Anyone raised their Axona' /Sarpo' yet?
Nope, mine still have foliage so was leaving them!
Was going to ask the same question as it is the first year I have grown them.
Looking forward to other replies! ;D
Took all mine out last week, as I need the space for onions, garlic and stuff.
Each plant produced 5+ kg, but I had planted 3 feet apart in all directions, and given each one a huge dollop of manure and compost, plus peat.
They range in size dramatically, from tiddlers to absolute monsters.
No blight. No attacks by anything other than some scab on one in ten.
They make great chips, but as mash and boiled they do seem a bit bland.
They are such impressive plants that I will be going for them again next year.
I used Kondor ~ they were brilliant, great for all types of cooking and produced really good sized red spuds, will definately use next year.
Where's everyone buying these Sarpo spuds from? They sound like the thing to try.
Got mine from a potato fair. Google it to see where the nearest one to you will be.
The nearest for me was Dulwich, SE21
Heritage seeds and a huge array of potatoes to buy!
Sarahr,
There was a promotion in Kitchen Garden mag.. Dec. 2004.
Doris,
I also have full foliage. Apparently this stands until November. I think i will lift soon while the weather is still dry.
Lifted both 'Axona' & 'Mira' last W/E.
Can't remember which row was which unfortunately, but one variety was well slug damaged but not the other.
Yield was approx. the same at 25kgs. per 30 ft. row. Not particularly impressed, but I don't have a water supply. Roasted some on Sunday & tasted fair.
Think I'll risk my usual Desiree next season & possibly blight as well!
Quote from: sarahr on September 23, 2005, 13:37:35
Where's everyone buying these Sarpo spuds from? They sound like the thing to try.
I got mine from the HDRA potato day last January. Previous year I had samples of Axona, Mira and Tominia in the HDRA trial. The general consensus was that Tominia was way the nicest, but this is the one that the potato registration bods have rejected on the grounds that it was too similar genetically to Mira (which came last in the taste trial!) The mind boggles... I mean, why not reject Mira for being too similar to Tominia? Anyway, there are more varieties of Sarpo spuds on the way; I think they're working on a white maincrop.
I neglected mine last year and still got huge tubers (albeit with hollow heart on the largest because of the irregular watering). Dug them up at the start of November and ate them over Christmas! This year I shall do similar, though so far I haven't got all my Ratte and Pink Firs either. A job for next week when I'm off work! As is finding a potato sack or two...
moonbells
Both my and other people's Sarpo Mira have what I can only describe as chocolate spot on the leaves. Anyone else noticed this?
Will have a look when I go up to shovel manure (oh joy of the heavenly bold!) in a few mins, was going to dig up a plant of Axona and Mira to see if there is anything underneath! ;D
dj mine have that on their leaves too!
I dug up a couple of plants of both and the crop looks scaby and very small, BUT I did get them in late and they never had any extra water.
And same as Tellboy one lot had slug damage, yes I did label them but of course can no longer read the labels >:( (Lot to be said for writing EVERYTHING down ;D
I did the HDRA trial in 2004, but that year I received the seed tubers too late for a meaningful trial. This year, I repeated the trial, planting in April, with interesting results.
Mira and Tomina were both affected with early blight in July, but recovered to some extent.
By the middle of September, Axona was still not affected by blight, and still growing strongly, while Mira and Tomina were badly affected with blight.
I have only lifted Axona, and it was a good crop with no slug damage. The taste was reasonable and the texture slightly floury when cooked in the microwave.
Thompson and Morgan have what looks like quite a good deal on these. What do experienced spud growers think?
http://www.thompson-morgan.com/tm-newsletters/p-sl-50927
(It's halfway down the page)
Quote from: bupster on September 29, 2005, 15:03:52
Thompson and Morgan have what looks like quite a good deal on these. What do experienced spud growers think?
http://www.thompson-morgan.com/tm-newsletters/p-sl-50927
(It's halfway down the page)
Trouble is that 40 tubers is a lot... this is why I prefer to get 'em from the HDRA!
ok 18 quid for 40 Sarpo tubers = 45p each.
potato day Sarpo tubers this year were 20p each = £8 for 40
5 potato sacks from T&M £7.99
fertiliser I can't find separately but it looks like chicken pellets to me which are not that much.
OK some freebie spuds and seeds at random.
I reckon you'd win if you wanted all those potatoes and didn't already have sacks. If they're going to sit on the side then perhaps not.
What annoys me is that I actually need a couple of potato sacks but they only do them in fives - I don't want three extra ones! Why don't folk sell them individually?! We don't all grow tons of spuds!
moonbells
Actually decided in the end to get stuff from lottie assoc, as it was so cheap (spent far too much anyway and will end up giving most away :)) but also discovered they're selling spud sacks for 10p. So probably best off shopping there, eh.
Interesting Moonbells.
The K.G. offer was £18.00 for 20 tubers of Axona & Mira each, plus a bag of organic pot. fertiliser & 5 hessian sacks.
After my results - I'll pass.
Anyone want 5 hessian sacks free??
Hehehe send em my way!
If your up for splitting them I wouldn't mind a couple of sacks to save raiding the chippie again! Not sure I'll be trying the spuds though as they don't sound so great!
sacks - me!
or can someone get me some at 10p each and I'll reimburse with P&P and P&P
(that's postage and packing and price and a pint! ;D ;D)
moonbells
I'll gladly post the sacks to anyone if you can supply your address (thru' messages?)
But, if you go into your local shitshop - sorry Tesco, they will give you paper sacks - honest!!
I found some sacks!!!
I had forgotten to go and look in the garden centre hardware store I always say sells everything... went in for garlic bulbs yesterday and they had hessian potato sacks for 50p each. Not entirely lightproof and I am now wondering why I got an odd number but I can always get another. Then one inside another should sort it.
They are also marked as impregnated with various -icides so there will be a short trip into a washing bowl for a scrub and onto a line before use. I suspect they were what their seed potatoes came in.
moonbells
Have decided the sarpos are rubbish boiled, (they turn to mush) but had them roasted last night and they were delish! (the family even commented on how crunchy the outside were!)
Quote from: Doris_Pinks on October 10, 2005, 09:24:51
Have decided the sarpos are rubbish boiled, (they turn to mush) but had them roasted last night and they were delish! (the family even commented on how crunchy the outside were!)
I think most spuds are bad for boiling this year - with the lack of moisture, nearly all the waxy varieties I'm growing have been floury. Which means a floury spud like the Sarpos will be even more prone to disintegration on boiling! And will make fabulous chips and roasties.
moonbells
The market stall for pets near me gives away sacks free. They get bird seed etc. in the big sacks and sell small quantities, and the sacks are left over and they don't re use them. Worth a try? They get about five to eight a week.
moonbells, had homemade chips with them tonight............delish, now why am I not losing weight with having an allotment I wonder! (we normally only ever have homemades on boxing day....and yes my house now stinks! Yeauch!)
Sarpo Mira averaged out at just under 7lb per plant. Well impressed.
TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO WANT POTATO SACKS................GO TO YOUR LOCAL FISH AND CHIP SHOP MOST OF THESE NEAR ME ARE ONLY TOO WILLING TO GIVE THEM TO YOU FREE OF CHARGE..YOUVE ONLY GOT TO ASK
I dug up 7 plants on Sunday, with two of them doing nothing much, and the other five giving me this lot!
(http://www.moonrose.demon.co.uk/gallery/Flowers/spuds.jpg)
The arrowed one was cracked so with some of the frozen leeks from last season we turned it into leek and potato soup, and even us soup dragons only managed to eat 2/3 of the cauldronful! That one weighed 1lb 7oz and isn't the largest...
Just drying them off a bit now so I can brush the earth off before putting in the sack, and they'll do very nicely for winter :)
moonbells
I'm a bit confused as i've read not to had manure to root veg but Wardy grows hers in manure and i've just read that one of you dug some in when planting the seed potato.... Do I put manure in or not???
My Sarpo Mira have been lifted over the last few weeks.
Since planting, I've watered them a few times, earthed up once and added a little well rotted manure with straw - but left them to their own devices, really. (Next to carrots and parsnips, for anyone interested in how plants affect each others growth - the carrots and parsnips did/doing well too!)
They have done really well. No leaf problems, no slug damage, large crops :)
I agree that they don't boil well, but that just means more mashed potato! and most of them are big enough to make great jacket spuds - which tastse supurb :P
Just my 2pence worth!
jams
Quote from: Rosyred on November 01, 2005, 13:21:36
I'm a bit confused as I've read not to had manure to root veg but Wardy grows hers in manure and i've just read that one of you dug some in when planting the seed potato.... Do I put manure in or not???
I manure my spuds, normally putting it on the ground about now as a winter mulch.
Seed spuds set out in the spring and some times add a little manure to the trench if I have some spare.
The non manuring of root crops normally refers to parsnips and carrots. Here the growing tips of the roots can be effected by manure, the acidity I believe, and this results in forking of the root. Other reasons for forking mainly relate to root tip damage by physical means such as stones or transplanting.
Not a problem with spuds.
HTH
Jerry
Manure is definitely not a problem with spuds. I put a 6" deep layer in a trench and pushed the chitted seeds into that! I had the most scab-free crop yet and none of the erratic water problems such as hollow heart that I got last year.
Some of the best spuds I've had were from a volunteer in the manure heap!
moonbells
Quote from: Rosyred on November 01, 2005, 13:21:36
I'm a bit confused as i've read not to had manure to root veg but Wardy grows hers in manure and i've just read that one of you dug some in when planting the seed potato.... Do I put manure in or not???
Rosyred,
Potatoes are different from carrots and parsnips, where the advice is not to put on fresh manure as the roots split to find the nutrients producing wierd, but still good tasting roots (if you have the time to prepare the wierd shape for cooking)
Potatoes are gross feeders and the more muck the better
The "normal" way to plant them is to line the trench with compost/muck before inserting the seed tubers.
Some varieties will actually do quite poorly if they don't have a good supply of muck, King Edward being a prime example - but they all benefit form as much as possible.
The reason why Tomina was not accepted was that the others were registered first so it was compared with existing listed varieties to ensure that it was sufficiently different to warrant listing - this is one of the criteria for listing.
In case you have missed the thread on the News list, details of all UK Potato Days are on http://www.hhdra.org.uk/potatodays/ the best, of course being the Hampshire day - the largest sellection and amongst the cheapest - and this year there will be a seed swap see http://www.hhdra.org.uk/potatoday.htm
Phil
Phil