Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: JayG on January 13, 2010, 11:48

Title: Rocket Man (?)
Post by: JayG on January 13, 2010, 11:48
Have grown mostly Charlottes for the last few years, which are unfortunately rather prone to eelworm (PCN) attack, and with limited space for rotation I need to find another first or second early with better eelworm resistance to try this year.

"Rocket" seems to fit the bill, but searching through this site for people's experiences of this variety has produced such a huge range of opinions that I thought I'd try again with this thread to see if there is any sort of agreement out there.

Thanks in advance for your replies.
Title: Re: Rocket Man (?)
Post by: DD. on January 13, 2010, 12:12
Shame about Charlotte, one of my favourites.

I like to try something different every year, but always grow Pentland Javelin as a first early as I know they won't let me down. They are eelworm resistant:

http://www.dundrynurseries.co.uk/detail.asp?id=129
Title: Re: Rocket Man (?)
Post by: lightyears on January 13, 2010, 12:21
Weve done rocket for the last 2 seasons, last year we got a bigger haul from the early rockets than all of the main crop combined. They produce a very nice spud in quite a lot of different sizes.
Title: Re: Rocket Man (?)
Post by: Salmo on January 13, 2010, 16:04
Before you go searching for eelworm resistant potatoes, are you sure that you have eelworm damage?

Eel worms are too small for the human eye to see and damage is to the fine roots which go frizzy and do not develop properly.

If your damage is small holes in the potatoes you probably have wireworm.
Title: Re: Rocket Man (?)
Post by: JayG on January 13, 2010, 16:11
Definitely eelworm damage I'm afraid (the above-ground symptoms for one but particularly the presence of hundreds of tiny cysts on the roots of the affected plants).

No wireworm or slug damage to add to the problems I'm glad to say!