Topic: Potato planting/progress

[amphibian]

Started eating Premier: terrible yield - very disappointed.

[galina]

First Swift dug up here. 

And also the volunteers that didn't get removed earlier, because they were growing out of the way of other crops.  I know you 'must' remove volunteers not to spread blight, but I bend the rules a little by digging them up very early.  Tiny tubers of Anja, very low yield, but with much better flavour than Swift - the Swift were much larger of course.    

[Jayb]

As the foliage had died back on one plant I lifted, and ate, a few first earlies Red Duke of York earlier in the week.

They look lovely Flighty and a good size already.

[Jayb]

That's a shame Amphibian, I'd not heard of Premier, they sound like they should be good.

First Swift dug up here. 

And also the volunteers that didn't get removed earlier, because they were growing out of the way of other crops.  I know you 'must' remove volunteers not to spread blight, but I bend the rules a little by digging them up very early.  Tiny tubers of Anja, very low yield, but with much better flavour than Swift - the Swift were much larger of course.    

Swift are a little uninspiring, fast though!
I was impressed with Abbot's time to cropping it can't be far behind Rocket or Swift, taste is better too.


Anja, oooh they are a lovely potato, haven't grown them for a few years.


Abbot 8 1/2 weeks

[galina]

Abbot?  New to me, must put in notebook.  Thank you. 

They look good indeed, as do Flighty's Red Duke of Yorks, very clean.  They should taste good also.

The Swift were bought locally - panic buy when I realised I hadn't got enough seed tubers from last year and from the tps, and we couldn't go to Potato Day.   But then came a lovely present of tubers in the post ( Jayb) and TandM's no postage offer for a bag of Charlottes.  The potato patch this year is no smaller and not much less diverse than normal 

[lezelle]

Hi Ya, just did a bit of research on your abbot potatoes and was quite impressed. So much so I have ordered 60 tubers from Thomson and Morgan at £2.99 for 20. couldn't believe the price. Don't fully understand why so cheap but went for it and will share with fellow plot holders. I thought that was a good price. Here's hoping.

[Jayb]

They were on offer when I bought them too, 

It's a good price isn't it, I bought another pack of Abbot for next year too. Hope you like them 
I think it was last year they had Charlotte potatoes on offer for the same price.

[pumkinlover]

First Swift dug up here. 

And also the volunteers that didn't get removed earlier, because they were growing out of the way of other crops.  I know you 'must' remove volunteers not to spread blight, but I bend the rules a little by digging them up very early.  Tiny tubers of Anja, very low yield, but with much better flavour than Swift - the Swift were much larger of course.    

Is that anja or anya, not heard of the former, and I always treat the later as a maincrop and leave till later.

[galina]

Is that anja or anya, not heard of the former, and I always treat the later as a maincrop and leave till later.

Excuse my spelling, of course the potato is Anya  - duh!
As Anja will tell you, I have made the same mistake the other way round too - double duh! 

Interesting to leave them in the ground as a maincrop, but guess the yield is much higher then?  These were only coming out because they were volunteers and I don't want to initiate blight problems by leaving them .

[Silverleaf]

Had to pull up two plants this week - some kind of wilt. Foliage went floppy with yellowish leaves, stems at soil level brownish and mushy. Tubers seem okay, but not as many as I'd hoped for.

It's weird, one Bonnie plant is flowering and looking, er, bonny ;), and the other right next to it wilted and yielded just 5 tubers.

Let's hope that removing the diseased plants will improve the air flow and save the others from a similar fate!

[galina]

Had to pull up two plants this week - some kind of wilt. Foliage went floppy with yellowish leaves, stems at soil level brownish and mushy. Tubers seem okay, but not as many as I'd hoped for.

It's weird, one Bonnie plant is flowering and looking, er, bonny ;), and the other right next to it wilted and yielded just 5 tubers.

Let's hope that removing the diseased plants will improve the air flow and save the others from a similar fate!

Could be blackleg.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=223

[Silverleaf]

Had to pull up two plants this week - some kind of wilt. Foliage went floppy with yellowish leaves, stems at soil level brownish and mushy. Tubers seem okay, but not as many as I'd hoped for.

It's weird, one Bonnie plant is flowering and looking, er, bonny ;), and the other right next to it wilted and yielded just 5 tubers.

Let's hope that removing the diseased plants will improve the air flow and save the others from a similar fate!

Could be blackleg.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=223

Yeah, possibly. Either way, not much I can do, is there?

[Jayb]

My first thought would be Blackleg too.
I had to pull several plants a few years ago, the remaining plants remained healthy. Hopefully yours will too.

[Silverleaf]

The other plants look okay, so fingers crossed.

[johhnyco15]

had some Casablanca the weekend low yield but its been so dry here on the north Essex coast and the sandy soil I'm su rprised i got any good flavour  took up all my rocket 2 weeks ago much better yield bigger pots tennis ball size  got Sharpe's express next then Nadine then estima then main crop in sacks 

[Jayb]

It's pretty dry even here.

I picked Belana, Abbot, Pentland J. and Elisabeth at the weekend, all pretty tasty. I'll post some pictures when I get them sorted.