Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Kirpi on July 13, 2012, 13:45
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I have been doing a bit of furtling on the 'net for potatoes to try next year and my mind is saying Orla and Sarpo Mira for First Early and Early Main crops against both blight and slug damage according to reviews so far.
I feel a bit guilty not being faithful to my usual Kestrel as it has a nice old fashioned earthy taste but we were all hit badly by blight this year and I can't see the allotment being any safer next year; so we all get it.
Any views on tastes or performance for these two?
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Did you get any useful thoughts from the polls?
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=96514.msg1071406#msg1071406
;)
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nothing in maincrop argyllie
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I know some people grew them as they had votes, shame if those who voted didn't back it up with comments. ::)
On the other hand the word sarpo is in the vote list, but if I search that word, it doesn't return anything. Don't know if that's right or not...
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I'll try and find out about the search, but you could have a read through if you haven't yet and you have a few minutes. :)
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I know John and Val like Sarpo Mira. Perhaps there's something on his diary pages?
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i have grown both mira and axona. thought they were foul! very very floury and grainy.all we could do was cook them as bakers and even then didnt taste very good.never got blight tho.
this year im trying kifli as my blight resistant variety and so far so good.ive also got picasso and king edward in and they both have the beginnings of blight.
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Sarpo are not nice at all, and are not 100% blight resistant, if you like the taste of spuds dont bother. Dont know about the other types though.
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I've tried Axona before and didn't like them. The skin was kind of scaley and they disintegrate on boiling.
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I grew Sarpo Mira, Sarpo Axona and Blue Danube last year and I didn't like any of them. No flavour. I like spuds boiled, in hash or mashed but they dissolved, and as chips they were very woody. Shame really because it was an amazing crop - some potatoes were huge and the yield was enormous but I hardly ate any. I was told their poor cooking was due to lack of water at crucial times in the tuber formation which was a possibility as we had an extremely dry year but I don't think I'll bother growing them again anyway :nowink:
A lot of people on my site swear by Cara which is similar to Kings Edwards but less slug damage and some resistance to blight. They are a nice all rounder and I do like them. This year I'm testing the blight resistance theory :lol: and so far the foliage look nice and healthy.
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It sounds like I am going back to Lady Crystl as my new potato and Kestrel as a second early which is out of the ground before late blight and stores well as a main.
edited, because I said Orla for my new potato but my dear OH insists that Lady Crystl gave a better crop last year and taste better!
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i also grow lady christl, taste fantastic....
to keep the slugs and wireworm off sprinkle some chimney soot in the row as you plant, ive been digging since june 1st and have had zero damaged potatoes so far ;)
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i had to dig up my cara and kestrel due to blight :( did get 50lb for 2 10foot rows of each they look ok but will keep an eye on them i'm storing them in the shed they tast lovely :tongue2:
hopeful i can hold on to my desiree a bit longer just cut back the bad bits on the plant
i'v dug up one and there very small
so next year i think i will plant the same but hope the weather is not so wet and humid finger crossed :wacko:
also all my tom's have got blight even the one's in the greenhouse i would like to get rid of them but my sister wants to see if the tom's will go red i don't think they will i think they will rot first op's sorry i gone of the plot :blink:
so next year will plant cara and kestrel and will deside later about the desiree
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also all my tom's have got blight even the one's in the greenhouse i would like to get rid of them but my sister wants to see if the tom's will go red i don't think they will i think they will rot first op's sorry i gone of the plot :blink:
the fruit will rot if you leave them - better to pick them off the vine and ripen indoors on a "sunny" :wub: windowsill. You'll probably still lose some but perhaps not all.
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Please bear in mind that this is not a "Normal" year for veg. We had a very hotspell in spring followed by a late frost which has wiped out every single tree fruit on my patch. Blight is rampant this year but i have harvested the best crop of early and second early spuds that i haave ever grown. My onion's and garlic have rotted in the ground for the last 2 year's but again i have harvested the best onion's and garlic this year despite all the rain which has been standing in puddles all over the onion patch. I will grow the varieties of veg that i prefer and learn to put up with mother nature and the little things she throw's at us along the way. I cannot see the point of growing resistant varieties of any veg if you can't stand the taste of them.