Coveted historical potatoes

More and more people want to grow these plant treasures, but for most of them, there are no certified seed potatoes available. With the help of MainPotRe Project, potatoes with valuable genetic resources are being used more widely because potatoes are still seen as important. The potato’s 300-year history is intertwined with years of famine, wars, and major changes in society.

The article describes the origin of the potato, the history of potato cultivation in Finland, the breeding history in Finland, the safety collection of NordGen, and MainPotRe project. There are illustrations from ‘Lemin punanen’ (on page 15), ‘Jutkula’ (known by the Swedish name of Tysk blå in NordGen’s collection) (on p. 16), and the cultivar ‘Jaakko’ (bred in Finland in 1951) (p. 18) by MTTK (present-day Luke).

Ella Räty’s article “Himooitut historiskalet perunat” in which Maarit Heinonen is interviewed, was published in the magazine Kotipuutarha, 4/2025.

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