Topic: What potatoes are you growing this year?

[goodlife]

Code: [Select]

What about ones you would not grow? Maris Piper....they always get horribly scabby and eaten by every possible pest.

[steve76]

Winston grew them for the 1st time last year and they were super, Anya love pfa but hate the nobbles so thought I'd give them a try and Majestic new one for me,
Going to try int- kidney again didn't do very well for me the 1st time a couple of yrs ago but every one else does well on our plot who grow them so going to give them a 2ND chance,
 I've room for one more was thinking about doing an unusual type any ideas???

[Gordonmull]

It's my first year for tatties and after much head scratching and potato variety database searching decided on Maris Bard, Nicola and Romano. Fingers crossed....

[chriscross1966]

Kestrel and Sarpo Mira. The Sarpo seem to do what they say on the packet although not much flavour to them. Last year had a very good crop

THey're OK baked if tat helps.... Try Setanta if you want blight-resistance and a good taste.... ANd I believe Sarpo Kilfi is supposed to be quite nice too...

[chriscross1966]

Winston grew them for the 1st time last year and they were super, Anya love pfa but hate the nobbles so thought I'd give them a try and Majestic new one for me,
Going to try int- kidney again didn't do very well for me the 1st time a couple of yrs ago but every one else does well on our plot who grow them so going to give them a 2ND chance,
 I've room for one more was thinking about doing an unusual type any ideas???

A blue or purple one... from memory...
Salad BLue:- 2nd early, decent alrounder tho  a bit small for baking, attracts slugs if you leave them in too long.
Congo: Ultra-late main crop, almost as knobbly as PFA, striking purple stemmed foliage
Vitelotte: I can't tell it apart from COngo.
Negresse: I can only tell it apart from COngo if I've got a pile of each... it's rounder generally (though you'll get round tubers from COngo and long ones form Negresse). Very late main.
Majestic: Not grown it but good to see a new one out there.

there are a couple of purple-skinned ones with white flesh worth trying...
Edgecote Purple: 2nd early, long flat tubers good baker and chips.
Mr Little's Yetholm Gypsy: Multicoloured skins and superb taste, standard maincrop in my experience.

Good flavour with plenty of disease resistance: Setanta, basically an update to Rooster with blight resistance....

[tomatoada]

2.5kgs each of Casablanca, Nadine, Picasso, & Valor. Plus a few self saved Sarpo Mira & Blue Danube from last years late planting of a T&M cheap offer that did quite well.

I shall be growing Valor for the first time.  Have you grown them  before?   
I was wondering what to do with my last few Blue Danube.   Thanks for the idea of using them as seed potatoes.

[steve76]

Thanks chriscross1966,
               I like the sound of salad blue and congo, going to pop up to the garden center a bit later and have a look..

Steve..

[chriscross1966]

Thanks chriscross1966,
               I like the sound of salad blue and congo, going to pop up to the garden center a bit later and have a look..

Steve..

I don't usually recommend them cos of their prices but T+M list Congo, (as minitubers), Salad Blue, Vitelotte (as minitubers) and Yetholm Gypsy this year...

http://www.thompson-morgan.com/vegetables/potatoes/maincrop?sortBy=bestsellers&page=all

chrisc

[antipodes]

Bought a 3kg bag of Belle de Fontenay earlies on special and also got 15 purple vitelottes from the supermarket! Well chuffed that they are starting to chit! They were non-treated chemically  :) They cost me about 50p, lol, so if I get a few kilos out of them I will be well pleased, they will amuse the kids.
I am also going to order some online, probably some red Desiree, I always do well with those, and maybe a second early.

[Alex133]

1st - Foremost (good flavour & texture right to the end of cropping), 2nd - Charlotte (absolute favourite), Main - Desiree & Cara - all do well in this chalky part of the country. Grew a couple of PFA last year - very small crop and not particularly impressed by the taste.

[tomatoada]

Bought a 3kg bag of Belle de Fontenay earlies on special and also got 15 purple vitelottes from the supermarket! Well chuffed that they are starting to chit! They were non-treated chemically  :) They cost me about 50p, lol, so if I get a few kilos out of them I will be well pleased, they will amuse the kids.
I am also going to order some online, probably some red Desiree, I always do well with those, and maybe a second early.

Belle de Fontenay are classed as a main crop by Kings seeds etc..

[chriscross1966]

1st - Foremost (good flavour & texture right to the end of cropping), 2nd - Charlotte (absolute favourite), Main - Desiree & Cara - all do well in this chalky part of the country. Grew a couple of PFA last year - very small crop and not particularly impressed by the taste.

PFa don't like chalk, you can acidify your soil with flowers of sulphur if you want ... or grow lime-tolerant spuds like King Edwards adn the ones you mention...

[cornykev]

 The PFA's just need a good scrub, just like jackets would, but I used to chip mine, the are late maincrop and I've dug them up in November before
As said Shirl the Kestrels are waxy and make great roasties, chips, jackets, the works, they seem to dodge the slugs and they last, I've still got some left
I'm going to get some Rockets, Charlotte and Saxon at the weekend.   :D

[green lily]

Well my Nicola decided they were earlies about November last year and started chitting everywhere. They spent winter on a windowsill and now are in pots and had their first taste of the big outdoors today...Hopefully a bit of fresh air will slow them down as I hadn't planned on growing potatoes in buckets or in the poly but may be I'll try one to see what I get by Easter.. These are meant to be early maincrop... ::)I have a lot of TPS from PFAs and 3 Salad blues which I thought looked interesting. I shall plant them up with a 'girlfriend PFA'each and try to save some seed. No blight resistance or anything useful but interesting colours and tastes I hope
BTW I harvested my good PFA crop before I went on holiday last year at the beginning of September and got a good crop. Not necessary to leave them too late and get blight etc with the autumn rains.

[antipodes]

Bought a 3kg bag of Belle de Fontenay earlies on special and also got 15 purple vitelottes from the supermarket! Well chuffed that they are starting to chit! They were non-treated chemically  :) They cost me about 50p, lol, so if I get a few kilos out of them I will be well pleased, they will amuse the kids.
I am also going to order some online, probably some red Desiree, I always do well with those, and maybe a second early.

Belle de Fontenay are classed as a main crop by Kings seeds etc..

How odd, in France they are always an early - I grew some last year, they are quite nice, and good sized. If you harvest in June, they are small and sweet. If you leave them in a month longer they grow well and still taste good. Certainly not a main here, they have fine skins.

Now that I have the garden well established I shall grow a few less spuds, and a few more beans and peas, cucumbers, peppers etc. That's why I will only do a fair few earlies, and probably some Desiree and pop in those purple ones and see what they give me  :) (PS I saw a bag of 10 plants of the purple vitelotte, they wanted 7 euros for them!!!!  :o I bought 16 baby spuds for about 50 cents!!!

[tomatoada]

Interesting.   Shall I grow mine as earlies or main?  Perhaps try half and half.

[star]

Ive only ever grown Kestrel, a great all rounder and good taste. But reading these posts, I am tempted to try Setanta as well this year  ;D

[Kleftiwallah]

The semi finalists are 1st early - Swift, Pent, Jav', Rocket, Maris Bard, Winston.  2nd early - Marfona, Maris Peer, Kestrel, Wilja, Saxon, Nicola, Estima, Carlingford, Nadine.  Main Crop - Stemster, Sante, Valor, Desiree, Romano, Cara, King Ed, Argos, Harmony, and Pent' Dell.

Checked 'em all out at

http://varieties.potato.org.uk/quick_search.php

all I have to do now is thin them down to a manageable number !    Only going to grow a couple of each and this year we WILL keep records!     ::)    

 Cheers,     Tony.

[shirlton]

Went to Country Gardens and got my Kestrel and Pink Fir Apple today.

[winecap]

Most of my varieties are the same as last year - Homeguard, Rocket, Pentland Javelin, Harmony, Wilja, Cara, Desiree, King Edward, Exquisa, Juliette, Pink Fir Apple and Salad Blue. I also grow one that I call Franklin because my friend Franklin gave it to me and I don't know its real name.
New varieties for me this year will be Highland Burgundy Red and Maris Piper.
I'm ditching the Edzel Blue this year.
I'm also trying out true potato seed (Russian Blue and Blue Belle) thanks to generous people (aka Emma) here on Allotments 4 All. I like trying something new each year, but I shall be growing my potatoes on 4 plots this year. I don't want to grow them all in one place in case of disease.