Abstract
POTATO growers when considering the purchase of seed for next year's planting should obtain the leaflet on seed potatoes which the National Institute of Agricultural Botany, Cambridge, issues free of charge. Despite the encouragement given to potato breeding by the Ministry of Agriculture, and Scottish and Irish Departments of Agriculture for many years, more than 90 per cent of the potato acreage in Great Britain is still planted with varieties which have been on the market for more than twenty years. In most cases, newer varieties could be introduced with considerable benefit, and it is suggested that growers who are naturally reluctant to discard varieties with which they are familiar should at least try small quantities of the newer kinds so that they can test for themselves the value of the recommendations made. In the first-early class, Arran Pilot and Doon Early are suggested, while Gladstone,Redskin and Arran Signet are the recommendations for second-early or main crop potatoes. For late main crop, Dunbar Standard and Arran Cairn both produce white kidney tubers of excellent quality. A number of the older varieties are susceptible to wart disease and possess such faults as poor shape, indifferent cooking quality and proneness to second growth, but these new varieties are immune from wart disease and are only recommended after careful trial. The certificates issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Scottish and Irish Departments of Agriculture for growing crops of potatoes, are a reliable guide to the standard of health of the purchased seed, and growers should become familiar with the different grades, that they may understand the nature of the guarantee supplied.
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Recommendations for Seed Potatoes. Nature 141, 934 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141934b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141934b0