Every year during the last 6 decades, I have seen this on certain potato varieties. I always thought it was a weakness of sorts within the variety. I will explain the more scientific natures of it later in this message.
I have planted these aerial potato tubers with some success, but it is not something I recommend. It is fun to see the various colored fleshed types expressed in these aerial tubers. Sorry, I have no pictures.
If stolons and underground stems are severely infected, most noticeable are the signs of Rhizoctonia, the flow of starch from the leaves to the developing tubers is interrupted. This results in small, green tubers, called aerial tubers forming on the stem above the soil, or more exact, leaf axils on aerial stems Formation of aerial tubers may indicate that the plant has no tubers of marketable quality below ground.
Factors that could cause this:
·insect and mechanical injury to lower parts of plant stems,
·various pathogens such as Rhizoctonia solani, viruses and chemical injury.
Last edited by Tom Wagner; October 24, 2007 at 02:18 AM.
Reason: not finished
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