[willow2]

I've registered here because I'm sure someone can help.

I've been growing potatoes successfully for 12 years, but this season's crop doesn't seem to want to cook. Potatoes are still hard after 6-7mins in the Microwave or 20 mins of boiling. They eventually go soft (before collapsing, if I go to far), but parts of a potato can still be quite hard.

Someone raised the issue on Radio 4's Gardener's Question Time a few months ago and the experts admitted never having heard of it. It stuck in my mind, because I'd already had a couple by that point - but others had been fine. Now the problem applies to my whole stock, it seems.

Any ideas?

Steve. 

[Trillium]

This happens from time to time and not even the experts have an answer. I've checked numerous sources but no one has an answer.

Theories range from the problem being the type of potato - was it a new variety this year for you?
- did you add anything different during growing season, like different type of manure, fertilizer, pesticide, etc?
- the type of pot used to cook the potatoes might have something acidic about it as it's suspected that something acidic affects the cooking
- are the potatoes left too large when cooked?

If none of the above, then its just something that happens on occasion and you'll need to bin the problem potatoes and hope for better luck next year. Sorry I can't be more helpful but its a problem with no specific answer.

[willow2]

I appreciate the input. I also had a batch of first earlies where the plants looks fine, the harvested potatoes looked fine and cooked well, then a week later half the harvested and dried crop started to turn to mush.

So I separated out all the ones that still felt sold and looked unblemished, put them iun a fresh Hessian sack ... and a week later,m they were almost all suffering from the same problem. Most had a dark ring running around about a cm below the skin and went mushy on just one side, like the potato was be sucked in.

The Garden Centre denied all knowledge of what it might be and their supplier even called, but was no help. The Defra website description suggested it might be Ring Rot and that it was notifiable disease, so I notified them, but heard nothing.

So it's not been a great potato year (no problems anywhere else though). I can eventually cook the hard ones, so it's not a complete disaster. And, actually, I'm eager to see what happens next year, although I'll be getting my seed potatoes from a different supplier this timer ... just in case..

Thanks again for the response, I haven't done one of these forum things before.

Steve.

[arugula]

Whereabouts are you Steve? Climate, soil type etc could be a factor.

[Trillium]

Actually, Argyllie, this happens to a lot of people in many different areas, and to both commercial growers as well as home growers. Seasoned growers can have it suddenly happen with no indication of cause, be it weather, manure, fertilizer or what.

No one has an explanation for it, it just happens. The potatoes look normal but are simply too hard to cook. All you can do is accept the loss and bin them as they'll never soften. Seed suppliers aren't even aware of it so its impossible to get replacements.

[Growster...]

Just an idea, how about par-boiling, then slicing and sauteeing them?

It seems that the actual structure of the spud has grown with more density than before, and therefore, the boiling action hasn't actually softened the middle bits!

I've been wondering at the density of swede, as that is incredibly solid, until cooked of course.

Interesting subject.