[Sleepingpopman]

Hi folks, not a happy bunny today 
We only have a 3mtr X 3mtr raised veg plot that we mainly grow
potatoes in plus a few cabbages & runner beans, because of it's size
we get 1 row of earlies & 2 rows of main crop (10 in each row.)
For the last 5 years we've bought our seed potatoes from the Range
& they've done ok but this year we've only got half the main crop we
normally get & half of them have been red the rest white & yet they
were all supposed to be red des' & out of the same packet. 
Anybody else suffered anything like this ?
Keith.

[mumofstig]

Many people, including farmers, have had bad potato crops this year, because of the weird weather.
Though this doesn't explain half red half white tubers, were the seeds all red? Probably a mix up by the supplier,
perhaps try a different one next year....

[JayG]

If all the ones you planted were red, could the white ones be volunteers left in the ground after last year's crop?

As mum says, for many it's not been a great year for spuds, and as you know in South Yorkshire we've had very little rain for most of the growing season this year.

[lettice]

Even though they are from the Range.
What was the third party actual maker of the seed potato packet labels?
Might be worth sending them some pics of what happened, so they can check if they had supply issues? 

I've been getting mine for many years from a local garden centre that have supplied Taylors seed potatoes.
They have been great for years. Did also a decade back use Taylors and some from the Unwins brand from them.
Earlier in the year at the time I normally buy them and because of the Pandemic they were not open, so got mine this year online from Mr Fothergills. They were more expensive than previous years. Luckily they had all my usual favourite types, plus a few new ones I tried.
They have produced a good crop of first/second earlies and am just starting to store all my maincrop and from what I've seen so far the crop and productivity has been the same as previous years.
Phew! Not seen any problems with quality size or quantity.
Except the pink for apple, produced a good productive crop, but think they are more a Ratte type than the pink for apple I'm used to.

[mumofstig]

https://www.fpcfreshtalkdaily.co.uk/single-post/weather-woes-hit-potato-crop

Weather problems become apparent in UK potato crop
UK potato growers are starting to lift their crops. These have seen difficult conditions and the goods are being sold into an uncertain market. Most potatoes were planted in very good conditions as the wet winter gave way to a drier spring just in time. Then, however, followed one of the coldest April’s on record, which in turn was followed by a very wet May and then a mixed summer with some heat but plenty of rain.

One Kent-based grower said: “The first two weeks of June were hot and sunny and then the rain fell and we have a lot less sunshine than normal ever since. In some places we are seeing yields 10-15 tons/hectare behind where they should be.”
With growers now burning off crops, yields are locked. Quality is reasonable, although growers have had to apply regular blight sprays to prevent disease spread and wireworm was also a problem. The situation has been less difficult in Lincolnshire, according to agronomist Simon Faulkner, of SDF Agriculture, but there have been and remain challenges to complete the growing season along with a lot of potato crop variability.

“Some yields appear to have potential when you do a trial dig and in other place yields almost seem to be going backwards,” he told Fresh Produce | FRESHTALKDAILY NEWS. “In many places the soil moisture deficits [SMD] are rising and we are seeing increases in dry matter. Some growers have held off irrigating a few weeks ago expecting more rain than actually fell and where rain has not materialised, those crops would have benefited from water to bulk them up.”

[New shoot]

I don’t know why but digging up your spuds and being disappointed always seems one of the worst crop failures to have    Perhaps because they have been out of sight under ground and you have waited so long for them.  I am sure a lot of folk will be sympathising with you Keith, having had less than a bumper year themselves.

My crop is not as good as previous years.  The first earlies (Premier) went in March under heavy duty fleece, but did nothing for weeks as it was so cold in April.  The second earlies (Kestrel) and mains (Sarpo Kifli and Sarpo Blue Danube) went in late as it seemed pointless planting them before this. 

I have done better than a lot of people on here weather wise and also crop wise, but the results have been variable.
Premier did OK in the end.
Kestrel fine, but they are pretty bomb proof most years.
Kifli had plenty of tubers but smaller than usual.
Blue Danube were less prolific and also smaller tubers than usual.

Different coloured spuds from single coloured seed spuds is a new one.  They are vegetative offshoots from the parent, so there should not be any scope for cross pollination.  Volunteers would be my best guess, but I am only guessing 

[Sleepingpopman]

Hi.  Many thanks for your replies. I know for deff' that the white spuds I lifted
this were not from last year, you might get the odd 1 but they were in clumps
along the rows plus the 1 thing we do is a very deep dig 3 times, 1 when
we lift, 1 in early spring & again when we plant. The seed spuds as far as can
remember were all red but I can't swear on that, I do remember they all much
smaller then normal.
keith.

[AnneB]

A mixed potato year here too.  Maris Bard in potato bags were excellent.
Kestrel, a smaller number than usual, but they were all huge.
Sarpo Blue Danube were very disappointing compared with previous years.  Smaller, badly affected by scab (dry weather I think) and a few slugged.
Ratte, which I have never grown before were a big surprise.  The foliage didn't grow very tall and succumbed to blight in the end.  I whipped the tops off pronto and waited a couple of weeks before harvesting.  An amazing crop of very lovely potatoes. 

[lettice]

A mixed potato year here too.  Maris Bard in potato bags were excellent.
Kestrel, a smaller number than usual, but they were all huge.
Sarpo Blue Danube were very disappointing compared with previous years.  Smaller, badly affected by scab (dry weather I think) and a few slugged.
Ratte, which I have never grown before were a big surprise.  The foliage didn't grow very tall and succumbed to blight in the end.  I whipped the tops off pronto and waited a couple of weeks before harvesting.  An amazing crop of very lovely potatoes.

My Pink Fir Apple, this year from Mr Fothergills  grew much more this year like Ratte as I said above. Not quite as pink as they have been in the past.
Do find also that the foliage is the first to die down and it did grow as tall as all the other maincrop foliage. The leaves run out of flowering and steam mid August, compared to early September for my other maincrop. Except Sarpo Mira that never dies down.
I always cut down my foliage when it is just starting to die and leave the crop for a few weeks to a month or so before picking the maincrop. I leave my Sarpo Mira till last and pick when the foliage is still very green, will be next week or so I expect. The bags are bulging with tohse enormous potatoes they produce, so are ready.
I do not store my Pink fir apple, like I do for all the other maincrop. Just get my hands in and pull out a good few handfuls a few times a week for a meal from mid August and will be doing so for the rest of September I expect.

Shame about your Blue Danube. I've only grown them the last four years but found them to be a fairly consistent size maincrop and a tasty one too, with only a couple of smaller sized ones per bag.
Only thing though, have found they do not store as well as a lot of other maincrops and do start to go soft with a slight sprout around March after the Autumn picking, whereas all my other maincrop of Sarpo, Desiree, Mozart and in the past Rooster have all stored well into early Summer. Just in time for eating the first and second earlies instead
I've just started to store my potatoes for this year and did the Blue Danube yesterday. Had four bags, two bags had 17lb and 18lb and the other two were 20lb. So a good crop as ever and all mostly a good similar size.

I also grew Stemster this year, once again from Mr fothergills. It is exactly like a Desiree and be honest not sure I could tell them part. Very consistent in size too.
I picked and stored them too over the weekend and each of my four bags produced 17lb per bag.

Took a pic of a few Stemster from my store this morning that I shall be using this week and cut it open to show the inside. Not sure whether to go back to Desiree or use the Stemster next year. Will probably return to my garden centre supplier, so expect Stemster will not be there.
Also in pic some Pink fir apple I just scraped up from within a bag. Always laugh at their shapes.

[rowlandwells]

I think its been a funny year for us gardeners this year some things have done we on our plots some not so good potatoes well maris bard quite a good size Kestrel fair crop Desiree again i would say about average but certainly not the potato crops we had last year with cara we grew more potatoes on two half's  on  two separate plots this year and harvested 11 25k bags of potatoes compared to last year when we only grew half a plot with cara and harvested 14 25k bags of good size potatoes

i always scuffle my potato crops out with the tractor and scuffle and although we planted at wider spacings it made little difference the potatoes came out clean hardly any slug damage but as said definitely not the quantity as last year considering the extra planted ground