagger the plantings throughout spring so I can harvest bunches of them every few weeks. They never seem to do poorly

I grow lots of other stuff but I don't always eat or enjoy them as much as these things. One exception is lettuces and other greens/herbs, but I grow those hydroponically indoors because it allows for a system that makes timing and harvesting much easier so I'm more likely to ensure it doesn't go to waste

I forgot to mention that I tried Kale but as soon as it started sprouting, the local chipmunks dug it all up, but left the carrots and potatoes alone. I'll have to build a cage next season.

Definitely add your other suggestions to the list. We are in Michigan, US, so harvest is soon, then Winter, so plenty of time to plan and prep as we learn more about container gardening.

To get long slender carrots like you see at the supermarket I think you need deep very loose soil. My dad gardened for years and never had good luck with carrots. Our soil was just too heavy (a lot of clay) and even with the addition of a lot of sand they always grew fat and stumpy. He grew them every year regardless.

Garlic takes a long time, but it's easy and doesn't take up much space. It also repels some critters that might otherwise help themselves to your crops.

I second the garlic recommendation here. It is more tolerant to nutrient and water variability than most crops. Slugs and many other pests won’t bother it.

If you do give it regular fertilizer and water then you can plant it extremely densely, seeding just a few inches apart. Great for apartment dwellers with raised bed or container gardens.

We plant around Halloween and harvest in early July. That leaves time and space for a late summer crop if you wish.

Also, garlic stores very well. We harvest about 100 bulbs each year from a small plot, maybe 2-3 sq m., and that gives us garlic for a year, fresh, cured, minced (into butter or pesto), and for gifts.

And don’t even get me started on how amazing and versatile garlic scapes are. The scape harvest is its own prized crop!

Added: I’m in Vancouver. Garlic seems to love the overwintering process here, usually with some light snow.

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.

One of the most gratifying things I've done in the garden was grow a potato tower. The first time I used a variety which doesn't root out very well from stems, so the results were really disappointing. A few years later I figured out my mistake and tried with a more suitable variety, and it was like a vertical potato farm in a 1.5m radius. We were so excited with how many potatoes came out, haha. I never expected knocking down a pile of soil and discovering potatoes to be so exhilarating. Especially after the first run was such a disappointment

That’s essentially half the plot of the Martian, they were pretty “easy” to grow. ;)

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 almost-complete food. This has morphed into The Potato Diet, which calls for eating potatoes and only potatoes for a short period of time.

  From the start of October through November in 2010, 
  Voigt consumed only spuds, a few basic seasonings 
  and small amounts of oil for cooking. His endeavor 
  drew attention from NBC’s Today Show, CBS News, Fox, 
  NPR and the UK’s Daily Telegraph.
  
  Voigt documented his journey through a blog 
  ( 20potatoesaday.com ). Tired of potatoes 
  getting a bad rap as being nothing but fattening 
  starch and carbs, he wanted to make a statement 
  that proved potatoes were very nutritious.

- https://spudman.com/article/all-potato-diet-eight-years-late...

The theory behind it is that potatoes are the most filling food of all, so it is hard to over-eat. I tried this diet, and it works for weight loss, but it soon made me feel very unsatisfied. But with a little bit of variation, i.e. making potatoes the base and adding limited extra ingredients, you can sustain on it longer.

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.

The Danes (maybe all Scandinavians?) eat potatoes with almost every meal. Do they have a higher incidence of diabetes?

That is misleading. Potatoes are ranked as one of the most satiating foods per calorie. The problem is people put a lot of butter/oil on them. Or eat them too processed.

Potatoes are not particularly high on the satiety index (~33%). Brocolli and spinach are much higher at near 100%

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/marty.kendall7139/viz...

I've been reading that what gives potatoes a satiety boost is that they contain proteinase inhibitors. These limit your appetite by disrupting your digestion. Maybe they are more effective as a weight loss food than the raw nutrition numbers would suggest, but for an athlete that wants to cut I don't think slowing your ability to digest amino acids is a good idea.

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

What on earth?!

Why would they want to remove it if it’s an almost complete food?

Read the original quote for full context.

Can you tell me more about nightshade intolerance among addicts?

Iirc the mild poisons in nightshades trigger the learned helplessness response in people who are on the jagged edge of sobriety.

I think I remember where I read this - check your protonmail address.

Where does the idea that potatoes are "almost-complete" in terms of nutrition come from? If you look up nutrition facts for potatoes:

-1 potato contains 110 calories

-Lets say our hypothetical adult will eat 10 potatoes to hit 2200 calories

-The only nutrients which potatoes provide more than 10% recommended daily value are Iron, vitamins C and B6. The iron is not heme iron and therefore may actually be worth less, but we'll say it's enough just for the sake of argument. Potassium and phosphorous are close at 9% and 8%, but everything else is lower.

-The fat content is negligible, which is a problem because your brain is made out of fat

-20 grams of incomplete protein means your body can't repair muscle or bone adequately.

-No cholesterol, which also has negative outcomes

This is a high calorie starvation diet.

This week’s episode of the BBC podcast The Infinite Monkey Cage was 42 minutes of Science Comedy dedicated to the spud, featuring the same expert as the OP.

Most interesting fact I learned was the effort going toward making potato seeds (not seed potatoes).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002fxn7

> 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.

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...

I interpreted it as "they're part of the class of foods that, depending on the culture, can make up to 80% of the calories of each meal'.

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.

By "in South America" they meant "South of America" :-)

The actual paper in question: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(25)00736-6

Funded by Chinese and US government agencies and agricultural research programs.

> 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.

This one always bothers me. Mexico is in North America.

Right below the Gulf of America! /s

Perhaps the word "Latin America" would have been more apt?

I suppose that coincidentally works in this case where they’re inexplicably omitting the wild potato species in the United States.

I personally would have just gone with “the Americas.”

Not wanting to be completely petty, isn't this true of all viable hybrids? Some acquisition of genes from both sides is demanded to make a distinction worthy of speciation.

Not that I don't love spuds.

I don't think there is any specific feature that makes potatoes unique.

Two chromozome copies are typical for animals, but the number of copies in plants varies widely, and and often changes easily, even different variants of the same crop can have different numbers of copies.

Underground storage organs are nothing unique, and those of potatoes are not even particularly large. Many places prohibit fig trees for example, because what you see is basically just the tip, and there can be a giant 100m in diameter underground that ruins every underground structure in its path. But it's full of nasty toxic sap, and harvesting it would be a nightmare.

It's just the particular combination of fast growth, edibility, and ease of cloning and harvest that makes potatoes unique.

Well according to the article.. tomatoes supplied a gene which turns off and on tuber expression and the other side supplied a gene for underground stems (not roots) and to be a potato demands both.

There are more than 4000 varieties of potatoes available in shops around the world.

You say tomato, I say potato.

I dislike potatoes because they are not trve roots but are instead tubers. Beetroot and radishes are where the real stuff is happening. The potato is a vegetable of stupefaction, radishes make you hyper-intelligent.

your comment shows that you are a real foodie, but unfortunately missunderstood , or rather it was the downvoting that made re read your comment and go "hey ya!, good one"

I read it, and I must be eating too many potatoes because I have no idea what they are on about.

somewhere, sometime, someone, will perhaps, pull a radish out of there garden, wipe the dirt off and hand it to you, likely demonstrating the next step of eating it....which unlike your first potatoe, you will remember

It's all true. How else would Idahoans be so consistently dimwitted?

As an idahoan, I would take offense, except I'm too dumb to realize I've been insulted.

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