Topic: Sarpo Spuds.

[telboy]

I'll gladly post the sacks to anyone if you can supply your address (thru' messages?)

But, if you go into your local shitshop - sorry Tesco, they will give you paper sacks - honest!!

[moonbells]

I found some sacks!!!

I had forgotten to go and look in the garden centre hardware store I always say sells everything... went in for garlic bulbs yesterday and they had hessian potato sacks for 50p each. Not entirely lightproof and I am now wondering why I got an odd number but I can always get another. Then one inside another should sort it.

They are also marked as impregnated with various -icides so there will be a short trip into a washing bowl for a scrub and onto a line before use.  I suspect they were what their seed potatoes came in.

moonbells

[Doris_Pinks]

Have decided the sarpos are rubbish boiled, (they turn to mush) but had them roasted last night and they were delish! (the family even commented on how crunchy the outside were!)

[moonbells]

Have decided the sarpos are rubbish boiled, (they turn to mush) but had them roasted last night and they were delish! (the family even commented on how crunchy the outside were!)

I think most spuds are bad for boiling this year - with the lack of moisture, nearly all the waxy varieties I'm growing have been floury. Which means a floury spud like the Sarpos will be even more prone to disintegration on boiling! And will make fabulous chips and roasties.

moonbells

[marshwiggle]

The market stall for pets near me gives away sacks free. They get bird seed etc. in the big sacks and sell small quantities, and the sacks are left over and they don't re use them. Worth a try? They get about five to eight a week.

[Doris_Pinks]

moonbells, had homemade chips with them tonight............delish, now why am I not losing weight with having an allotment I wonder! (we normally only ever have homemades on boxing day....and yes my house now stinks! Yeauch!)

[djbrenton]

Sarpo Mira averaged out at just under 7lb per plant. Well impressed.

[sallyann993]

TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO WANT POTATO SACKS................GO TO YOUR LOCAL FISH AND CHIP SHOP MOST OF THESE NEAR ME ARE ONLY TOO WILLING TO GIVE THEM TO YOU FREE OF CHARGE..YOUVE ONLY GOT TO ASK

[moonbells]

I dug up 7 plants on Sunday, with two of them doing nothing much, and the other five giving me this lot!


The arrowed one was cracked so with some of the frozen leeks from last season we turned it into leek and potato soup, and even us soup dragons only managed to eat 2/3 of the cauldronful! That one weighed 1lb 7oz and isn't the largest...

Just drying them off a bit now so I can brush the earth off before putting in the sack, and they'll do very nicely for winter :)

moonbells

[Rosyred]

I'm a bit confused as i've read not to had manure to root veg but Wardy grows hers in manure and i've just read that one of you dug some in when planting the seed potato.... Do I put manure in or not???

[jammyd]

My Sarpo Mira have been lifted over the last few weeks.
Since planting, I've watered them a few times, earthed up once and added a little well rotted manure with straw - but left them to their own devices, really. (Next to carrots and parsnips, for anyone interested in how plants affect each others growth - the carrots and parsnips did/doing well too!)

They have done really well. No leaf problems, no slug damage, large crops :)

I agree that they don't boil well, but that just means more mashed potato! and most of them are big enough to make great jacket spuds - which tastse supurb :P

Just my 2pence worth!

jams

[sandersj89]

I'm a bit confused as I've read not to had manure to root veg but Wardy grows hers in manure and i've just read that one of you dug some in when planting the seed potato.... Do I put manure in or not???

I manure my spuds, normally putting it on the ground about now as a winter mulch.

Seed spuds set out in the spring and some times add a little manure to the trench if I have some spare.

The non manuring of root crops normally refers to parsnips and carrots. Here the growing tips of the roots can be effected by manure, the acidity I believe, and this results in forking of the root. Other reasons for forking mainly relate to root tip damage by physical means such as stones or transplanting.

Not a problem with spuds.

HTH

Jerry

[moonbells]

Manure is definitely not a problem with spuds. I put a 6" deep layer in a trench and pushed the chitted seeds into that! I had the most scab-free crop yet and none of the erratic water problems such as hollow heart that I got last year.

Some of the best spuds I've had were from a volunteer in the manure heap!

moonbells

[philcooper]

I'm a bit confused as i've read not to had manure to root veg but Wardy grows hers in manure and i've just read that one of you dug some in when planting the seed potato.... Do I put manure in or not???

Rosyred,

Potatoes are different from carrots and parsnips, where the advice is not to put on fresh manure as the roots split to find the nutrients producing wierd, but still good tasting roots (if you have the time to prepare the wierd shape for cooking)

Potatoes are gross feeders and the more muck the better

The "normal" way to plant them is to line the trench with compost/muck before inserting the seed tubers.

Some varieties will actually do quite poorly if they don't have a good supply of muck, King Edward being a prime example - but they all benefit form as much as possible.

The reason why Tomina was not accepted was that the others were registered first so it was compared with existing listed varieties to ensure that it was sufficiently different to warrant listing - this is one of the criteria for listing.

In case you have missed the thread on the News list, details of all UK Potato Days are on http://www.hhdra.org.uk/potatodays/ the best, of course being the Hampshire day - the largest sellection and amongst the cheapest - and this year there will be a seed swap see http://www.hhdra.org.uk/potatoday.htm

Phil

Phil