Early potatoes, good crop this year?

[Deb P]

I decided after last years attempt at growing maincrop potatoes to just grow earlies this year, as they all rotted in storage in the hard winter.

I left it later than usual to get my seed potatoes,and in the end found myself in Wilkinson's grabbing anything that was left at the end of March. I ended up trying some varieties that I hadn't tried before as a result, Kestrel, Nicola and Rooster, alongside my all time favourite Charlotte.

So far, the results have been outstanding! I've just dug up my first Kestrel and Roosters this morning, and have lovely clean and huge crops, despite the ground being like dust underneath the top damp layer of manure which has had two days of rain on them. The salad potatoes Charlotte and Nicole are also good, some as big as bakers. A good result from an chaotic start!  ;D

[Deb P]

[brown thumb]

i had the same thing happen this year my salad and  early potatoes the size of jackets when i was thinking they would be small because of lack of water

[manicscousers]

Kestrels  ;D

[cornykev]

My Rockets and Winston are massive, not looked at the Kestrels yet.  ;D

[caroline7758]

I've had some good big ones among my Rocket, too- just hope the slugs aren't getting at them in this weather.

[pigeonseed]

Sounds like a good potato year!

My kestrel and accord did okay. But not amazing. And I find them very mashy and not great flavoured. Mind you I should probably have eaten them sooner. I know earlies often go floury.

[antipodes]

The real earlies were Belle de Fontenay and they weren't that productive, however the flavour is very good. My seconds are red Rosabelles, and I must say they are excellent, I have had really good sized potatoes, a medium plastic bag full from just a metre of plants so far! They are really good eaters too! Excellent pan fried with garlic.... I don't know why but I get much better results with red potatoes, they seem to like my soil for some reason.