Topic: Potato vatieties for 2012?

[Jayb]

I’ve still got potatoes left to harvest, but I’m starting to think what to grow next year. Just wondering what everyone has found good this year and any yucks?

For me; it was my first year growing main crop variety Blue Belle, definitely one I want to grow again next year. It’s a real beauty and best of all it’s a super general purpose spud, delish mash!

Kestrel has been good but disappointingly it is breaking up a bit if boiled, I guess down to the weather this year.

I haven’t grown Nadine for a few years but I’m glad I did this year, although it didn’t give the heaviest yield. I really like the size of tubers great for baked, another good all round spud waxy, with lovely flavour.

I tried Tuskar because it apparently has good resistance to blight on leaves and tubers. The leaves on mine didn’t put up a struggle and soon went down with late blight when it struck the potato patch. Still they seem to have produced a decent enough crop. I’m doubtful I’ll grow this one again.

Toluca on the other hand showed good resistance and kept growing for quite a while despite late blight striking the next door row. I’ve only dug a couple of haulms, tubers appear clean on those. I’ve only tasted some  I harvested before blight outbreak and they were good.

Lumpers are still in the ground (just a quick sample earlier on) and yes the plants got hit quite quickly with blight when it arrived in July. I really like the look of the tubers though, nothing uniform about these other than they are, well, lumpy!

[pansy potter]

We grow Nadine every year and are never dissapointed.We also grew Pentland Javelin and Lady Crystl.
We have decided that next year we are only growing Nadine . They are are a good second early and they store very well. We do hope to save our own seed this year. We only save very other year just in case they develope any disease

[small]

My new varieties for this year were Maris Piper, Kestrel, Red Duke of York - they all broke up in cooking, probably down to weather but I'm not inclined to try again with them. Charlotte were excellent again, so they are a must: Desiree had some huge potatoes but not enough: but Pink Fir Apple.......I firkled out a few to have with salad this week, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. So it's double of them next year! For real earlies, I'm going to return to what I always used to grow, Pentland Javelin, maybe they just suit my soil but they were better than anything else I've tried.
But aren't we optimistic, already planning next year after this rubbish season!

[louise stella]

I grew Kidneys (Jersey Royals) and they were great!  Small or left to get bigger they made great spuds - i'll deffo grow them again!  Pink Fir Apples have got to be on my favourite list too!  I am yet to find a good "bigger" spud though!

[pansy potter]

Nadine will never go into the water. They are a lovely waxy potato

[Digeroo]

Grew International Kidney, very strong plants very good crop.
Highland Burgundy nice flavour very small crop.
Mayan gold nice sauteed.  Seem to explode in the microwave this year.
Home Guard did very well nice flavour.

[Deb P]

I have whittled it down to a few firm favourites now: Charlotte, Kestrel and Nicola. I have the room to grow another two early/2nd earlies that are new to me next year, not sure what to try next! ;D

[stancoats]

I'm new to this Forum but does anybody know of a source of Russian Blue potatoes in the UK? I have just come back from British Columbia where my daughter lives in Pemberton, the spud capital of BC. The local farmers market had Russian Blues for sale and I had eaten some earlier in a local restaurant.
I grow spuds on my allotment, mainly Charlotte and Desiree. Good crop this year the dry weather in the summer in the East Midlands produced a good crop of the former completely untouched by slugs. The latter were reasonable size when dug in August but were too big and floury when dug later in September and were beginning to be eaten when the rain came. I do have lots of seed cases from the Desiree but don't know if they are worth keeping as it is the commonest potato grown.

[manicscousers]

We did home guard,amazing, really early crop (CK's potato challenge)
Charlotte, Smile (for the kids), really good crop
Kestrel, bl**dy huge spuds, keeping well
Desiree, again, huge spuds, lots of scab (grown in not so very well rotted muck on plot 2), found last year they keep through the winter anyway.
some of the very arge desiree have hollow heart
Our potato man hasn't got smile next year, not sure if it's because we got some black leg  :)
All of our spuds were out of the ground and stored by end of august as the tops had withered  :o

[Jayb]

Pansy, I'd forgotten what an excellent potato Nadine are, I'll grow them again next year.

Would agree PFA are a gorgeous potato, (though I may not be quite as big a fan as Chriscross  ;D)

Yumm I think Pentland J are scrummy too Small, grown them the last few years, grew Orla instead this year and quite impressed. So I think I may grow Orla again 2012

I might try Sarpo Gwyn, I tried Sarpo Kifli this year, not yet harvested but looks promising.

Deb I've already ordered my Charlottes, I've missed them this year, I planted late and blight blitzed them  :'(

Hi Stancoats and welcome to the forum. I’ve grown Russian Blue, but not sure they are available in the uk. This may be of interest http://www.tuckertaters.com/p_d_all_blue.html  I’ve enjoyed growing and eating them, but I would rate Purple Majesty as better. The PM tubers I grew this year were from shop bought ones and they did very well. I have some TPS from Russian Blue if you fancy your seeing what you get. They will possibly be quite varied though.

I wonder if by seed cases you mean the little potato seed pods formed following the flowers? If so I’m biased and defo think they are worth saving to grow next year.

Manics, I’ve not tried smile they do look cheeky  ;D

Oh boy my list is not getting smaller!

[chriscross1966]

I'm new to this Forum but does anybody know of a source of Russian Blue potatoes in the UK? I have just come back from British Columbia where my daughter lives in Pemberton, the spud capital of BC. The local farmers market had Russian Blues for sale and I had eaten some earlier in a local restaurant.
I grow spuds on my allotment, mainly Charlotte and Desiree. Good crop this year the dry weather in the summer in the East Midlands produced a good crop of the former completely untouched by slugs. The latter were reasonable size when dug in August but were too big and floury when dug later in September and were beginning to be eaten when the rain came. I do have lots of seed cases from the Desiree but don't know if they are worth keeping as it is the commonest potato grown.

I've grown some TPS from Russian Blue and will have spare tubers from the pot-grown plants, would be interested in some TPS from Desiree if you want to swap. Some of my Russian BLue haums have the distinctive purple stems that most blue/purple spuds do....

Had a lot of problems with slugs (or possibly eelworms) this year.... breaking in fresh ground, a dry summer adn manure contamination on my main patch hasn't helped.... not much has produced decent sized tubers..... will have to haev an epic mash-and-freeze session of little tubers soon.....

chrisc

[goodlife]

Good old faithful Charlottas didn't fail to deliver again..even with the drought.
New variety for me this year was Peach Bloom...very pretty of nothing else..
Can't tell nothing about the taste..yet..haven't trialled properly. As they are main crop ones..our summer weather didn't suit them. I got loads and loads of small ones..only few managed to grow into more edible size.
If all of those littles ones would have grown into biggies..I would have been very happy girl.. ::)
But..another trial year next year..plenty of seed potatoes for that.. ::)

[chriscross1966]

Jayb.... where did youget Lumpers from?.... I've been looking for a couple of years just out of historical interest..... Once I've sorted stuff out I will have some Fortyfold from pot-grown microtubers to swap (along with similar Yetholm Gypsy) if you're interested..... As far as I know Fortyfold is the oldest named variety still extant and it's an interesting looking spud.... tasty too....

[Jayb]

They are pretty G'life  :)

Chrisc, I had the Lumpers this year from Irish Seed Savers Association. They are still in the ground but I'll happily save you a few. Tom Wagner has some Lumper Tps on his site and a variety called "Lump O’Gold: oval white to yellow tubers with flesh yellow to white". If the are of interest I can share a few of the L'O'G's with you.  I also have a few tps Lumper x's, can't remember with what at the mo.

[willsy]

For me Vivaldi was a winner this year.Great taste, waxy a lovely potato. Steamed them any left over fried and we loved them. Will grow again next year. It is a 2nd early I think. I just pick and eat if big enough to eat. some of my potatoes did not flower but were fine when dug up. Weather as been crap and I wasnt impressed with any of the others. Pink fir, Desiree, Roosters,I did plant some late though. Last year was better for potatoes. I have thought of giving my plot a rest next year but I will wait and see. May just grow more flowers.

[1066]

new this year were Ratte and Belle De Fontenay, and Ratte will definitely be on next years list - lovely spuds. I fancy trying Shetland Blue next year, beyond that I've not got any real ideas...

Goodlife those look lovely - had your taste test yet?

[busy_lizzie]

We chose ours at the last minute this year and weren't that satisfied. Maris Piper were awful, as someone said, they just collapse if you try to boil them, and even the chips were that little bit too starchy. We had Wilja, which was nothing special. We did have our usual with Charlotte and that is a good old reliable one, lovely taste and a great salad potato. I agree about Nadine, and think I will go back to that as one of our choices for next year. We do try to do some different varieties every year, though do keep going back to a few old favourites. Internation Kidney has a lovely taste and we have had that for several years, so that might be another tried and tested one we go back to. Would like to do a at least one that is a bit  unusual so will look at more of the forthcoming posts for ideas. Thanks for the topic, as orders are being taken at our shed, so will have to get in there soon to place an order. busy_lizzie

[Trevor_D]

Desiree seem brilliant on most soils - mine are huge again this year. Picasso does very well on mine and has become a favourite. And Charlotte, of course.

I've become a fan of Roseval, as a salad potato. Mind you, it's not easy to source. But it makes a brilliant warm potato salad.

Earlies? I've grow Lady C for several years, and recommended it here and on our site. But for the last couple of years they haven't done that well. Is it me? Or the weather? Or them? I might go back to Home Guard next year. Or perhaps grow both?

[goodlife]

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Goodlife those look lovely - had your taste test yet? I did last night..they were floury..strong potato flavour that was nice. I do prefer waxy sort but if they do crop well next year it will be one variety worth of growing..they did soak of loads of butter.. ;) ;D yum.. ;D Being main crop..I wonder if they do produce seeds... :-\ ;D

[Jayb]

For me Vivaldi was a winner this year.Great taste, waxy a lovely potato. Steamed them any left over fried and we loved them. Will grow again next year. It is a 2nd early I think. I just pick and eat if big enough to eat.

I agree, Vivaldi are good, I grew them a couple of years ago, maybe...

1066, I grew Shetland black this year, not that impressed. I noticed on Daughter of the Soil's web site she makes reference to the differences between true Shetland Black and those that are commercially available. 
What were Belle De Fontenay like?

Thank you Trevor-D, I’ve added Roseval to my maybe list

G'life I can’t find much info on Peach Bloom, but I believe the flowers are red violet though very rare. Might be worth you giving them a helping hand to pollinate when/if they flower next year. Good luck hope they do well  :)