. The book of the garden. Gardening. ESCULENT-EOOTED PLANTS.âTHE POTATO. 207 distant from the stems of the plants of â which they once formed parts. If the tubers be placed with their leading buds upwards, a few very strong and very early shoots will spring from them; but if their position be reversed, many weaker and later shoots will be produced, and not only the earliness but the quality of the produce, in size, will be much affected. To the selection of sets some have at- tached great importance; for ourselves, we prefer, as stated above, medium-sized whole tubers, as these are not over-ri
. The book of the garden. Gardening. ESCULENT-EOOTED PLANTS.âTHE POTATO. 207 distant from the stems of the plants of â which they once formed parts. If the tubers be placed with their leading buds upwards, a few very strong and very early shoots will spring from them; but if their position be reversed, many weaker and later shoots will be produced, and not only the earliness but the quality of the produce, in size, will be much affected. To the selection of sets some have at- tached great importance; for ourselves, we prefer, as stated above, medium-sized whole tubers, as these are not over-ripened, and because they do not require to be cut as larger ones do. Large tubers have been recommended, but have been shown to be of no advantage whatever. It has also been proved that, if the tubers are over- ripened, they are apt to produce disease. It is, therefore, better to take up the seed- potatoes before they become over-ripe; or, still better, to purchase seed from upland situations, where the potato seldom ripens to full maturity. The argument of those who advocate the planting diseased tubers in preference to sound ones, is practically, that they soon rot away after the young shoot has begun to germinate, while sound sets are apt to repaain till the ripening of the crop, retaining in themselves the germ of the diseaseâthus showing an effort, on the part of nature, to throw off the disease. Professor Lindley on this point remarks, " Gard. Chron.," 1850 : « It is possible that the morbid matter which causes disease may disappear in the general decay of the tuber, in the one case, and may remain unchanged in the other, prepared to seize upon the haulm as soon as it is ready to receive its ; The experiments of Mr Smith, of Wokingham, Berkshire, ap- pear to be very conclusive in this respect, and highly deserving of our attention. Mr Smith planted wry much diseased sets on the 18th of March, the crop from which was ripe and taken up on the 2
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, booksubjectgardening, bookyear18
