Notes on the Effects of Day Length on Potato Yields

Abstract

A number of workers have considered that the potato (Solanum tuberosum) cannot be grown successfully in the tropics because it is a long-day plant requiring the long summer days of temperate regions to produce good yields, and that it is therefore fundamentally unsuited to the relatively short days of twelve hours Or so obtaining in the tropics. Moreau [1] has recently pointed out that, in spite of this, potatoes can produce good yields at the higher altitudes in East Africa, if good farming methods are used and the rains are adequate. Some explanation of the paradox has been seen by the writer on reading a recent paper by Driver and Hawkes [2].