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We made this spiffy graphic as part of our garden master course Kickstarter.  And now it is just a free thing for the world to enjoy!  The Kickstarter is over, but the garden master course is now available!




Potatoes


Also knowns as a spud, the versatile potato was our runner-up for the list of top homestead crops.  Potatoes can produce 17 million calories per acre.  The history of the potato starts in Peru, where the Inca natives were the first to grow the crop.  Despite its appearance, the potato is made up of 80% water and only 20% of it is solid.  Varieties of potatoes have grown over the centuries, and there are now about 100 edible varieties.  Potatoes are one of the foods that help produce happy chemicals in the brain, making them one of the earth's natural antidepressants.  In 1995, it was the first vegetable grown in space!  French fries, baked potatoes, potato chips, mashed potatoes...this crop is amazingly versatile!  

Related Threads

https://permies.com/t/145706/Growing-dig-potatoes

https://permies.com/t/177053/Potatoes-wood-chips-compost

https://permies.com/t/potato-bed

https://permies.com/t/193909/Fall-Potatoes
COMMENTS:
 
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In the UK, we've got over 350 varieties - https://potatoes.agricrops.org/varieties. Surely there are more in the US?
I've noticed that if you want a root crop with a high organic matter, you go for plants that grow in wet conditions. Potatoes have about 20% carbohydrate, while common groundnut (Apios americana), that loves wet conditions, has 36% (Wikipedia). Dahlias are similarly watery. Plants that have to survive a relatively dry dormancy need lots of water.
 
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The three most important things I've learned in growing potatoes:
  • loose soil is a must!
  • soggy soil results in rotten tubers
  • as full of a "full sun" as you can give them!


  • I've planted potatoes in a variety of ways over the years, from stacked tires filled with mulch to bags of composted cow manure slowly filled as the plant grows, to direct planting in furrows in the ground. The absolute best production I've had was in the sunniest position with the fluffiest and best draining soil on my property. Soil fertility doesn't even seem to be as important as lots of sun and airy soil, though good fertility is a must for nutrient density.

    I always plant store-bought potatoes - 50 pound sacks grown locally. Disease has never been an issue. Instead, it's the "colorado potato beetle" that turns into our biggest enemy as soon as the weather gets hot. It's amazing how quickly they can defoliate an entire patch (and once done with your potatoes, any eggplants in the area will be next on their menu!)

    It's imperative, no matter where you are growing, to plant them as early as you can. They can withstand light frosts in the spring (or even winter down south) when they're first rooting out and sprouting above the surface, but once the heat hits, production will drop off and the bugs come in to finish it off. Even here in central maine, where you'd never expect to see heat necrosis damage in a spud, this summer's off and on 90s did a number on our harvest.  ...when it comes to 'taters, don't wait too long.

    Good companion planting, though it hasn't seemed to help with the beetles for me, does seem to have an impact. Growing a short variety of corn and some dry bush beans along with your potatoes can do wonders for both their size and flavor. Of course, be careful about sweet corn that you'll have to harvest while potatoes are still in the ground - any short variety of field corn, or one being grown for seed, would be a great choice.

     
    Posts: 300
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    I live in West Virginia, and most years I have no problem with Colorado potato beetle, which I attribute to all the wild plants in the area. But when you do get an infestation, they can multiply out of control if you grow a lot, as I do because of all the virtues mentioned above plus that they're easy to grow (you'll get a lower yield in poor or heavy soil but they will produce), easy to store (root cellar or reasonable facsimile thereof), full of nutrients and I'd say THE most versatile food crop. The solution to the beetle is Spinosad, a naturally occurring organism. Spray the whole crop thoroughly, usually twice, and the beetles are gone.
    I've been gardening and growing potatoes for several decades, but I learned something new this year. While "they" say you should plant certified seed potatoes, a couple times I've planted my own saved potatoes--and they actually did very well. I plant usually in early April, and harvest starting in August. Although it's still much warmer than ideal in my root cellar at that time of year, I put potatoes in buckets in there and they keep just fine. This year I harvested the ones I planted first, which were an early variety (Red Norlands). In early July I had some empty beds where onions and garlic had come out, and a local feed store was giving away their old leftover seed potatoes--I planted one bed in Kennebecs, then thought, this is pretty late for a long season variety like that--so I used some of my fresh Norlands from the root cellar to plant another bed. The Kennebecs were soon up (they don't produce as well in the late season but are still worth planting). But the Norlands just didn't come up--for over a month--THEN they straggled up. Apparently potatoes need a dormant period before they're ready to sprout. I dug them yesterday, and got a halfway decent crop--like the Kennebecs, inferior to the main season crops but I'm still glad to have them. Oh, and I've read that small potatoes are just the ones that developed latest--you'll get just as good a clutch under a plant that grew from the smallest potato in a previous year's clutch as a chunk cut from a big one (but the teeny potatoes I think don't grow. You want something at least the size of a golf ball). So I think I'll save my small Norlands to plant next year, for the early crop.
     
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    In the potato category, I'm a huge fan of sweet potatoes.  Not only do they have a better nutritional profile than white potato varieties, they can be trellised, their leaves are edible (don't try this with Irish potatoes!!), and they taste great.

    I found a solution to the one downside of growing sweet potatoes, i.e.,  the need to "cure" them in high temperatures and humidity to maximize their sugar content.  I have a small metal, plastic covered "greenhouse" that I use to start seeds in the spring that I set up in front of a south facing window in a little used room in my house.  After harvesting and sorting through (but NOT washing) my sweet potato tubers and removing any damaged ones, I put them on a tarp in the little 4' X 6' greenhouse, along with a few pans of water, a thermometer and a hygrometer, so I can keep an eye on whether I need to add or subtract pans of water to keep the humidity in the right range for curing the tubers.

    I was able to achieve the 85F temp and 85% humidity that is needed for 10 days.   Sort again, removing any with soft spots.  Then, cure individual newspaper wrapped tubers for six weeks at 55-60 F in a cool  spot (basement or garage).  Wash them only at the point when you are ready to cook/dehydrate them.  Worked brilliantly the first time I tried it!
     
    Mary Cook
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    I go to no special effort to cure my sweet potatoes, and I wash them before storage, because I store them on my pantry shelf and I don't want dirt there. THAT works brilliantly too--even the cut ones heal over and keep for months. My biggest problem with sweet potatoes is getting enough slips started in the spring--and not starting them too soon. They also take over quite an area, for which reason I put them (and winter squash) in the far corners of my garden so I don't have to step through/over the vines 40,000 times.
     
    Posts: 16
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    Before this year I had never attempted potatoes. Then I saw a video about growing them in a cardboard box and decided to give it a try. Two potatoes gave me two pounds in about 90 days! I was hooked. I immediately started another box, so I got two harvests my first summer. It was such a success I planted a whole bed in sweet potatoes next. I have only pulled up one root so far with two lovely tubers. The whole bed was planted with slips I made from one grocery store organic sweet potato. I am hooked. Next year I plan to be ready early and will put in a whole section of potatoes in my orchard garden. I highly recommend this high calorie crop. The return on effort invested is extremely high. It fits my style of "lazy" gardening very well.
     
    gardener
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    adding previous post to this.
    Adding my observations after many tears of trying different things and also having worked on potato harvesting machines:  Size, number and quality of potatoes produced depends on consistent access to water by the roots but a dry layer of covering where the tubers form.  When roots run out of water the tubers stop increasing   in size. If they get water before the tops die they may start again making a lumpy tuber or more small tubers.

    For growing in bags I found out this year that putting the bags  in a shallow pan and keeping water in it the top of the bag with loos material would stay dry but the roots could have constant access to water.

    Wet organic  material that is trying to break down into soil will have soil life that will invade the tubers for sugars making scars on the skins.

    So rich water holding soil below the seed tuber and dry nutrient poor sand or mulch above.  Principles rather than formulas.principles rather than recipes
     
    Posts: 672
    Location: Northern Maine, USA (zone 3b-4a)
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    in northern Maine. potatoes are the most grown crop. the high schools close for 2 weeks for potato harvest. we have heavy clay, rocky soil with poor drainage and they grow just fine. they grow here when little else will.
     
    pollinator
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    Great info so far! Matches my experiences.

    For whatever reason the "Irish" potatoes seem to do best in fabric grow bags here. They will produce some in our sandy, poor soil but not nearly as well.
    They take off like a rocket in the grow bags in potting soil with Steve Solomon's complete organic fertilizer minus the lime to keep the PH low. I do a  separate mix of that fertilizer sans lime for the potatoes and blueberries.

    I'll have to try Hans' suggestion on keeping the lower parts wet and the top dry.  I have a couple very shallow (2 - 3 inches deep) trenches in the ground I grow things in hydroponically. I'll have to try the fabric grow bag potatoes in there.

    I'm also on board big time for sweet potatoes. They're almost invasive here and that's a good thing.
    My favorite cultivars so far are O Henry, a white one that tastes like a sweet Irish potato and sets all the potatoes right under the main plant as opposed to some with them out on the runners, Purple Martians, which I'll leave a link to the grower here who has them below, and the Korean varieties, which, of the ones I've tried, are very mild and sweet. Bakers Creek has slips in season for one of those really good  Korean cultivars. Here's the link to my local guy for the Purple Martians, great quality slips and always sends lots of extras:

    https://martianpotatoes.com

    good info here:

    George Washington Carver on sweet potatoes:

    https://www.nal.usda.gov/exhibits/ipd/carver/exhibits/show/crop-development/sweet-potatoes

    More great info:

    https://hosstools.com/planting-sweet-potatoes-vegetable-garden/

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbI3xP0855E

    https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=529367875359884

    https://hosstools.com/growing-the-best-sweet-potato-plant-in-your-backyard/
     
    Hans Quistorff
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    steve bossie wrote:in northern Maine. potatoes are the most grown crop. the high schools close for 2 weeks for potato harvest. we have heavy clay, rocky soil with poor drainage and they grow just fine. they grow here when little else will.

    I spent 9 years there and it is part of my observations.  Worked on harvesters some years.  We were sent to a field covered with dead weeds because of drought.  the instruction was to dig one pass and if the potatoes were small or sparce to go on to another farm. Turns out that field had received adequate rain early in the year but not late in the summer.  What came to the sorting table, except for an occasional weed or rock, was an abundance of large clean potatoes.  So, yes, three months of not too wet, not too dry, not too hot or cold and you get a potato harvest with almost any soil.  The secret in Northern Maine is to cover the row with a new layer of loose dirt at the right time so there is a perfect layer for the tubers to form.  Best results are when the loose layer dose not get wet enough to compact or hold wet conditions around the forming tubers.  This is most important when the loose layer is organic material to have smooth skinned potatoes.  Observation of one of those farmers: When maple leave or clover along the edge of the field were picked up and deposited on the row it produced scabby skins.

    The advantage I have here is that there or only 3 months that are too cold so that means 3 harvests.  Three months can get too hot but a shaded afternoon microclimate takes care of that.   I try to get a few through to that fourth period but my space in the greenhouse is limited.
     
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    Dave,

    Where do you get the ingredients for Steve Solomon's COF?

    I looked into this a while back, but was unable to find a local source for several key ingredients. Even Tractor Supply, which sells feed for a range of animals, had no idea what I was talking about.
     
    Mary Cook
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    Just want to mention that I spent the summer of 2003 in Ecuador, adjacent to Peru where the potato was born. They have lovely little farmer's markets in every town and every city neighborhood, at least once a week but daily in the cities. These were a libertarian's dream--no regulations, people could set up a food cart on the sidewalk and clean their tables with a filthy rag, I remember a stall selling blender parts and electrical cords. I'd see cheese, fish, out on a table with a few flies (surprisingly few, actually) and in the city markets I'd see a whole roasted pig in the morning. The vendor would sell  chunks all day and by evening it would be, literally, skin and bones. But apropos to potatoes--sellers had potatoes in baskets or half-barrels, and there would be at least a dozen different kinds. Once I went with the man of our host family in Cuenca and wished desperately that it wasn't considered rude to photograph people,,,anyway, I needed potatoes. He translated and negotiated for me. "How many?" I thought a little--we were going to be leaving in a week. "Five potatoes," I said, and they thought this was hilarious, like buying five grains of rice.
     
    Dave Bross
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    Sorry it took this long to answer, somehow I missed the question when it was asked.

    Feed stores can get most things like the cottonseed meal and sometimes the bone ash, sometimes more.
    They'll have to special order it.

    Lowes or Home Depot for the lime, sometimes some of the other stuff. Check prices on "other stuff" because sometimes they're silly high.

    All the other odds and ends I have to ship in from Amazon or Seven springs Farm, who are just great as a supplier:

    https://www.7springsfarm.com/collections/fertility

    Even paying shipping on some ingredients it still comes in around a buck a pound to make it.


    Here's a handout I give those who are interested, mostly quoted from Steve Solomon himself with a few of my notes:

    -------------------------------

    - COF or Complete Organic Fertilizer  - (the pink/grey powder)

    - enough to cover 100 sq. ft. -
    - mix by pouring from one 5 gallon bucket to another -


    3 quarts of cottonseed meal
    - can order it from feed store by 50# bag, any seed meal will work -

    1 quart bone meal
    - can also use colloidal rock phosphate - feed store may be able to get bone meal, lowes or home depot probably have the rock phosphate fertilizer, maybe even the bone meal

    1 pint Azomite
    - probably easiest to get this from amazon -

    1 pint dolomitic (part lime, part magnesium)  limestone plus...
    1 pint agricultural gypsum

    - can get both of these at lowes or home depot -
    - If using to fertilize acid loving plants like blueberry and potato make a     special mix   with no lime

    1/3 cup potassium sulfate

    - lowes or home depot may have this, if not, get it online -

    ----------------

    You may consider the following last four items optional:

    1 teaspoon laundry borax or a smaller quantity of Solubor (½ gm actual boron)

    1½ teaspoons zinc sulfate

    2 teaspoons manganese sulfate

    1 teaspoon copper sulfate.

    ----------------- mixing ------------

    When all ingredients are in the bucket, mix them very thoroughly
    before spreading. I use either of two mixing methods:
    1) Slowly pour the materials from one bucket to the next and then back. Repeat this about six times. Or,
    2) stir the contents with my hand. The first
    method works the best, but can raise a bit of dust and is best done
    outdoors.

    ------------------- how much -----------------

    For containers:

    To each gallon of soil, blend in one-half cup of my complete organic fertilizer


    on the ground, assuming using compost also:

    1 gallon  per 100 sq ft for low demand vegetables

    6 quarts per 100 sq ft  medium and high demand vegetables.


    Low-demand Vegetables
    Jerusalem artichoke, arugula (rocket), beans, beets, burdock, carrots, chicory, collard greens, endive, escarole, fava beans, herbs (most kinds), kale, parsnip, peas, Southern peas, rabb (rapini), salsify, scorzonera, French sorrel, Swiss chard (silverbeet), turnip greens

    Medium-demand Vegetables
    Artichoke, basil, cilantro, sprouting broccoli, Brussels sprouts (late), cabbage (large, late), cutting celery, sweet corn, cucumbers, eggplant, garlic, giant kohlrabi, kohlrabi (autumn), lettuce, mustard greens (autumn), okra, potato onions, topsetting onions, parsley/root parsley, peppers (small-fruited), potatoes (sweet or “Irish”), pumpkin, radish (salad and winter), rutabaga, scallions, spinach (autumn), squash, tomatoes, turnips (autumn), watermelon, zucchini

    High-demand Vegetables
    Asparagus, Italian broccoli, Brussels sprouts (early), Chinese cabbage, cabbage (small, early), cantaloupe/honeydew, cauliflower, celery/celeriac, Asian cucumbers, kohlrabi (spring), leeks, mustard greens (spring), bulbing onions, peppers (large-fruited), spinach (spring), turnips (spring)







     
    pollinator
    Posts: 1377
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    I'm in the Central Sands of Wisconsin, so zone 4b which seems to be the perfect spot for planting potatoes [solanum tuberosum].
    Our farmers get huge yields but they do not dare plant my favorite "sweet potato", which is not a potato at all. It is in fact in the morning glory family. I suspect, because of the cold zone, they are afraid it will be a flop. But it isn't, and with the climate warming up, it should be a matter of time before sweet  potatoes [ipomoea batata] goes commercial in a big way. [The Arbor Day Foundation now thinks that I'm in a zone 5, and it may be, at least for veggies [not for trees yet]
    There are many types of ipomoea batatas. The orange one we get at Thanksgiving is not my favorite: I find it stringy and not as sweet as the Asian Sweet potato. It has a garnet colored skin and a creamy white flesh which has no strings and melts in your mouth. It is also reminiscent of the American Chestnuts that used to cover all our forests but was lost to the chestnut blight. This one is my favorite and is very easy to grow, even here.
    Another one is the purple sweet potato. Same sweetness but a deep purple color inside makes it more suitable for a dessert, I think.
    My hope is that sweet potato growers will try to develop "bush types" of sweet potatoes, as the main drawback of the ipomoea is its tendency to dive and go wandering far afield, making the harvesting challenging. Also, some tubers are so long and skinny as to be unusable. No problem, mind you: I cook them for my chickens who go apesh*t over it!.
    One way to counter its tendency to wander is to grow them in large vats or raised beds. Just like the sunchoke, which also has a tendency to roam, when the root meets an obstacle, it stops and all the good stuff that goes in the tuber accumulates there and the tuber swells. In my sand, though, it goes more than one foot down and 6-8 ft away, so it is a chore to harvest. In a tall raised bed, it is much better. I would not even contemplate growing them loose in a field!
    While the solanum tuberosum keeps better in a cool and damp environment, [Refrigerator at 98% humidity] it would be a mistake to keep the ipomoea batatas that way. They keep much better in a dark but dry pantry at room temperature, just like my squash and pumpkins. It is now past mid February and I still have ipomoea batata on my shelves. Here, they keep better than potatoes that would just dry out and start sprouting.
    A few of my ipomoea batatas are showing signs of sprouting but I will not attempt to make slips until the end of March [I can't plant them until mid May] Some folks prefer to just buy the slips. Considering how easy it is to get at least a dozen healthy slips from one tuber, I can't see a reason not to make my own. There are many videos on making slips but I found this one to be the best as it shows that slips will grow from both ends of the sweet potatoes. [I was always concerned about submerging the blunt end or the pointy end. I turns out it doesn't make much difference]. [The blunt end on top seems to work a bit better, but not by much].
    https://youtu.be/hXSSXP2Ptx0
    Although it stands to reason that a very large, healthy tuber should have more energy stored and therefore give you more slips, I have not found the number of slips to be proportional to the size of the tuber. The tubers that are about the size and shape of a big carrot seem to work best as they are easier to place in a smaller container like a cup than a pint or a quart jar. Also, this way, you can omit the whole toothpick drama: they don't add anything to the results.
     
    Dave Bross
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    For sweet potatoes that stay right under the plant Bush Porto Rico is supposed to be the best so far.
    I haven't tried them yet. They're also supposedly do-able in a large container.

    O Henry makes that claim but they didn't work that way for me. Close, but some rogues. Tasty though, closest one I've tried to Irish potatoes but sweeter.
     
    Cécile Stelzer Johnson
    pollinator
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    Dave Bross wrote:For sweet potatoes that stay right under the plant Bush Porto Rico is supposed to be the best so far.
    I haven't tried them yet. They're also supposedly do-able in a large container.

    O Henry makes that claim but they didn't work that way for me. Close, but some rogues. Tasty though, closest one I've tried to Irish potatoes but sweeter.




    Thanks for the tip, Dave! I'll be looking for those.
     
    Mary Cook
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    They do vary by cariety. I grew a deep purple one for years--deep gorgeous purple throughout, including after baking, and they were very vigorous and prolific and early with sprouting. But they were no good for frying (I like to put minced sweet potato in with my home fries) and I got fed up with the way the tubers would sneak and slither and slide under aisles and then dive, deep into heavy clay soil--while the pinkish orange ones splay outward from the crown, not venturing too far away or too deep. The purple ones also tended to be long and skinny. Little difference in flavor baked bu the purple ones seemed a little denser.
     
    Tristan Vitali
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    Depending on soil type and actual expected number of growing days above 70*, sweet potatoes can and are grown all the way up into zone 3. We in the northeast tend toward a growing days = USDA growing zone in months setup, so a zone 3 is pretty much just 3 months of "warm enough to grow things". On the other hand, summers have been chaotic with above and below normal temps, along with droughty and floody conditions alternating, pretty much each year. Of course, looking at the climatological history for the area, this is "normal" (don't like the weather? just wait a few minutes!)  ....if you really want to scare yourself, read the stories from the 1930s followed by the stories from the year without a summer !!!

    Here in a 4b/5a, we've been seeing temps in winter drop to record and near record cold on a very regular basis for the last decade, so I'm expecting the zones to start heading back down in numbers (we've already had 3b temps a few times!). This might skew things to break the current growing days = growing zone in months, but as it is now, I've been using microclimates to get away with extra growing days for years. The upper half of huglekulture beds, southward facing side, have been thawed and warmed to 60* about 3 weeks before the dandelions bloom, then resist frost and freeze by an additional 3 to 4 weeks in the fall.

    Likewise, the kratergarten inspired pond-side "shelves" are warming up weeks early and resisting frost up to a month later in the fall. These sorts of techniques of creating microclimates would be necessary for sweet potato production here in new england. I might be doing some experimentation with this in the coming season, but that's not sure yet (longer season growing sites are in high demand!)

    As far as white potatoes, the additional heat gained with these sorts of created microclimates is actually NOT good - they definitely prefer the cooler temperatures and will not require the extra growing days. Definitely a good staple crop for larger sites where creating microclimates is just not economical (money- or energy-wise). Down in the south, however, or in areas that naturally have longer and warmer growing seasons, sweet potatoes are definitely another good option.
     
    pollinator
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    Not for educational purposes.
    There should be a weird potato contest somewhere.


    And even a little creepier:
    potatosprout by vwfatmobile, on Flickr
     
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    Anybody who knows what food is like around the world knows that the US has the worst selection and quality. Well, unless you're a billionaire.
     
    pollinator
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    Roman El wrote:Anybody who knows what food is like around the world knows that the US has the worst selection and quality. Well, unless you're a billionaire.



    Sadly have to agree. And that's speaking as a doctrinaire America First patriotic redneck with flags on my pickup truck!

    I have lived in 3 countries and travelled for extended periods in several more. Generally, selection is limited to a handful of varieties. Worst is flavor and quality of fruits, which is amazingly poor in the US. I was fortunate in growing up with a grandfather who was passionate about growing his own fruits, so I knew what good fresh tree-ripened fruit tasted like. So rare to get a good peach or apricot or apple in a US supermarket.

    So I grow my own as much as possible. Potatoes are so easy.
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