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Whidbey Island

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/11/04/doug-ugly-potato-worlds-biggest-new-zealand/6279941001/

11/4/2021 9:56:01 PM

Partlow,Va

Oh My! Quite the story!

11/5/2021 9:04:56 AM

Netherlands

Too bad it's a hoax. Not a potato at all, not even a distant relative. Just a root ball from a perennial plant. Potatoes don't live for years, at best just a few months.

11/5/2021 4:42:51 PM

Grittyville, WA

How do you know it's a hoax?

The lack of eyes? Well he froze it so it's dead now... if was a potato no one would be able to grow it now.

11/6/2021 2:19:00 AM

Netherlands

Potatoes don't spontaneously grow somewhere and do that for years on end. A giant potato grower looked at it and confirmed it was not a potato but a rootball from another plant. There are no eyes and also there is no reason why it should have rotted away so quickly. A potato like that can be stored for half a year no problem, like the past world records have.

11/6/2021 4:54:32 AM

Bethlehem CT

I am not convinced either way. Some observations I have made when growing potatoes for the past 30 years or more.
I do have potatoes come up in my garden that " volunteer" themselves. WHich is pretty impressive to me since I live in a climate that has the ground freeze each winter. (somehow they survive.). Sweet potatoes will and can resume growth if replanted in the ground after being stored over the winter. I am mot aware of that happening with irish potatoes. HOwever when I plant whole potato in the ground (instead of cutting them up to into seed pieces) some of them don't rot and if I am not careful I can put them in the sack when harvesting. They have an off color and will rot with in a few weeks of being harvested. Gross! They are mostly water by that point. Perhaps the potato he harvested had grown in that spot the year before?
If it is not a potato what weed produces a tuber/root like that? The only thing that comes to mind is Jerusalem artichoke?
Guinness will set the record straight. One interesting note that actually works against it being a potato is that it is soooo much bigger than the previous record. (like 7 pounds bigger). How is that possible?

11/6/2021 9:19:04 AM

Netherlands

Sweet potatoes are no relation to potatoes. Mandrake, ginger, etc are plants with those kind of roots. The grower did not grow potatoes in that spot the year before, or even years before and even if he did, potatoes don't grow larger in the second year and he would have had all kinds of other potatoes in the spot as well, which he didn't. The really big potatoes are always potatoes with appendages, most commonly from a stain called "Kondor" which are red outside and yellow inside.

11/6/2021 12:48:27 PM

Hamilton - New Zealand

I'm not sure it is a hoax as such, I think they believe it is a potato. But as pointed out it probably isn't.

People don't know what they don't know. But yeah I wondered how it was so much bigger than the previous record.

11/6/2021 10:56:31 PM

Grittyville, WA

It looks like this. Internet searching has now turned into rotten pumpkin so I cant find the species. The Han people of the Kalahari desert dig this plant.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=sMH%2BGx%2Fy&id=12A2C2ABC284B5DD62E8FC8F258E9B27D73833DF&thid=OIP.sMH-Gx_yn73R6L0c0cT2vgHaL7&mediaurl=https%3A%2F%2Fc8.alamy.com%2Fcomp%2FKHKTT0%2Fkalahari-bushman-lady-with-tuber-KHKTT0.jpg&cdnurl=https%3A%2F%2Fth.bing.com%2Fth%2Fid%2FR.b0c1fe1b1ff29fbdd1e8bd1cd1c4f6be%3Frik%3D3zM41yebjiWP%252fA%26pid%3DImgRaw%26r%3D0&exph=1390&expw=863&q=tuber+africa+bush&simid=607986890464189808&form=IRPRST&ck=B60D984D751CF0DB546785D0CF11507E&selectedindex=78&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0&vt=4&sim=11

11/7/2021 12:09:41 AM

Grittyville, WA

San People I mean. That link was a doozy sorry. Not my day technology-wise.

11/7/2021 12:12:46 AM

Bethlehem CT

Here is a link to some close up photos plus different angles.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/16640444/potato-weighing-7-8kg-to-smash-the-world-record/

11/7/2021 9:05:35 AM