Potatoes

 

There are many varieties of potatoes, over 150 available in UK by mail order or via 'Potato Days' which are held in about 6 places country wide around late January. Potatoes are usually classified as:

• First Earlies
• Second Earlies
• Maincrop (subdivided into early and late maincrop)

 

Some garden centres supply a decent variety but it's rare to find more than about 30 different ones at a single garden centre. If you have a local allotment shop it may order between 10 and 30 varieties in bulk - this would be the cheapest way to buy, typically a third the price of garden centre pre-packs. Provided you don't have any disease or serious pest problems you are reasonably safe saving seed potatoes for a few years (new seed from plants grown each year!) but you need to be careful storing seed potatoes and it might be wise to at least partially refresh the source of each variety every couple of years. I have grown an average of 6 plants of each variety in 2006 and 2007 and passed on some seed potatoes to a couple of other growers.

 

A very important thing to remember: the interaction between potato variety, soil and growing conditions results in widely different results, both crop wise and taste wise. Variety A might do much better than variety B in one place, yet the opposite be true on a somewhat different soil nearby, or in a different year on the same plot. Certainly the lightness / heaviness of the soil and the amount of water the crop gets by rain or irrigation profoundly effects yield for some varieties.

 

Generally first early potatoes are best eaten fresh when dug, second earlies can be eaten fresh but will store to about January, maincrop tend to be better not eaten fresh but stored a while first. I usually make my second earlies last to end of December and then hit the maincrops.

 

 

Cultivation

 

Potaoes hate frost. Even the slightest frost will kill most of the above ground foliage. Fortunately the plants usually recover but the damage weakens the plants, can reduce yields and encourage further damage by diseases.

 

Notes on growing seasons:

2005 Fairly dry but reasonable rainfall throughout the summer, some varieties did have relatively lower yields due to lack of water but effects not major even on light soil. A couple of frosts in late April and the first half of May affected early plantings prior to mid April but plants recovered fine and there was little difference in maturity or yields for plantings in mid March, beginning April, mid April.

 

2006 No May frosts but the first 3 weeks of May were cool and quite wet, plants slow to get going. Then nearly 3 months of virtually no rain and high temperatures especially in July caused severe drought conditions on my CR allotment which is very free draining being on the site of a gravel pit. Unable to irrigate sufficiently, I gave up irrigating completely by mid July. Yields were badly depressed, dramatically so for some varieties (Anya, Franceline). First earlies did better than several of the second earlies since they got some water through most of their growing season, maincrop were badly hit. Had about 2 inches of rain in mid to late August but ground was very dry again by the end of August. Crops of 2nds and maincrops look at best about 50% of 2005.

 

 

Saved stocks of seed potatoes for 2007

I have only taken tubers from plants with no obvious disease on any tubers and taken as many tubers from plants which cropped best (but never > 50% of saved from one plant). I generally aim to save smallish tubers, a bit smaller than a small hen's egg. I've added some purchased seed potatoes, these are indicated *

 

First quantity is my original stock of saved tubers, second is number already at TUE and set in egg boxes ready for chitting.

 

1st Earlies (8 varieties; 147 / 68 potatoes):

Amandine 14 / 10

Accord 14 / 10

Foremost 20 / 12

Home Guard 20 / 12

Red Duke of York 18 / 12

Sharpes Express 20 / 12

Accent * 11 / 0

Epicure * 30 / 0

 

2nd Earlies (9 varieties; 193 / 96 potatoes):

Anya 16 / 12

Anya * (named grower bought as veg at Sainsburys!) 15 / 0

Cherie 25 / 12 (NR wants 6)

Franceline 23 /12

Juliette 15 / 12

Kestrel 30 / 12

Milva 18 / 12

Red Milva 3 / 0 (mutant, only to grow for next season seed potatoes!)

Sunrise 18 / 12

Wilja 15 / 12

Charlotte * 15 / 0

 

Maincrop (9 varieties; 210 / 105 potatoes):

Kerrs Pink 21 / 12

Picasso 18 / 12

Pink Fir Apple 18 / 12

Pink Fir Apple * bought at TUE 21 / 21

Pink Fir Apple * 19 / 0

Pompadour 24 / 12

Ratte 18 / 12

Red King Edward 21 / 12

Romano 15 / 12

Vivaldi * (named grower bought as veg at Sainsburys, not available from seed merchants!) 12 / 0

Desiree * 23 / 0

 

 

Totals: 550 / 269 at TUE

 

Potato variety conclusions:

 

1st Early

Accord

2006 Vigourous plants, good crop, some potatoes grew surprisingly large for a first early, big enough for baking. Definitely try again.

 

Amandine

2005 Good crop of small to medium salad potatoes, nice flavour, vigourous plants, recommended.

2006 Similar to 2005 but crop somewhat reduced, about 75% of prior year.

 

Epicure

2005 I think I got rogue tubers, 50% died. Survivors' yield reasonable, medium size, floury, can roast and mash, better steamed than boiled, decent flavour. Possibly try again from new seed.

 

Foremost

2006 Didn't really notice so try again.

 

Home Guard

2006 Didn't really notice so try again.

 

Red Duke of York (RDY)

2006 Plants quite untidy and spreading, decent crop, less good on light soil. Good flavour, better steamed than boiled but that could be part due to light soil. Recommended.

 

Sharpes Express

2006 Good crop on normal soil (did well at SF), less on light soil. Good flavour, waxy, new potatoes. Recommended.

 

 

Second Early

 

Anya

2005 Crop about half that of other second earlies, excellent nutty taste salad potatoes.

2006 Only grew 2 plants due to poor results in 2005. Decent number of tubers but all very small, biggest the size of a fat thumb, clearly drought affected. Will persevere due to excellent flavour but seek new source of seed and try to grow on more moisture retentive soil.

 

Cherie

2005 Grew as first early, better as second, good crop of medium salad potatoes nice flavour, pretty deep pink skins, recommended.

2006 Did quite well despite drought, definitely continue growing.

 

Franceline

2006 Poor crop, decent number of tubers but small to very small in size, presume drought affected. Pale pink skinned. Worth continuing with a few if soil less light, good flavour.

 

Juliette

2005 Good crop of small / medium salad potatoes, nice flavour.

2006 A couple of plants suffered from mild tuber rot, yields noticeably lower than 2005 due to drought but fair crop.

 

Kestrel

2006 Cropped noticeably more than all other second earlies, medium to large size, a very little slug damage. Has pretty purple eyes. Fine on my CR allotment but very scabby on SF allotment, may be wise to place on grass cuttings especially if soil not light. Reasonable flavour, boils and roasts OK, decent general purpose spud.

 

Milva

2005 Very good crop of medium sized general purpose potatoes, fairly floury, decent flavour, recommended.

2006 A couple of plants suffered from mild tuber rot, yields noticeably lower than 2005 due to drought.

I have 3 tubers of a red skinned sport that were better than normal variety (more floury, tasty) I want to grow these for future seed.

 

Sunrise

2006 Second best cropper amongst the second earlies, generally slightly smaller and more variable size than Kestrel. Has pretty pale pink eyes. However, it's the most tasteless potato I have eaten so utterly pointless as a boiled potato. If you have recipes which would suit a potato with almost no flavour it would be ideal. It roasts quite nicely.

 

Wilja

2006 Fair crop, not far off Sunrise. Has been better for eating than I expected, on the waxy side but fair flavour - a good general purpose spud.

 

 

Maincrop

 

Kerrs Pink - 1917, Fourtyfold x Abundance, floury, oval, pink skin and yellow flesh, average yield, chip / mash / roast.

2005 Fair crop, close to RKE. Excellent roasting potatoes - better than RKE!, floury. Recommended.

2006 Poor crop, but just beat RKE this year. Significant variation between plants (2 good, 2 OK, 2 poor).

 

Picasso - 1992, Cara x Ausonia, AGM 1993 & 1998, semi-waxy, oval, attractive and good keeper, early maincrop, very heavy yields, general purpose.

2005 Good crop of large potatoes, plenty baking size, decent general purpose spud, reasonable flavour. Probably heaviest crop of 2005 maincrops. Recommended, compliments Pompadour in usage.

2006 0.7 kg / plant, significantly lower crop than 2005 (down about 40%) and spud size was well down too.

 

Pink Fir Apple (PFA) - 1850, ?, great for tasty maincrop and keeping 'new' potatoes, yield tends to be average, will be interesting to compare with its offspring (Anya) and Ratte.

2005 Fair crop, more than I expected. PFA is a must grow for its outstanding boiled potato flavour.

2006 0.3kg / plant, very poor crop, about a third of 2005.

 

Pompadour - 1992, Roseval x BF15, waxy, yellow flesh & skin, kidney, above average yield, salad, early maincrop, should be good flavour.

2005 Good crop of small potatoes, good boilers and decent flavour. Recommended.

2006 0.8 kg / plant Fair crop of medium spuds (spud size seems larger than in 2005), suffered less than Picasso from drought but yield still down > 25%

 

Ratte - 1872, ?, AGM 2003, waxy, early maincrop, like PFA in taste & shape but less knobbly, salad, average yield.

2005 Fair crop, marginally less than PFA and flavour is about as good. Recommended.

2006 0.2 kg / plant, abysmal crop, 20% of 2005, plenty of spuds but all small or very small.

 

Red King Edward (RKE) - 1916, King Edward mutant, early maincrop, floury flesh, oval, red skin / yellow flesh, average yield, for roasting!

2005 Good crop though not as good as Picasso or Pompadour, roast very well but I think Kerrs Pink roasted better.

2006 0.5 kg / plant, poor crop, about half 2005.

 

Romano

2006 0.51 kg / plant, poor crop, seems rather drought sensitive.

 

 

Summary

 

1st Early:

Continue with: Amandine, Red Duke of York

Probably keep: Sharpes Express, Accord, Foremost

Probably drop: Home Guard

Also consider:

 

2nd Early:

Continue with: Cherie, Kestrel, Juliette

Probably keep: Milva, Anya?

Probably drop: Sunrise, Wilja, Franceline

Also consider:

 

Maincrop:

Continue with: Kerrs Pink, Pink Fir Apple, Picasso, Pompadour

Probably keep: Red King Edward, Ratte

Probably drop:

Also consider: Osprey, Arran Victory (very floury)

 

 

 

Page views: