Topic: Potato problem - would you still plant them?

[CityChick]

My 2nd early and main crop seed potatoes had been chitting away quite happily on my Mum's spare bedroom windowsil until a couple of days ago... when a bird flew into one of the windows smashing it :o and sending broken glass everywhere... including over the potatoes :(

The big bits have been picked off, and I thought I could go over them with a soft brush too, to get rid of any tiny bits that might be left behind.  Do you think that would be enough? Would you still plant them?  Its just I really don't fancy the idea of any tiny bits of glass on what I might be eating! :-X  Am I just worrying too much?  Or any other tips for how to get rid of any tiny glass fragments?

One of my sisters, who was there at the time, moved them out of the way and tried to clean them up for me, bless her, but in the process has completely muddled them up.  Now of course I realise that is was more important to try to board up my Mum's window, and she was trying to do me a favour, but...... aaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhh!!!  There were 15 varieties which, apart from a few, like the pink firs, all more or less look the same to me now :-\

I know I'll be able to tell a lot of them apart when/if grown, eg Kestrel is the only one I've got that is white with purple eyes... But I've also got a couple of purples (edzell blue and arran victory) and a several reds (red king edwards, laura, rooster and a sarpo one).  Any suggestions of how I can tell these apart, eg do they have differences in height?  Or leaf shape?  Or stem colour?  Or flower?  My aim was to try lots of varieties this year, and focus on the ones I liked the best next year.  That's going to be difficult if I don't know what they are ::)

Any thoughts or help appreciated.

[grawrc]

Poor you! What a horrible thing to happen!

I shouldn'y worry about tiny bits of glass that you can't see. The tuber you plant isn't what you eat and if you've inspected it thoroughly and see nothing I would guess it's safe enough to plant it.

AS to varieties I think if you look at them carefully you'll find thay are all slightly different.

I would start by sorting out the obvious ones and labelling them and then try and sort the rest as best you can.

Do you have any seed catalogues with pictures to help you? eg Organic Catalogue has pictures. Or websites that might help ? (eg T & M etc)

Good luck with the sorting!

[STHLMgreen]

Sorry to hear that that happened!  :(
I wish you the best on getting them sorted. 

I'd definitely plant them anyway. Even if you have one or two labled wrong you'll still be one step ahead for next year.

[mat]

Hi Ya

I can only imagine how you feel  :o  I would be gutted to have all mine mixed up.

I have looked at my Edzell's and Arran Victorys and cannot see any real differences to tell them apart, except ALL my Arrans are shrivelled and all my edzells are still smooth... not sure if this helps you though  ::) maybe if I washed them there would be a colour difference...

Cannot help with the others, as although I have Rooster, I don't have your other reds to compare it to

mat

[supersprout]

Arg! So sorry to hear about this, what a problem!
You said your plan was to trial a number of varieties this year, so are you just growing 'samples' of a lot (rather than acres)?
If so, how about:

Sort out the spuds you can identify (like the PFAs) and wash them carefully, to get rid of the glass (if you'd be happy, I don't think you're being too precious at all :P :-X), plant and label.
Make a list of the ones you wanted to trial that you still can't identify. Might be worth checking the Alan Roman book from the library, but the seed potatoes will probably be too wizened to be recognisable.
Beg (A4a buddies), call one or more potato sellers and tell them the story, asking them for a couple of each as a 'special', ask neighbours if they have spares of your chosen varieties (or would mind digging one up for you). Then plant and label. I'm sure lots of people would be keen to help.

Hopefully this way you wouldn't have to shell out too much on replacement seed potatoes or worry about the glass. At least you'd still have your trial spud season. If there were some you couldn't find in time for this year, you could always trial next year.

With spare ground in the garden, you could always wash and plant the rest - unlabelled - then have a potato tasting against the labelled ones later in the year (your sis could join in ;)). Otherwise I would just give them away.

Hope the window got fixed too, good luck whatever you decide :)

[Merry Tiller]

You should plant them, it won't make any difference to your harvested spuds.
Bad luck with the mix-up, it's all part of growing your own, these things happen, just tell yourself it'll be better next year

[CityChick]

Well that seems fairly positive - most peeps aren't too worried about the glass! That was my main concern.  Thanks for the extra suggestion to wash them before I plant them - doh ::) - hadn't thought of that! :-[

I know if I plant them I'll still get a crop of potatoes to eat (which is the main reason for planting them!!) and the "what are they" part is just the icing on the cake, as it were...

I don't have the Alan Roman's book, but I've just been to visit his website to look at the pics :D  I think I'll know these:

Kestrel is the only one I have that is white with purple eyes.

Nicola is the only all white / yellow one I have.

Pink Fir Apple, Pompadour and Ratte are all quite distinctive by their shape (and luckily there seems to be groups of these in the numbers I bought :D).

Roseval is the only longish red one I have, and IIRC from other years has a red tinge to the stems?

So I'm left with:

Edzell Blue v Arran Victory - looks like Edzell Blue (at harvest) has deeper eyes, so I might be able to tell that way...  anyone familliar with both of these to know if this is correct?

I have 3 that are white with pink eyes or splashes:  Kerr's pink, Lady Balfour and Verity.  When I've grown it before, Kerr's pink has quite deep eyes, so I'm hoping that one will stand out from the others.  On T&M's site Lady Balfour and Verity look quite simillar, but on Alan Roman's they do look different (Lady Balfour having just pink eyes, Verity with larger splashes of pink).  So with some careful looking at harvest time, I might be able to tell these apart.

The reds are going to be the hardest :-\  I've Red King Edward, Rooster and Sarpo Axona (and I might have Laura, thought some of my notes show this as 1st early - so maybe I've planted it already - must check my numbers and be better organised!). 

Any suggestions on how to tell any of these reds apart?

I feel things are looking up though - if there are only 3 or 4 out of 15 I have trouble telling apart, then I'm feeling much better :D

[Robert_Brenchley]

I can see that separating the varieties could be awkward! Birds flying into windows is the sort of unfortunate thing that happens occasionally; when I was a kid I remember being very impressed by an exhibit in the University Museum at Oxford; a blackbird flew into a window and ended up dead inside, while outside they found the body of the sparrowhawk that was after it. Both birds were stuffed and mounted as they were found.

[CityChick]

Well all 3 of us have had a good look round inside and are surprised we didn't find a dead bird anywhere, given there is a 12-14" hole in the window :o

[mat]

I meant to ask the state of the bird!  Well sounds like s/he now has a very bad headache!

mat

[Mrs Ava]

Been a-googling and wondered if this might help a little....tis hard to find a site which lists pictures of seed spuds...something we could all do!!

http://www.garden4less.co.uk/seed-potatoes.asp