Well I finally got around to lifting my main crop spuds at the weekend, both at home and the allotment, so I thought I would do a summary of the varieties I grew this year and the results.
First Earlies
Grown in large pots, started inside in a greenhouse and then moved outside after frosts have passed.
Mimi: Supplier Thompson & Morgan.
Very Impressed, lovely small round tubers tinged with red. Each pot yielded enough for 2 or 3 meals. Flavour excellent. Cooking quality very good, nice and firm texture.
Shelly: Supplier Thompson & Morgan.
OK, early pickings better than latter. Tubers egg shaped with clear white skin/flesh. Size of tubers much bigger than Mimi and yield heavy. Flavour OK but became floury towards the end of picking. When cooked/boiled could fall to pieces.
Second First Earlies
Grown direct in ground after chitting as normal. Ridged as required, very little watering required.
Sharpes Express: Supplier Thompson & Morgan.
Initial results looked good but as the season went on the flavour dropped off and they became floury and no good for boiling. Tended to wash, roughly chip and cook in oven with olive oil and salt and pepper, very nice. Yield was very good, oval tubers that developed upto the size of bakers if left till August. No sign of slug or wire worm damage. Foliage died back before blight was a problem.
Duke of York: Supplier Tuckers Seeds.
Very poor yield, some stalks only had one or two tubers each. Taste too nothing to write home about. No sign of slug or wire worm damage. Foliage died back before blight was a problem.
Maincrop
Grown direct in ground after chitting as normal. Ridged as required, very little watering required. No water applied to allotment grown what so ever.
British Queen: Supplier Thompson & Morgan.
Very good yield, nice size of tuber, plenty big enough to class as a baker. Skin clean but some show a touch of scab, cosmetic damage only. Have only tried them baked so far but very nice light fluffy flesh and good crispy skin. No sign of slug or wire worm damage. Foliage slightly effected by blight, foliage removed at first sign and crop left in ground for 2 weeks. No tuber damage evident as yet.
Dunbar Standard: Supplier Thompson & Morgan.
Very disappointed, the tubers are large, some might say huge, but lots of slug damage and wire worm holes. Very few tubers unaffected making them no good for baking. Storage will also be affected. In terms of weight the yield is good, slightly better than British Queen but I doubt I will grow again. Little sign of scab though. Most signs of blight on all grown this year, foliage very lush most of the year then quickly hit. Some tubers affected. Not eaten any as yet so no views on taste.
Aran Victory: Supplier Tuckers Seeds.
Very impressed. Large round tubers with blue/purple skins. Two rows of 15 tubers yielded 3 bags of spuds. No sign of slugs or wire worm and the plant only showed minimum signs of blight. The foliage is very tall, well above waist hight and helps control weeds. Have eaten them mashed, baked and roast and all have tasted very good. Roast really suits them. I am hoping these store well as we have more of this crop than any other.
In Summary
All in all it has been a funny year for spuds. It started well with good temperatures and decent rain then we had a dry spell in early summer followed by a wet and warm August. This helped on the watering front but has made it a bad year for blight. The damp soil conditions may have also suited slug damage.
The susceptibility of some varieties to slug and wire worm damage was also brought home to me. I grew British Queen and Dunbar Std next door to each other and treated them exactly the same. British Queen is unmarked and Dunbar is seriously affected.
Next year I will definitely grow Mimi again, very impressed with flavour and cooking characteristics. If Aran Victory store well I will grow them as well. The research for next year is back on, Desiree may well be on the list as well as home guard.
HTH
Jerry
