POTATOES 



1705 



Sprouting of Potato Tubers During Grow- 

 ing Season; How to Prevent It 



P. J. O'Gara, Pathologist 



It has been said that "there is no royal 

 road to potato-growing on the Pacific 

 coast," and this saying is decidedly true. 

 While much may be said of the adapta- 

 bility of many of the commercial vari- 

 eties of potatoes grown in the East to 

 this district, climatic conditions are more 

 or less responsible for this. Little has 

 been done to originate new varieties of 

 potatoes for our particular climatic con- 

 ditions, and the experimental work in 

 the acclimatizing of the older commer- 

 cial varieties so popular under eastern 

 conditions has been very meager. The 

 important matter of potato-growing in 

 our district alone opens up a broad field 

 for investigation, and, if prosecuted as 

 it should, would certainly lead to im- 

 portant results. 



It is commonly stated that this dis- 

 trict is not a potato district. This state- 

 ment would be entirely true if certain 

 varieties of potatoes were to be planted 

 and grown under unfavorable conditions. 

 The matter of when to plant for both 

 early and late varieties is a considera- 



tion so important that even the most 

 adaptable varieties will not bring results 

 if this one factor is overlooked. 



One of the greatest troubles experi- 

 enced by potato growers is the so-called 

 secondary sprouting, which usually oc- 

 curs after the tubers have almost reached 

 their full size. Usually this sprouting 

 occurs during the middle of July, or a 

 little later, depending upon the season. 

 Another trouble is the erroneously named 

 "dry rot," which, after all, is not a rot, 

 but rather a browning of the fibro-vascu- 

 lar bundles in the tubers, and is physiolo- 

 gical. We shall show that both these 

 troubles are due to very much the same 

 conditions. If there are any unfavorable 

 climatic conditions during the formative 

 period of the tuber, especially about the 

 time the tuber is very nearly full size, 

 either one of the above troubles, or both, 

 are liable to be the result. 



Every one has noticed that a tree hav- 

 ing its leaves severely injured to the 

 extent that partial defoliation will take 

 place, subsequent sprouting or pushing 

 of the buds, which should have remained 

 dormant until the next season, will take 

 place. For instance, in the East and the 

 South, where the pear leaf blight fungus 



Beauty of Hebron. 



Early Prazee. 



Garnichili. 



