Sampling of potato tubers – a method based on a mathematical interpretation of gross potato tuber anatomy

Abstract

Summary Evidence is presented to support the observation that within potato tubers, the mean solids concentration gradient in the perimedullary zone within the xylem ‘ring’ is linearly related to its mean spatial distance from the xylem ‘ring’. Within any tuber the point most remote from the xylem ‘ring’, irrespective of tuber shape, is its geometric centre. If, for any tuber, this point is taken as the zero mean radius, then data obtained by a concentric peeling technique (vide Appendix I) may be used to construct a mathematical model of the mean solids concentration from the geometric centre to the periderm. A sampling technique is proposed whereby the mathematical parameters describing the tuber may be used to transform quantitative data from discrete tissue samples to values representative of whole tubers.