Potatoes grew in the mountainous regiosn of Bolivia and Peru because they prefers such climates. Climates that are on the cold side but not so cold that the ground would be frosty. A temperature of between 60° to 70°F is considered ideal and anything above 80° F is considered too warm for them even though they have been known to adapt.
The soil should be very mildly acidic with a pH of between 5.0 to 5.5. Potatoes prefer to be grown in the full presence of the sun in well drained soils that are not compact or constantly wet.
In both cases, replication occurs so quickly because multiple polymerases can synthesize two new strands at the same time by using each unwound strand from the original DNA double helix as a template.
