[Conkerwoman]

Last year I grew a fabulous crop of Pink Fir Apple spuds. The top growth was really lush with lovely lilac flowers. This year’s batch produced white flowers, the plants are weedy, and the signs are that the crop is going to be much smaller. The potatoes look quite different - not as knobbly and less pink. This year’s disappointing seed potatoes came from The Organic Gardening Catalogue, but I can’t for the life of me recall where I got last year’s beauties from. Can anyone point me towards a supply of lilac-flowered Pink Fir Apples?

[mumofstig]

Pink Fir Apples should have white flowers, according to the potato database
https://varieties.ahdb.org.uk/varieties/view/Pink%20Fir%20Apple
so the mix up was probably with last year's seed - not this year's.

[Aunt Sally]

Mine always have pink/lilac flowers.  We’ve not dug them up yet, so don’t know how well they’ve done.

[mumofstig]

Mine always have pink/lilac flowers.  We’ve not dug them up yet, so don’t know how well they’ve done.

That's weird the database must be wrong then 

[Aunt Sally]

Mine always have pink/lilac flowers.  We’ve not dug them up yet, so don’t know how well they’ve done.

That's weird the database must be wrong then 

Yes, It is probably an error.  It seems the colour can vary a little.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Fir_Apple_potato

[Conkerwoman]

Mine always have pink/lilac flowers.  We’ve not dug them up yet, so don’t know how well they’ve done.

Belated thanks for your response! Do you save your own seed potatoes or buy them in? If you buy them, can you point me to your supplier?

Cheers!

[murphy99]

jamieson brothers is where i got mine from

[Yorkie]

It's really not a good idea to save your own potatoes from one crop, to use as starter spuds for the next year. You won't be able to tell whether they have any viruses, and by the time you find out you may well have infected other people's crops as well as your own.

Local garden centres may sell them loose; or any allotment associations nearby. Failing that, Wilkinson's sell them too :-)

P&P is generally high if you buy them online, so check that aspect out before deciding whether to buy local or from a bigger supplier.

[Christine]

Wilkos didn't have any locally when I looked this week.

[Aunt Sally]

I buy my them from a local independent garden centre who sells seed potatoes loose.

You can run into big problems by saving you own seed.