Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: arugula on September 11, 2011, 13:54
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Partly from information I gleaned from last year's potato polls (http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?board=51.0) and partly from previous experience, I chose to grow Sharpe's Express - first early, Lady Christl - first early and Ambo - early maincrop, this year.
The Sharpe's Express were planted as the "proper" first earlies, but we didn't rate the flavour or floury texture so won't choose them again.
The Lady Christl we found last year stretched out quite well so these were treated as seconds. I think they really are my favourite potato for flavour, versatility.... :).
The Ambo have produced an impressive crop so far, with some in the ground still. Unfortunately, I haven't been weighing these as they've been harvested, so I won't know the total yield. Good flavour, they make excellent healthy home-made oven chips and decent roasties and mash - haven't tried them as bakers yet.
What are your experiences and thoughts on the potatoes you have grown this year?
:)
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Lady Christl top of the first earlies again.
The second earlies, Charlotte and Kestrel have both performed well for different reason. The Charlottes have produce a prolific number of medium size spud, good for cooking as they are for salads and the Kestrel have produce humungeous bakers.
Not yet made it to the Ambos due to the Kestrels getting in the way!
Edit: title
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First earlies: Swift -- disppointingly small yield and small tubers
Red Duke of York - avergae yield, good flavour
Will try something else next year!
Had blight on our site so took off all leaves and haulms, left to 3 weeks before digging.
Second early: Kestrel - as good as ever. High yield, good size spuds that carry on into main crops. Excellent roasties 18kg from 9 tubers
Will grow next year again.
Maincrops: Cara - awesome yield and enormous size spuds. Fantastic flavour and will see us through with roast dinners until March. 34 kg from 20 tubers
Yukon Gold - gorgeous colour but poor yield, and lots affected by bight so had to throw them away. Only 5kg from 15 tubers.
Pink Fir Apple -- absolutely vast yield, spuds much bigger than last year. Love these! (28kg from 15 tubers)
Won't bother with Yukon Gold and will add something new to our two other old favourites!!
Then got 3 kg of Congo black from 'volunteers', which was a big surprise. Lots had succumbed to blight and this was what was left -- big enough to use easily in the kitchne but not that tasty. More a novelty to make purple crisps from :lol:
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Grew Pentland Javelin earlies, low yield - but a drought year :(
Ambo early maincrop - good yield and some huge jacket size spuds :)
Some Pink Fir Apple in tubs- not a huge yield, but lovely salad spuds, I think they were actually Anya rather PFA because they weren't at all knobbly (although they were labelled PFA) unless that's also because of the weather :unsure:
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You're tempting me to have a poke at my Ambos!
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You're tempting me to have a poke at my Ambos!
Go on!!! We want to know if they is bigguns :D
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You know you wanna ;)
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Not now!
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Not now!
OK, as it is nearly dark and you might not have batteries for your head torch ---- in the morning?
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Maybe.
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Maybe.
:lol: :lol: :lol:
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Pentland Javelin were small, tasteless and hard as bullets even after cooking. The Kestrel are a wonderment, tasty, huge and cook very well. A small amount of scab on them but that's the summer we've had.
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Pentland Javelin were small, tasteless and hard as bullets even after cooking.
I found them disappointing when I first harvested PJs and had abandoned them when I started to use the Foremost, then tried again - the flavour definitely improved on storage.
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Charlottes grew as reliably as ever, but have same problem as last year (Duke of York) with skin splitting off when cooking, whilst middles remain hard.
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- the flavour definitely improved on storage.
That's handy to know as I have rather a lot in storage given that I couldn't bear to throw them away. :)
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I grew both Lady Crystal and CHarlotte this year, Lady Chrystal got caught in a late frost and were totally killed back - i expected very little from them even after they bounced back. Very tasty tubers, small crop but i think the frost was partly to blame - very tasty once cooked too - nice and firm and full of flavour.
Charlotte were not as badly hit by frost, partly due to position (they were a bit more sheltered) and they were not as advanced as the LC. Yeild was higher than LC as i expected and the tubers were good sized, firm and very tasty. The charlotte potatos have been in the ground for a long while now - halums died back a month or so ago, they are still sitting well, and i still have another row to dig.
Both varieties are keeping well, and i am going to be growing both again next year i would imagine.
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I grew Pent Jav and Lady Chrystl both gave a reasonable yield although they both had a touch of blackleg. 2nd earlies were Charlotte and Marfona. Both suffered from wireworm which I expected as they were on new ground. Yields were quite low, but the surprise were the Marfonas. They were a last minute replacement for Kestrel which were out of stock.
The flavour has surpassed any other spud I have grown before. A proper old fashioned spud taste. They boil and mash well and make nice chips. Haven't tried roasting but will deffo grow next year in better soil.
Maincrop are Cara and still in the ground.
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My main consideration has to be the eelworm resistance of the variety, and I only have room for first earlies.
I grew Lady Christl last year and though they were a great spud some of them suffered quite severely from eelworm attack so the yield was patchy.
The plan this year was to grow LC but start them a few weeks later in a bid to avoid late frosts and also get them in and out of the soil ASAP to reduce the effect.
That plan came unstuck when I couldn't find a local source of LC so grew Pentland Javelin instead (plus a few of last years LC volunteers I found whilst turning over the soil.)
They all grew really well and produced good crops even though there was still some evidence of the dreaded eelworm.
Not quite sure what I've learned from all this as it's been a strange year for many crops really. :unsure:
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International Kidney.. didn't hold too many expectations after reading reviews but I wanted to try them, probably started lifting them a little late as they tended to be a bit larger than planned (some of them getting on for jacket spuds). Still got a few to lift and they're still eating well. Probably not on the list for next year though.
Duke of York.. the first to be lifted were low-yielding, possibly the drier end of the bed, but as I moved along the bed the yield increased. On the list again for next year, just more flavourful than the IKs. I also had the problem of the skins exploding prematurely whilst the centre was still hard.. may have been the dry weather early on as the IKs also suffered this to a lesser extent.
Golden Wonder.. still in the ground.
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1st earlies
Lady Crystl
Arron Pilot
2nd earlies
Nadine
Charlotte
Mains
Desiree
Cara
PFA
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Since we're listing:
Lady Christl (this is the right way to spell them)
Pentland Javelin
Epicure
Kestrel
Charlotte
Ambo
Picasso (as they hadn't any Ambo at the time)
Sarpo Mira
Latter 3 are still growing due to late planting - so results as & when.
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I grew two first earlies which I`d never grown before.
Impressive yield from Rocket, massive potatoes with not one smaller than my fist. Average flavour but the big problem was the slugs liked them, each one riddled with holes.
My son`s boss, a farmer, gave me some Lady Christl seed, saying they were the creme de la creme. Not as high a yield as Rocket, fantastic flavour, but unpalatable to slugs, which ignored them.
So I`ll rely on my farmer friend to let me have my early seed next year. Looking to also try Rooster and Sarpo Mira.
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Rocket were good but Estima was a disaster. Charlottes gave a huge yield but broke up on boiling, unlike last years. Marie piper were full of slug holes but Desiree (grown next to M. Piper) were hardly touched and i managed to fill 4 25ltr tubs from 4 15ft rows. Had them today baked and they were superb. By the way as a sort of trial i bought both the main crops from Wilko,s and T&M. Whilst the T&M were bigger seeds, i can,t say that they produced a heavier crop. The T&M spuds were bigger but fewer in number than Wilko,s.
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OK.
Root of "Ambo" taken at random. As I didn't plant until May foliage hasn't really died down yet.
Weight = 4lb 10.5oz (2.12 kilos)
(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c182/G4IAR/P1010382.jpg)
I just love those pink eyes, they remind me of me the morning after.
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Good lad, going out digging those up ... thank you :D :D :D
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Despite being cut to the ground by the terrorist frost in May Red Duke of York provided a reasonable return under the circumstances. 2nd Drought year in a row in Northampton and I limited the watering to 200 gallons this year having been a water carrier for most of the season last year! :(Lady Christl were rubbish and will not be grown again as I was not alone in having a very poor yield and performance.
Pentland Javelin were excellent as were Maris Peer.
Of the main crops, Desiree performed very well again and I was happy with my King Edward.
I will also continue with Blue Danube, which grows into a beautiful plant and flowers and makes excellent saute! :D
Charlotte grown in bags on the patio were disappointing so the container strategy needs to be reviewed.
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Just dug up some "Picasso" - getting up to 17 decent size spuds on some roots. When I tried them before the slugs loved them, but we've had a dryish summer following a hard winter and it appears to have done the slugs a lot of no good.
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I only grew Orla earlies this year but was delighted, as ever. A good yield and some are still in the ground and are perfect.
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Highly delighted with the Picasso, really heavy crop of good size spuds, most of them bakers.
For the second year running to to circumstances I didn't get around to planting until May (12th), it's not worth the panic everyone seems to be in to get them in, then start worrying about frosts!
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Earlies; Red Duke Of York, Charlotte. Kestral
Lates; Maris Piper, Desiree, Pentland Crown.
Very pleased with all the lates and I now have six sacks to tide me over the Winter.
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Highly delighted with the Picasso, really heavy crop of good size spuds, most of them bakers.
For the second year running to to circumstances I didn't get around to planting until May (12th), it's not worth the panic everyone seems to be in to get them in, then start worrying about frosts!
Which did the slugs prefer -- Ambo or Picasso? Or of course neither :ohmy:
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In truth - neither - there don't seem to be a lot about, harsh winter, dry summers and all that. I did grow Picasso a few years ago and they did have a bit of slug damage. Only really grew them this year as initially I couldn't get any Ambo.
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Our Caras, whilst massive have had quite a lot of sluggo holes :tongue2: :tongue2: :tongue2:
So looking for a variety that does the same job (huge spuds for bakers and fluffy roasties) that slugs do not have on their preference list :unsure: :unsure: :unsure:
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I don't remember most of the varieties planted this year but the slugs have enjoyed a bit of all of them. Will try Picasso next year as I love a good baker.
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DD - I think I have your slugs. Would you like them back?
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You know what you can do with yer slugs!
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One of my fellow plot holders was almost in tears tonight, as his whole spud crop (two full size plots' worth) has been decimated by blight.
Almost every tuber is marked badly with it -- all Desiree.
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What would he have done with two plots worth? That's one heck of a lot of spuds!
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He doesn't usually grow quite that many :lol:
He was poorly at the start of the season, so thought planting spuds around May would at least keep the ground occupied.
They were to be donated to a local old folk's home, where his wife works :( :(
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That's so sad KC.
They seem to cut down all the halms round here; assume this may make blight less intrusive on the crops?
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That's so sad KC.
They seem to cut down all the halms round here; assume this may make blight less intrusive on the crops?
The idea is to stop the blight spores from travelling down into the tubers.
Sometimes you get it in time (we were lucky) sometimes not (he was not) If you then leave the spuds in the ground for two weeks after cutting off the haulms, spores on the surface have died and then do not infec the potatoes as you dig them up.
Otherwise of course they start to rot later :tongue2:
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This is like what I wrote, then got the warning someone had already posted, but I'll post it anyway as it agrees with what Sunny says:
If you notice blight on the halums and chop them off before it gets a chance to invade the whole plant, the crop should be OK. You have to give it a couple of weeks so that any blight spore on the soil don't survive.
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King Edward tasty and dependable
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This is like what I wrote, then got the warning someone had already posted, but I'll post it anyway as it agrees with what Sunny says:
If you notice blight on the halums and chop them off before it gets a chance to invade the whole plant, the crop should be OK. You have to give it a couple of weeks so that any blight spore on the soil don't survive.
So that's three of us now then :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Was very late planting, mid May and then mid June for most, planting Sarpo Mira, and I'm now getting over 4lb per plant, with the haulms still growing (well still green anyway)
Am just going to dig some more up now.
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Rocket for earlies good yield
Picasso maincrop good yield but some were a bit scabby
1st year in allotment so v pleased even though there was blight on the site
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Highly delighted with the Picasso, really heavy crop of good size spuds, most of them bakers.
For the second year running to to circumstances I didn't get around to planting until May (12th), it's not worth the panic everyone seems to be in to get them in, then start worrying about frosts!
Maybe it's a spud that likes our county DD as I too grew picasso & was very pleased with the results. From a 3kg bag of seed I got 7st 6 lbs back which I thought was great plus no slug damage, I haven't watered them once & a decent if not big tuber for the most. I will certainly grow again.
Also rocket as 1st early which were very good & prolific. yet to harvest pink fir apple & lady Balfour
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I planted Maris Peer in mid April, and got one or two huge tubers per plant, plus loads of pinhead sized baby tubers, not really what i was expecting, but i put that down to the weather being a bit bi-polar. Great flavour and cooking qualitys though, and no slug damage!
Also in a fit of optimism i planted Charlotte at the start of August for winter spuds, but i'm certain that I'm just playing into the hands of canny marketing, you never know though...
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I planted Maris Peer in mid April, and got one or two huge tubers per plant, plus loads of pinhead sized baby tubers, not really what i was expecting, but i put that down to the weather being a bit bi-polar. Great flavour and cooking qualitys though, and no slug damage!
Also in a fit of optimism i planted Charlotte at the start of August for winter spuds, but i'm certain that I'm just playing into the hands of canny marketing, you never know though...
Hmmm! Me too; in bags on the patio. So far so good! :)
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-Lady Christl: Clean, early, reasonable yield and tasty
-Red Duke of York: Again clean. Early but also made good size when left in. Not really any good for boiling but fantastic for really fluffy early-season roasties. Will def grow next year.
-Kestrel: Clean, high yields, lots of bakers will grow again
-Anya: Clean, decent yield, fantastic taste/texture will grow again.
-Cara: Dissapointed. Riddled with slugs and wire-worm damage. Had to throw nearly a whole sackful and the remainder too damaged to store so have mashed and frozen. I think they may have been unlucky with the recent weather but not sure that I will try them again as the kestrel gave me plenty of bakers.
-Mayan Gold: A little slug damage, fantastic chips/roasties/wedges will grow again
(Can you see a pattern emerging re our favourite way to eat potatoes!)
Rachael
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Just dug up the Sarpo Mira. What a crop!
One plant had 25 good sized spuds on it. OK, not the greatest tasting in the world, but with their blight resistance & Kevlar anti-slug skin, it has to be worth popping one ore two in.
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In a word - no.
You must wait until there is no risk of frost getting to them once they come through. Depending on your location, (having it in your profile would help), this generally means late March to April at the earliest.
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Just dug up the Sarpo Mira. .....
OK, not the greatest tasting in the world,......
What is your favoured method of cooking these?
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Baked, with whatever filling you like, or herby mash.
The skins are really crunchy when baked!!
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Sounds good. Make them taste of something else if they don't have much flavour of their own.
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My thoughts exactly!
They have to be the heaviest cropper of all the spuds I grew this year.
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They have to be the heaviest cropper of all the spuds I grew this year.
The Sarpo Mira are indeed the heaviest crop I've EVER grown, never mind in comparison to others this year (which were pretty poor due to the dry weather) Not just loads of potatoes, but I can't get over the size of some of them, one potato was easily 12 inch + long.
Other varieties I've grown this year were:
Arran Pilot - poor yield (dry when they went in, barely rained all season, dry when they died back) Normally one of my fave first earlies.
Juliette - usually a very prolific cropper, tried their best this year to keep up but yields were down but still usuable so still pleased with them
Estima - quite a nice little all rounder potato, again below average yield but will definitely grow again next year!
And of course:
Sarpo Mira - bought these as a back up just in case of blight but for once were totally blight free here. Incredible/amazing yield, I can't get over it and can only think they are like courgettes in a drought ... they soak up the water after one just rainfall and balloon out overnight :lol: Shame about the taste or rather, lack of, but they do make nice creamy mash when LOTS of seasoning and proper butter are added.
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Arran Pilot - good crop, lovely potato for boiling
King Edward - heavy crop , bit of slug damage. Not brilliant for boiling so steaming them instead. Excellent for roasts, wedges and chips.
Happy with my potatoes this year despite the very dry start (based in Lancs so it got wet May onwards).
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we set two main varieties and a salad variety this season colleen Desiree and pink fir apple all have cropped very well although red potatoes seem to like my ground
i haven't harvested all the main crop yet but as yet a good size spuds for winter use much better than last year i have to admit using granular fertilizer when i set the crop that i never used last year
i did get slight slug damage on a particular part of the Lottie as i have two Lottie's on the second Lottie there was no slug damage both biol and bake well :D
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My challottes have been superb this season.I am still digging them,I am getting a few bakers now ,but NO SLUG damage this late in the season,Lots of plotholders on our site have suffered with slug damage on spuds this year so I will stick with Charlottes for next year as I love their flavour .
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You're doing well getting Charlottes in October.
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I once dug up some Charlottes in November and they were perfect. I'd forgotten about them :nowink:
Charlottes - good crop of immaculate spuds
Winston - never grown these before but will do so again. Good yield of clean spuds. Good all rounder
Arran Pilot - I only dug the crop grown ones up today. Some lovely big ones which I shall use for bakers
Desiree - some huge tubers :ohmy: Quite a scabby crop though, noticeably more scab on them than I've noticed in previous years
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I grew Majestic - approx a sack a row, and about three quarters are good baking size. Very little slug damage (unlike my second earlies, which were a disaster), so far three with a touch of scab, all others clean and unblemished, except where I stuck a fork through. To make it even better, my neighbour dug half of them for me, as I have a damaged shoulder, to pay back for borrowing my wheelbarrow!
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Rocket - singularly unimpressed.
Likewise the maincrop type whose variety escapes me.
Just a little disappointing all round.
However.....
'fell down the back of the veg rack and sprouted' unknown variety from a Morrisons value bag of cheapies, planted in flower tubs and treated with a certain benign neglect - absolutely brilliant again just like last year. Terrific yield, wonderful flavour and smooth skin that scraped easily. I am sorely tempted next year simply to accept the facts and grow just them!
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However.....
'fell down the back of the veg rack and sprouted' unknown variety from a Morrisons value bag of cheapies, planted in flower tubs and treated with a certain benign neglect - absolutely brilliant again just like last year. Terrific yield, wonderful flavour and smooth skin that scraped easily.
It would be interesting to find out what variety these are.... The supermarket I buy potatoes from, when they need to be bought, often has Saxon as their un-named generic potatoes.
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Charlotte which did very well and taste lovely boiled in a salad. Also a few Pink Fir Apple which didn't get the blight this year. They were Ok but I prefrerred the Charolottes I think (all boiled).
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Charlottes - but again very poor, very large and not new tattie like.
International kidney - Very annoyed at these, tattie did not grow into a nice small kidney shape and ended up the size of a baker instead of lots of delicious new tatties >:(
Kestrals - lovely chippers and roasters and mash/boiled
Sharps - good early chipper, was quite surprised.
Desiree - Not impressed overall, a good size tattie but didnt chip or roast as well as expected, boiled fine though.
I dont know what we did wrong but for the second year the new tatties failed to produce the desired size and taste, wonder if the weather had an effect, lots of early rain and sun ?
The first year we had pounds and pounds of lovely small oval charlottes but not the last two years.
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you have to pick them earlier if you want small spuds...............the longer you leave them in, the bigger they get. It's you that controls the size of the spud on the earlier ones ;)
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I agree 101%. You can't blame the spud for that!
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Well they have to be in a certain length of time dont they ?
The foilage hadnt died back or anything, as I said the first year all fine and i havnt done anything different.
Well I shall try again and check earlier next season just incase :D
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start having a furtle to see what's there from 10 weeks.
By the time the foliage dies back the spuds will be the biggest they can be ;)
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I had a lovely new potato early on from bag I got from supermarket - similar to the 'bag down the back of the vegetable rack' posting.
I then planted blue danube and sarpo mira. Blue danube apart from having heavy scabbing which I know was down to watering issues, was very poor to cook - fell apart during cooking or burst through skins.
Sarpo Mira - I should have planted more - they were excellent.
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Sarpo Mira - I should have planted more - they were excellent.
I know these are highly thought of by the Beechgrove Garden's Jim McColl. Its good to hear them rated here too. :)
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Sarpo Mira - I should have planted more - they were excellent.
I know these are highly thought of by the Beechgrove Garden's Jim McColl. Its good to hear them rated here too. :)
I'm very pleased indeed as I have already ordered some for next season ;)
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Quick Q - one of my plot neighbours only grows Kestrel (a second early) and digs and keeps them. However she admitted that they only last the family a couple of months before they run out (they have yet to eat home grown at Christmas).
I really like the taste of Kestrel, so my questions is will a second early store for longer than this? Or should I stick to a proper main crop for storing into the following year?
Thanks,
Kosh
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We had great success storing Kestrels right through until end of Feb last year (when they were finished).
Left them in the ground and dug them when the leaves had died down :D
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and by then they are usually HUGE :lol:
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I would like to stick up for the much maligned International Kidney. Nothing royal about mine :tongue2: but got such a good crop this year that I ate all the new spuds I could and still had plenty left to grow to full size. Tasted lovely too. I shall be growing more 'Shirehampton Commoners' next year. Lady Chrystl were disappointing but I may give them another go as it has been a weird year. Red Duke of York were pretty good.
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and by then they are usually HUGE :lol:
You are sooooo right! :D
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This is my second season and this year I planted 3kg each of Pentland Javelin,Kestral,Estima,Cara and Maris Piper this gave me a total of 235 seeds. Started chitting 23/1,planted 6/4,fist show 1/5,some frost damage 3/5 but came back and first pick was 13/6.I have just lifted the mains and got 85kg from them.I did not keep a full record but I estimate another 80kg through the season.I am pleased with the numbers but there were a lot of small ones.Kestral and Cara have provided the best size for baking.Nexyt year I will reduce the number of varieties to three.
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We usually have had Kestrels until January but last year we didn't get as many as previous years, maybe your friend isn't putting enough spuds in the ground to last or did you mean they are going rotten in storage ?
If it is the 2nd case they maybe putting a damaged tattie or two in the bag and it is infecting the rest leading to early rotting.
We are a big family so usually have 30/40 seed tatties of Kestrels in the ground.
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bluealf - this thread relates to 2011 - two years ago, did you mean to reply to it? On a quick scan I can't see a reference to a "friend".
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Oops, I was using that last replies to your posts gizmo and thought it was this years potato thread, never noticed it saying 2011.
Sorry :wacko:
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this year i am growing red duke of york and nicola both new to me. planted them 9th april both just coming through now.