I've had a really poor crop of kestrels and charlottes. Its the first time in 7 years.They hardly put on any leaf growth and have only produced a couple of small tubers each.Last year my charlottes were prolific,The orlas have been slow but have lots of healthy leaves and the cara look fine.I wonder if it's the weather this year.Any ideas?
I haven't dug mine up yet but expect them to be the same.
And yes blame the weather!
Not necessarily - after hearing charlotte's praises sung by Shirl, I bought some and I am pleasantly surprised. Much better than the Saxons. The other good ones so far were an experimental potato given out at Hants potato day 3 years ago, which finally came good (obviously likes the rain), Linzer Delikatess (finally available again) and Harlequin (also finally available again this year). Several other varieties were extremely bad, possibly rotted away when the plot was flooded. A potato from seed (taken years ago) which is purple and yellow and quite lumpy is very good too. Looking forward to the other TPSs and of course to the late potatoes.
Had to cut off Anya's foliage because there were a few spots of blight. Also Blue Danube showed a little blight on the foliage, but the yield was very good too.
After the flooding and the disappointing performance of the early potatoes, I am actually pleasantly surprised.
Lets hope the late ones don't disappoint.
I lifted my Charlottes today and was well pleased.
Is there any greater gardening pleasure than lifting a good crop of spuds?
I had a good crop of kestrel and charlottes but there are marks on them that Ididn`t trust. Three weeks later the marks have spread and so I have processed the whole crop for long term storage. A very tough year indeed
The Charlottes were going a funny colour but after peeling, steaming and a good dousing of butter and mint sauce they have nearly all been eaten, the Kestrels are pretty decent so far. ;D
On reading about the results many of you have had I have left my potatoes undug.
A couple of weeks ago I lifted a root of first earlies (Rocket)and although they were quite a few potatoes, they were very small, smaller in fact than the seed I put in!
As the tops were quite healthy and I thought we must get some sunshine sometime, I decided to leave them to grow on for a bit longer.
Today I lifted another root and was pleasantly surprised by the improvement in the size of them since digging the first root,so hopefully my patience might pay off!
This also fits in with my estimates earlier in the season when I noticed most things were three to four weeks behind, I usually start harvesting the first week in July.
In fact I have now noticed quite a difference in growth of a number of plants since we got this bit of heat and sunshine.....long may it continue.
Because things were so topsy turfy earlier in the season I sowed some more brassicas (Caulies & Calabrese) a few weks ago and they are coming along quite well, so there is still hope that I will harvest some decent stuff this year.
My Rocket have been OK but some have "valleys" in the skin so they look like tortoise shells. Alternating wet and dry, I guess.
I haven't lifted my charlottes yet... still on the winstons. Kestrel wont be getting lifted for another 4 weeks at least.
This is one bed of kestrels, planted early march and covered, toavoid the blight ::)
Blight struck 2 weeks ago so we cut the tops off and left them, not a bad harvest from a 10x4 bed