The main problem was that you used peanuts as an example of what a tuber is. 
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oh my… i shall delete the confusion…
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I’m wondering how 薩摩芋・さつまいも hasn’t been mentioned yet …
I dunno, just from my general experience in Japan for 10 years, 芋 by itself seems to be construed as the more general “potato” meaning. If a friend says 芋が好き, they are usually referring to potatoes in general -including even french fries and hash browns- and not necessarily only sweet potatoes specifically (unless I’ve been misinterpreting all this time, which is entirely possible 
). If they want to specify sweet potatoes, 薩摩芋・紫芋・焼き芋 seem to be the most popular go-to expressions. 
Next time I have a conversation with a Japanese friend about potatoes, I’ll make sure to clarify 
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Please do. Because, I’ve seen “imo” mentioned a lot in wild contexts and its 99% a sweet potato that was meant (its visually obvious, if that makes sense, or we are talking about that traditional way of making roasted sweet potatoes - again it’s obviously sweet potatoes). But, the kanji itself has a broader meaning so that other 芋が好き can obviously also be more inclusive.
French fries makes me also remember eating sweet potato french fries! 
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I’m just curious what the context of how that came up was. It’s obviously possible when you look at a dictionary definition of 芋, but presumably you’d need to do some clarifying somehow, either by asking for a follow-up, or if french fries were actually visible at the time or something.
As an aside, many Japanese people assume that you can call french fries simply “potato” in English, because of the word ポテト being used for french fries. You hear a lot of “I want potato” from people trying to order french fries. They may also try “fried potato.”
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Ah, usually when talking about favorite foods; if someone said 芋が好き, there were indeed follow-ups, usually “what kind of 芋 do you like?” Also, there have of course been situations when actually eating french fries and 芋大好き was uttered after a pleased sigh 
Again, asking a follow-up to clarify, like “You mean all 芋, or just フライドポテト?” was indeed helpful.
I guess it’s unusual to meet people who are especially fond of potatoes…? The ones I’ve met seem to like any and all potatoes, whether or not they were eating potatoes at the time of the conversation. If there was only a specific kind of potato they loved, like 大学芋, I think the specific word was used.
But now that I’m overthinking the whole thing, I’ll be on my toes next time 芋 comes up in a conversation and will make sure to ask 
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Personally this is the first time I’ve ever heard of the word tuber, but maybe it’s just not used in the dialect of English I speak, or I just simply haven’t heard anyone around me say it.
Hard to say without actual data to back it up, but just from my personal experiences I’d agree. I would definitely have to look it up to understand what it’s talking about, and even then it’d probably turn into a similar issue where I know that 冗 = Superfluous but it’s almost useless because I hardly remember what that means.
Also never heard of this term as an North US English speaker.
This is how I feel, though IDK how much of my personal bias factors into that. I personally hate sweet potatoes and love non-sweet potatoes, so I would never call “sweet potatoes” just “potatoes.”
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It would indeed seem like tuber is as too unfamiliar word for several on here, much like @theghostofdenzo also suggested. It could be added as a synonym however, since it would suggest that broad scope meaning, and keep potato as main meaning.
I would also seem like the uses of “white potato” isn’t really a thing in the US! 
Which makes it even stranger that WK specifically demands you to answer either “white potato” or “Irish potato” - neither being terms I’ve ever encountered before (and I consume tons of English media and books). It really strengthen the argument for the main meaning to just be “potato”!
Like you, I would never mean “sweet potato” when talking about potatoes. It’s just not done, culturally speaking. While the opposite seems true for most Japanese contexts, talking about 芋 = sweet potatoes. Thus the confusion I was sensing from how we learn these vocab.
It’s a small issue in the bigger scope of the Japanese language, but still something that WK could improve upon I feel, to avoid this mixup in meanings and language use.
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It’s a conspiracy?
Here’s a California-based potato website using it.
http://www.potandon.com/white-potatoes
Here’s a website created by Potatoes USA
I know a few people said they never heard it, but we did the same thing a few weeks ago with “vicious circle” / “vicious cycle”, with the OP claiming that teaching the one he hadn’t heard was actively detrimental to the non-English speakers, and then there were plenty of examples of both.
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さあ…
Well, this is just the second post in this thread about Americans not recognizing this term either. Not sure what to make of it honestly. After all, WK is based in the US so I’m still thinking it’s a known term, just not commonly used all over? Hard to tell really. In any case, I was mostly hoping for a change in places of the main vs synonyms in that case.
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On the flip side, じゃが芋 isn’t a particularly high level item, level 34, and you are the first person I’ve heard talk about being confused by it. I don’t doubt your sincerity in finding it confusing, but plenty of people have gone by it without making much fuss here, which can’t be said for all items.
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Probably because I’m self-taught? (or I love cooking? )
I was immersion learning before WK. I’m still surprised at the number of vocab items I know from somewhere when seeing them on WK. This being one such case. But, roasted sweet potatoes seems to be some kind of comfort food with a particular cultural significance in Japanese culture, so it stuck in my mind from all the situations when I’ve encountered it (because I’ve never eaten sweet potatoes like that). And じゃが芋 I just learned as being “not sweet potatoes” in my mind from the contexts I encountered it.
But, perhaps my main issue, was because WK didn’t accept “potato” as the answer for じゃが芋! That was actually more surprising than the lesson. So, they’ve made a conscious decision there. Which I don’t agree with, nor does Jisho apparently. So, I’m at least not just imagining things. ^^;
I replied to a different comment about Jisho in the other thread, so I won’t repeat it here. Not intended to be accusatory, just information about Jisho for anyone who isn’t familiar.
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Well, I don’t have anything to say to that. But, I it’s not just Jisho that translates じゃが芋 as potato. So, regardless, potato does seem to be the correct answer.
All I’m saying is we could add white potato to Jisho if we wanted. Then it wouldn’t disagree that white potato is wrong 
I’m not sure I care enough to do so, but eh.
Anyway.
EDIT: And one last thing, as I’ve noted in many threads created by new users, the lack of a particular synonym for any given word is not WaniKani stating that that word would be incorrect as an answer.
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Well. I still still had never heard of the term “white potato” before WK and this discussion. And I’m not alone in that.
So, at least make “potato” the correct answer as well, WK! M’kay! That’s all I ask. ^^;
(I’ll leave Jisho to you @Leebo 先輩 to whip into shape! 
I know little about editing wikis or dictionaries after all. )
I went to the store today and perused the potato section. There were russet potatoes, red potatoes, yukon gold potatoes, and yellow potatoes, but not a “white potato” to be found anywhere in the store. Seattle, USA.
This discussion is fragmented, but in the other thread someone did give an example of it being used at their grocery store.
First off, I love that this thread about potatoes exists. I also love the worldwide confusion about french fries/chips/fried potato (though, I think people would understand fried potato well enough). I don’t remember potatoes being labeled as “white potatoes” when I lived in Texas (that grocery store chain is from Texas), but maybe they did… maybe it’s also to make it easier to figure out what you’re buying online (personally I think using the name is easier for that). To be fair though, the labeling of sweet potatoes and yams here is all over the map. We do have “Japanese sweet potatoes” though, so that’s nice.
This reply contributes nothing to the discussion. I’m sorry.
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(disclaimer: not a native English speaker)
Even if you have never heard the term “White potato” before, is it really that hard to guess what that means? I wouldn’t even bat an eye at that phrase.
On the other hand I would have to look up “Tuber”, or some of the other potato names mentioned before like “Russet potatoes”.
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