It was first grown in Spain and tubers were exported to other parts of Europe. At first, yields were low in Europe because the potatoes from Peru were adapted to short-day growing condition and tuberised poorly in the days of European summers.
Eventually, selections were made for lines of potatoes that would initiate tubers under longer day growing conditions.
By the early part of the 17th century it was found in the botanical gardens of many European states.
The botanist Charles de L’Ecluse (Carolus Clusius) first describes the potato in his Rariorum plantarum historia of 1601 and then again in a section devoted to ‘American exotics’ in a 1605 work.
The cultivation then spread into Portugal, Italy, France, Belgium and Germany.
It was introduced into Ireland in 1585 or 1586 and in England in 1590. Ireland was the first country in Europe where the potato became a major food-crop.
The first certain mention of potato-growing in Ireland is in County Down in 1606, but its spread thereafter was rapid, By the end of the 17th century potatoes were the chief article in the diet of all the poorer classes in Ireland.
It was from Ireland that the potato was first introduced to the North American colonies. Its cultivation seems to have been begun by Irish emigrants to New England in 1718.
The first botanical description of the potato was published by the Swiss botanist, Caspar Bauhin in 1596.
History of potato in Europe
