I have grown two batches of Desiree one from pukka seed potatoes and the other a bag of supermarkets ones which sprouted in the cupboard.
They are quite different. One has paler flesh, less oval potatoes and is full of scab and being attacked by slugs. Good crop but very poor flavour. The supermarket ones are good flavour yellower flesh.
Has anyone else notice a difference? Is there anyway I can get them tested to prove they are not the same genetically.
I've never heard of Pukka seed potatoes.
I don't know if you could get them tested, sounds like it would be expensive. If you're not happy with the Pukka ones could you write or call in to complain? I've not grown Desiree so have no idea whether tubers have a little variety in them and which is closer to the 'real Desiree'. Grown side by side in the same soil you would expect them to be quite uniform, unless soil or fertilizing/watering has been different.
Anytime you buy 'proper' seed potatoes there is a chance that something may have been substituted or accidentally switched. Something that would not happen to seed potatoes for a farmer. It is quite possible that the supermarket one is the Desiree you expected and the seed potato is not.
You should get a complaint in now - after all this is the first time you discovered that your Desiree is not the tasty, yellow-fleshed, slug resistant variety you expected to dig up.
If there was a deliberate substitution, you should have been warned about it at the time of ordering.
:wave:
Sorry Jayb was using pukka as slang, it is not a trade name.
I have now emailed the supplier and await a reply.
Sometimes I have bought desiree and they do not taste right, but thought it must be the growing conditions, but in this case they are more or less the same.
The volunteer desiree that have popped up in the garden for years are different again, they are very disease resistant, especially to scab.
That's interesting. In theory they should be genetically identical, if they're authentic Desiree, but the way you describe the volunteers, it doesn't sound like it. Are you sure they're Desiree?