[comic_muse]

Be interesting to know what varieties we are growing & for what culinary use ?  I'm a bit of a spud growing fan, although not the greatest fan of them on the plate !  I like the 'salad' "new potatoes".....& mash & a 'good' Baker....but don't do chips or 'old fashioned' boiled old potatoes.  Got burnt a bit with Ratte, thinking it was 'new potato' but finding out it came in end of season like a Maincrop, hence lots of (very) small tubers after we really wanted 'salads'.  Mashers seem to be the hardest of all to find for good texture + some flavour ?.....& of course the ggrowing season can have an impact even on the best falvoured/textured if it's too wet or dry.  
I've got Red Duke of York, Epicure & Pomfine in as 1st earlies, British Queen second earlies & for maincrop Arran Victory for Mash & Dunbar Standard for bakers.....what else do we have about the 'grounds' ??....& do we have any recommendations for an A1 masher ( above & beyond King Edwards !!)

[Heather_S]

I'm not a potato connoisseur, this is my first year growing them. I'm growing...
10 - 1st, Red Duke of York, which I'm liking just for its unique foliage
10 - 1st, Winston
10 - 2nd early, Edzell Blue
10 - early main, Nicola (salad)
10 - late main, Arran Victory
10 - late main, Kerr's Pink
5 - late main, pink fur apple (salad)

No, I don't think I have too many for 2 people because we have heavy clay soil so I don't expect a good crop from them really. I'm still waiting on my earlies being ready - do you pull your's when the plants flower? I read that's how you tell the earlies are "done"  

[comic_muse]

Well I'm a bit of an 'early' picker/puller, whatever....I plant close, feed as well as I can & with lots of things pull, or lift every other plant in a block/row to let the others grow on.  We had our first few DOY's last week, & the plants are still in bud....very few little 'taters' per root, but four roots put some on each plate for Sunday lunch.  
I put 3Kg of seed in of each early & 6 Kg each of the 2nd & main crops.  That's quite a lot of potatoes, & I am expecting a decent crop, but with a family of 4 they might just last, as long as they keep.
Generally, when they're in full flower they're 'doing enough' underground for earlies.  2nd's & Main's I'll leave as long as I can / dare dependent on 'pests'.....not sure what I'll be up against as it's the first season.  Don't seem to be too many keel slugs about down there, but it hasn't been turned for ages so it's difficult to tell.  Those Edzells sound interesting, I've seen them in the catalogues, be good to see how they turn out.  That's the beauty of a group like this, all this opportunity to cross pollinate each others experiences !

[shaun]

i am trying a few different types this year
4 rows of ulster cheiftan (will post a pic in the album section)
1 row of home guard
1 row of king edward
1 row of dessire
1 row of sarpa
1 row of pink fur apple (these refused to chitt, i planted them easter week end and they have came up this week)
1 row of pentland javelin
all these have been planted with cow muck.
i saved 4 of each type and i am growing them in a mixed row using a fertiliser(kemira easy grow)the soil was manured last autumn.its just a experiment realy to see if theres much difference.

[Jerry]

I grow only earlies, as need the room for other things, and we get blight every year anyway, so I want to get them up before it hits.
Varieties are:
Arran Pilot
Red Duke of York
Anya
Maris Peer

[John]

I'm growing:
Arran Pilot (1st early)
Nadine (2nd Early)
Anya (2nd Early) which is a wonderful salad potato
Maincrops
Valor - good chipper and roater, keeps well and good flavour
Sarpo Mira. Very dense potato that mashes well and holds it shape well in potato dishes like leek and potato pie. but useless for chips / roasting
Sarpo Axona - new variety that is supposed to be more of an all rounder than Mira
The Sarpo varieties are extremely blight resistant. According to Kitchen Garden magazine the cultivars were rescued by heroic Russian scientists under German shellfire outside of Leningrad and then saved for posterity by a Dr Sarvari who, after falling out with the communist regime, kept them under his bed. Fantastic story!

[Jake]

We've got

Mafona 2nd Early - 2 rows
Maris Peer 2nd Early - 1 row
Pentland Squire Main Crop - 1 row
Sharpes Express 1st Earlies - 1 row
Duke of York 1st early - 1/2 row
Wilja 2nd Early - 1/2 row

I don't know why we got any of these other than Wilja which I grew in the garden last year and are lovely and waxy.

[Heather_S]

Has anyone tried the "slug resistant" varieties? I'm wondering how slug resistant they are considering there seems to be a WW3-type army of slugs at our allotment. There's a list of varities that are slug resistant on Organic Catalogue's site and on Thompson & Morgan.

[comic_muse]

John....whats the yeild / store quality like on those Sarpo Mira's ??....& most importntly the 'flavour' ?  I get all my seed from Tuckers & I think they stock them, like most 'new' (availability) varieties, which I assume they are, you don't get  lot of info.  It's frustrating really because common sense says that a 'good' chipper or salad potato isn't going to be a 'good' masher & yet time & time again the seed suppliers suggest they are.  The most flavoursome 'sit up in peaks' masher remains my Holy Grail.  King Edwards take some beating (excuse the pun).....but commercially grown ones are hit & miss for 'dry matter'......I'm sure there is a 'best' one out there.

[noshed]

I've put in a kilo each of Duke of York, Swift and Jersey Royals. The ones seeming to be lagging behind are... Swift.
Only chose these because they were the first on the list in the allotment shed so it's all an experiment. No room for any others.

[SweetPea]

My first earlies are Duke of York and my second earlies are Charlotte.  I didn't pick those varieties for any reason other than the fact that they were prominently displayed at the garden centre and I was an even newer gardener then than I am now, so I took the first thing I saw!  They have grown very nicely though and hopefully next month I'll be able to tell you what they taste like!

[John]

John....whats the yeild / store quality like on those Sarpo Mira's ??....& most importntly the 'flavour' ?  I get all my seed from Tuckers & I think they stock them, like most 'new' (availability) varieties, which I assume they are, you don't get  lot of info.  It's frustrating really because common sense says that a 'good' chipper or salad potato isn't going to be a 'good' masher & yet time & time again the seed suppliers suggest they are.  The most flavoursome 'sit up in peaks' masher remains my Holy Grail.  King Edwards take some beating (excuse the pun).....but commercially grown ones are hit & miss for 'dry matter'......I'm sure there is a 'best' one out there.

Yield was very good - I grew Valor as well and they outperformed them. They're quite slug resistant so we had much fewer damaged as well.
Storage is very good - they've started sprouting now but are still OK with the sprouts knocked off.
They are different though - very dry indeed. If you mash them, plenty of milk and butter, just to keep my sumo training going, you understand

[GrannieAnnie]

I bought 3kg of International kidney, thinking they were earlies like Jersey Royals, but they are maincrop, 6 kgs of Maris Piper and 3kgs of Marfona.  Its only my second year of spud growing, so I don't know what these will be like.  The 3 pots I planted look good, and most of my other potatoes are growing nicely at the moment.  What was left when I ran of of alloted space have gone in the polytunnel.  Don't know what they'll be like in there.  I tried to pick potatoes that will do as many jobs as possible.  I couldn't be bothered with this potato for bakers, this potato for mash etc, but I may do another year, we'll see.  It will be interesting to see what develops and what results other people get from theirs!!

By the way, back home now!!

[John]

International kidney is the same as Jersey Royals but I think they harvest them early and immature on Jersey. I tried them last year but wasn't impressed.

Still, home grown spuds are home grown spuds

[twysted1]

all i know about my taters is that they are very earlys. OH's  mum gave me them in march but she doesn't have a clue which variety they are.
we do have a little cofusion though. WHEN are early potatoes ready OH's mum reckons when the flowers have formed they are ready for digging, is this correct ?