My question is - what variety did well for you this year?
And what would you grow again?
I Tried several as usual and some were better than others.
My favourite were Markies.
Second were Pink Fir Apple.
And the sarpo were pretty good - I grew them because of the obvious benefits, (blight proof etc) and they are tasty!!!
But I am looking for a bomb proof spud that will do well on the lottie and will make good baking potatoes! I am thinking Foremost or Duke of York.
Any recomendations?
And what did well for you?
I am down in Kent btw.
Louise
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,46205.0.html
you may find some answers here
Hi Louise
I grew Desiree for the first time this year and they made wonderful big tasty bakers. They did succomb to blight but I just cut off the stems and left them in the ground for 2 weeks. I dug up the last a week ago and hardly any slug damage.
I dug up the last of my earlies yesterday too. :-[ I grew Lady Christl and they too have very little slug damage. Made a wonderful leek and potato bake with them last night. I had imagined they would be unedible by now so was really pleased they had kept so well in the ground as I am not sure that is what I am supposed to have done!
I also grew King Edwards as I love these for roasting but they were not worth growing. They came out very small and lots of slug damage. Desiree made lovely roast potatoes too, in fact they were good all round. - I'm converted!
It will be Lady Christl and Desiree for me next year.
T.
Best Potatoes for Baking (an extract)
First Earlies Arran PilotDuke of YorkEpicure Red Duke of YorkRocketSwift ForemostPentland Javelin VanessaWinston
Second Earlies CosmosEdzell BlueEstima Maris PeerNadine KestrelMarfona SaxonWilja
Main Crop AmboArran VictoryCaraCeline Maris PiperMaxinePentland SquirePicasso DesireeHarmonyKing EdwardKondor Pink Fir AppleRomanoSarpo MiraStemster
Kestrel are totally "bombproof". Though they are classed as a 2nd early, they grow large enough to be used as an early main crop and store very well too. I have harvested them in August and eaten the last from storage at the end of November. I do not recall a bad year with these in the past 5 years. Even when all others are riddled - these have been near enough squeaky clean.
Desiree is a main crop that grow to a very large size and can be used for all sorts of ways cooking spuds. They also store into the new year.
try some duke of york, both red, and white .Second early Kestrel are a good one to try, had more sucess this year than last year
Kestrels 2nds are as KT says bombproof ( KT watch them fail next year ) :o :D they have never been damaged in the four years I've been growing them, great mash, chip or roastie and they are always a good jacket size. PFA maincrop again three years running are great, chips and roasties are lovely. Earlies I've tried foremost, accent, pentant javelin, arran pilot and vales emerald and still looking for a great one, I'm going to try rocket and lady christel next year following recommendations on here. ;D ;D ;D
I grew Duke of York reds for earlies, plus a couple of others which didn't do so well. But for early main crop grew Picasso which I must say I am absolutely impressed with - lovely baking and roasting spuds. Unfortunately just about finished the first bag - so I think I have only enough to get me through to January. Must grow more next year.
we did kestrel and desiree with a few pentland in late..just finished the kestrel and started on the desiree..absolutely no slug damage on either which is good considering the wet season we've had..the pentlad did well but had some holes so we used them up :)
Funny isn't it? I grew Desiree this year with probably the worst slug damage I've ever had and also bad scab which Desiree is apparently susceptible to and which is worse in light sandy soils, like mine! Guess what I won't be growing again, which is a shame as it's a lovely potato.
Thanks for your replies!!! They were helpful - although interestingly , people had had different resilts depending on where they live!!
I know there is a lot about spuds on other threads............but I wanted to get an idea of what happened THIS year. As I think that climate change is already affecting what we grow and how well things grow!
Louise
Lady Christl did really well for me this year too. I started harvesting them late June and now have a sack in storage that seem to be keeping well. Charlotte also did well, as ever, and my favourite Cara sufferred a bit of slug damage but to my mind worth it for the fab roasties that they make. Tried Pink Fir Apple for the first time and although I got a good crop I'm not that impressed and probably wont bother again.
Kath I had PFA's chipped tonight they were lovely, they don't look very edible but they are and its the only spud I can get my eleven year old to eat. ;D ;D ;D
I will stick to what i know does best for me.
Rocket
Nadine
Kestral
Ive only grown Kestrel, very good. But I will try Juliette if I can find them next year, they taste lovely. I think I will also try Lady Christl from what folks have said about it :D
Here's an interesting one. Did you ever wonder about the name?
Rose Fir Apple, aka Rosa Tannenzapfen
Small-medium size, fingerling type tubers with pink skin and light yellow flesh. As the original name is German - Rosa is the color pink, Tannenzapfen is Fir cone (in Southern German dialect Tannenapfel which still means Fir cone, but sloppy translation made it apple). Rose Finn Apple is the result of two misspelling as Finn should be Fir, and Apple should be Cone (English) or Zapfen (German). Also, I noted that the picture provided may not be accurate. This cultivar has much darker skin, almost hazelnut brown, as you can verify on my web page [HYPERLINK@www.curzio.com] (Kenosha Potato Project).
Had my attention drawn to this by our friend across the Water.