Growing Four Corners Potato - Solanum jamesii

Описание: This year we grew a few different species of wild potato, including Four Corners Potato - Solanum jamesii. This species is sometimes known as Colorado Wild Potato, Pecos Potato, Texas Wild Potato, or James' Wild Potato.

There are a large number of species of wild potato native to North America, but only three species are indigenous to the United States. Four Corners Potato is probably the most famous of these three. It is a desert adapted species that is found mostly in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and it ranges south into Mexico.

Ethnobotanical and archeological evidence has shown that this species has been utilized by Native American cultures in the Southwest for at least 8000 years. There is also compelling evidence that Four Corners Potato was at least semi-cultivated by the Ancestral Puebloan peoples sometimes called the Anasazi. The collected genetic diversity of S. jamesii is strongly correlated with ancient acheological sites such as Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon. It is believed that these cultures collected the potato from other sites and replanted them in and near their agricultural fields as an additional crop.

Four Corners Potato grew surprisingly well for me considering I do not live in the desert Southwest, the seedlings grew vigorously. I did have some problems with damping off, but that isn't unusual for domesticated potato seedlings either. The plants are aggressive stolonizers as is true of all wild potatoes, and they began showing this from the seedling stage. I should have planted my Four Corners Potato in some large containers to maintain control over where the tubers where placed, but I didn't consider the implications of growing a wild species fully. So I have tubers all over the place as you can see.

Some incredible attributes that this plant possesses include: Tuber freeze tolerance to well below zero degrees F, extreme tuber dormancy (up to 10 years of viable dormancy in the lab), extreme drought tolerance, and total immunity to Late Blight Phytophthora infestans. That's an astounding list for such a tiny tuber. Its such a fun species to play with.

In terms of safety and edibility, it is wise to be extremely cautious when consuming Four Corners Potato. It is known that S. jamesii was and is used as food by Native American cultures, but the glycoalkaloid levels of tomatine in the tubers has varied between accessions. The toxicity of tomatine is also not entirely clear, but it is known that human taste receptors do not easily discern between high and low levels of tomatine in foods. This means it may be possible to eat a food such as Four Corners Potato that contains dangerous levels of tomatine without being able to taste any warning signs. With other glycoalkaloids from other potato species such as solanine in domesticated potatoes, dangerously toxic concentrations are detected as bitter and repellent. IT IS WISE TO BE CAUTIOUS WHEN EATING WILD POTATOES. I have eaten some Four Corners Potato with no ill effects, but I've only eaten a small quantity at one time. Please be careful, and avoid being a reckless idiot.

Here's a link to Cultivariable's page on Solanum jamesii for more information, I cribbed a lot of his notes in this description and in the video. https://www.cultivariable.com/instruc...

Here's a link to a Salt Lake Tribune article about Four Corners Potato being grown for a benefit dinner at the Natural History Museum of Utah. Great picture in this of the stolons and tubers in a pot. https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/10/0...

Here's a link to the weed seed dormancy study done by Professor William Beal over 120 years ago at Michigan State University, I'd like to try a smaller scale experiment with Four Corners potato to see how long they remain viable at soil temperatures. https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2000/12...