Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: New shoot on December 15, 2018, 10:16
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I've got a couple of types on order. When the shops get their packs in, I'll probably pick up a few of the standard ones on offer, but my ordered ones are:
Jazzy - super productive (crossed fingers) and tasty 2nd early. I've read some good things about them on here as well :)
Carolus - blight resistant main that is also great flavoured.
Both are new to me, so my added extras will be a few Charlotte and Kestrel if I can find them, perhaps a few Sarpo Mira for baking.
Hoarding of egg cartons is already underway. I do love having seed spuds around in spring gently chitting away. Next I must dig the onion seeds out and start the onion club for next year.
Anyway, 2018 was a bit pants all round, so lets look forward to the new season and you know how nosy I am. I need to know what you are planning for your spud crops :lol:
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I've decided against growing spuds this year, but I will miss chitting potatoes in egg cartons.
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I've got 1.5Kg Arran Pilot earlies on order plus 10 Mayan Gold early maincrop, both new to me. The APs did really well on the plot next to me this year, so fingers crossed! Mayan Gold were ordered on a whimsy because they just sound so nice :lol: :lol:
Will probably also pick up some Charlottes &/or Desiree from Wilko, depending on available space..
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I have some old favourites on order: Maris Peer, Kestrel & Pink Gypsy, but have chosen a couple new to me: Abbot, a very early white potato, some of which I shall plant in the polytunnel, and Sarpo Mira, the red skinned, blight resistant variety. We were given some to taste at the end of the last year and they were pretty good
I have cleared a space one the staging in the frost free greenhouse to site those infamous egg boxes.
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its going to grow Cara next year for my late variety had good results this year from both for cropping and taste for my earlies Arron pilot also will be planting charlotte and International Kidney for my chips and roasting Record
I set our seed potatoes up in old plastic bread trays in a frost free place Cara and Arron Pilot Charlotte already ordered for del end of Feb
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Arran Pilot are off for next year for me, they were my most slug ridden spud. I'll not judge the early ones as it was a poor growing year, especially for them with a lot of scab, but Lady Christl did out perform the Casablanca. Things got better as you went though the varieties, so Kestrel and Charlotte remain on my "must grow list".
Lady Balfour also suffered from slugs, but not as badly as AP, so the one remaining maincrop from this year is Valour, which returned a large crop and not too much slug damage.
As for next year - it depends what the local nursery get in. They don't have the choice of my previous nursery, but their prices are low to start with, I won't have to pay postage and I'll be supporting a local independant trader.
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I have ordered mine for this coming year and they are:
Rocket - Always grow these as they're reliable and taste good, and are Mrs Spuds' favorites.
Home Guard - A new one for but saw John had fairly good results so I thought I'd give them a try.
Kestrel - A must grow for me, cropped very well this year and have stored very well.
Maxine - Another new one, and replaces the Desiree mains from this year, which were only ok!
Pink Fir apple - Another must grow for me. They keep for very long time and taste very good even after all that time. Not very easy to peel though!
So, that's 10kg of seed potatoes this year! Although I might be giving some away, but hey, I Love Spuds :lol: :D
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1st year with an allotment so ditching the varieties I used to grow in bags amd starting afresh, apart from the Red Duke of York which we just love!
So it's 4x 11ft rows of:
Red Duke of York
Kestrel
Cara
Jazzy/Pink Firapple
(",)
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Only got room for 1 variety, usually an early, and in the past few years, usually Lady Christl.
Half the plants succumbed to blackleg this year, which seems quite an 'achievement' given the dry conditions, and although the remaining plants produced well, I'm tempted to try Kestrel, which although a second early has been recommended more than once in this thread and scores better for blackleg resistance in the AHDB ratings.
Hopefully previous posters won't have bought up the entire stock before I go on my annual spud hunt! :tongue2:
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You can leave Kestrel to grow on to main crop size, no problem, so could have some as seconds and some as mains. A lot of my kestrel were bigger than the desiree this year! ::)
Edit: you can, of course, harvest early as new pot's as well :ohmy:
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you've got me thinking about buying some home guard they are a reliable old favourite well worth growing for taste have grew them some years must be time to give them another go :D
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I grew Nicola for a change this year but, although we liked them very much as new potatoes, we weren’t so keen on the ones harvested later (I don’t usually harvest the last ones until September or even October). So I’m going back to one of the ones which have always succeeded on my plot - Charlotte - and trying Kestrel too, because you all recommend it :)
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I'm planning on growing my spuds in pots and tubs next year and growing far fewer as our consumption has deceased markedly over the last few years. I'll definitely be growing Anya and Picasso and probably Sarpo Kifli.
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I haven’t ordered any spuds I just go to the potato festival in nearby Whitchurch and see which earlies or second earlies take my fancy. Finding they do well in bags.
Cheers HH
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Haven't ordered any yet and probably won't. I'll pick them up at the garden centre. Will be looking for Kestrel though. They have done really well in my sister's raised beds and can grow to baker size. Last year I had Charlotte's which were a bit disappointing in yield but tasty so i'll probably put a few in again. I can't remember what else I grew.
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I had a look at the potato data base on line for a matter of interest it gives a very good description of the varieties listed but so many potato varieties :unsure: