[veggirl]

Just dug the rest of the main crop, which, according to the label I found in the shed was Majestic. Got a total of four stone - estimated by the old boy next to me. He also insisted on carrying them to the car for me! Aren't people amazing? I only have one question - how did the potato label turn up in the shed, when the shed has only been up for three weeks?

[mumofstig]

must have been stuck in/to something else that you put in since the shed arrived 

[TheSpartacat]

Cara – good size tubers and I’m happy with yield (about 8 kg from 5 plants – is that good or just average?)

The only thing with them is they have quite rough scaly skins. I was expecting them to be smooth but only one tuber has any area of smooth skin at all. Is it possible that it’s scab? The scab I’m used to looks more like the second picture and is just I patches.

Anyway - they were lovely scrubbed and baked last night!

Hi... Not sure what that is on your potatoes, but my Lord Rosebery potatoes had the same thing- looks like they all suffered from dry skin!! Haven't worked out what it is yet... But you're not alone.
They still tasted great though- just gave them a scrub with a wire brush which took most of the skin off.
Would love to know what is the cause of this "potato eczema!"

[rainbow1]

Remarka - OK crop of OK tubers (bit scabby)
Golden Wonder - total disaster. Tubers all have some sort of disease - rotten stinky patches and when you touch a tuber pussy stuff erupts from these areas. Not nice. 

[bluealf]

Well first things first, sorry I havnt been on here for an absolute age (illness and injury) but we have kept the lotty ticking over just.

We had 3 types of Tatties in this year.

Charlotte = Very poor this year, not a great taste and all manner of shapes. I'm blaming the late winter and extra dry then wet spring. 

Kestral = As good as last year, superb chipper/roaster beats maris piper hands down for me.

Bambino = We got them free with the above, high yield and good round shape good boiler.

Hopefully me the wife and I can stay fit and healthy this year and I can get back into the swing of it again.

 

[TheSpartacat]

Realised I hadn't updated since I first started digging them up with the Maris Peer! Oops!!!

FIRST:
Lord Rosebery- tasted ok, (kinda went mushy when boiled so stuck to steaming) yield ok, but had a kind of scab i've not seen before- scaly skinned. Also had swollen lenticles so don't know if the two are connected. Next year wlll grow Sharpes express again, and Lady Christl that everyone seems to love.

SECOND:
Maris Peer... got LOADS!!!! and they were SO yummy! Great flavour, some nice big ones. Still storing well, and they've been up a good month.

Ulster Sovereign- Brilliant yield, No blemishes. Good flavour-between floury and waxy, versatile spud!!  Nice big potatoes too.

And...  i thought i had 3 rows of Ulster Sovereign but forgot i had also planted a row of Gladstone!!! 
Thank goodness i put a label next to them as they are decidedly my faves from the second earlies, and i'd forgotten I'd gotten them on a whim.
The yield was greater than the U.Soverieigns, or the Maris Peer. Lovely even shaped, nicely sized potatoes, perfect skins- no damage at all...  and the flavour is lovely!!

MAINCROP
Kerr Pink: Happy with yield but not overjoyed... would've liked more! Really love the floury flavour, and since i'm Irish, I grew up eating these and can't buy them anywhere in the shops.... so yup, I may be biased!!!  No damage apart from where I speared them with the fork!!! Mostly nice and large.

And NO wire worm damage!!! Yippee!
The plot is newly dug soil- not cultivated in a v long time, so came across an awful lot of wire worm when digging out the brambles- dug the whole area over 4 times picking the little blighters out before planting, so must've gotten most of them out!

The growbags were a washout. Mustn't have had enough water. The Maris Piper did the best out of all. Home Guard the worst. Pink Fir Apple also v v small potatoes- but i'd still grow them next yr but in the ground i think.

[themoog]

I've grown Valor for the first time this year, lured by descriptions from various sources of ther great taste and storing qualities.

Firstly, the yield was poor but that was the case for all my varieties this year. The main problems have been slugs and wireworm (but we had a really wet August here), so I haven't got a single potato suitable for storage. I harvested the Valor and the last of the Desiree (no problems there apart from the yield) mid-September.

I'm also really disappointed with the taste and texture. They're fairly bland and when cooked, seem rather wet and become quite mushy very quickly. There was no sign of blight on the plot.

Is this normal for Valor or might I have better luck another year?

[Yorkie]

I don't know about the particular variety but a common complaint this year for lots of varieties of spuds has been their willingness to disintegrate on cooking ...  

[mumofstig]

Yup.............i've been stood with knife for prodding, watching them like a hawk.
Newly dug they were difficult to cook, but the ones that have been stored a few weeks are a lot better

[DD.]

I've merged your post into this thread, themoog, as we're trying to collate all the spud results in one place.

[sunshineband]

Dug up our expensivest ever potatoes at the weekend --- congo

They are a gorgeous colour: deep navy blue, with violet inside that stays when they cook. Cook well (no falling to bits for these) and tasted like, well like potatoes tbh

But at £4.95 for five tubers (micropropagated , mind  ) that makes them pricey in my book.

Got 2.8kg from three tubers, mainly quite small. Gave the other two away.

[slugwarrior]

potatoes grown this year:

anais - fine, tasty
franceline - tasty, prone to the 'comedy potato'
isle of jura - huge yield, tasty but the slugs thought so also-  loads of damage
arran victory - great but not  very high yielding. also produced some comedy potatoes

grew half in the garden and half down the the allotment. garden spuds were remarkably better quality than those from the allotment.  better skin, higher yields. very interesting.

not sure i would grow any of these varieties agin.  like red duke of york, charlotte, sarpo mira and top potato - sarpo axona. described in the catalogue as having a high dry matter content. that was an understatement. first time i have ever had a potato completely explode in the oven when i stuck a fork in. slugs didn't touch them. mind you, not surprising as they seemed to suck all the moisture out of your mouth when you ate them. i loved them. this is not a spud - this is a full on potato experience!

[chriscross1966]

Remarka - OK crop of OK tubers (bit scabby)
Golden Wonder - total disaster. Tubers all have some sort of disease - rotten stinky patches and when you touch a tuber pussy stuff erupts from these areas. Not nice. 

THere are several things that could be but it sounds horribly like tuber blight to me... GW is pretty suscetible to blight anyway .....

[cornykev]

All my Cara are out the ground now and the size and quantity was OK but about 15% was slugged but still got used when I cut the bad bits out.