New Potato Newbie Confusion!

[moreteavicar]

Next year I hope to have my garden ready to begin growing.
I am pouring over websites, deciding which potato variety to grow.

I am confused between the term salad and first early.
What i wish to recapture, are the "new potatoes" grown by my Grandad, which just needed the skins rubbing off under a tap.

Truly sublime.

[nickdub]

any new potato will give you the option of rubbing the skin off when taken straight from the soil.

Best bet is to ask around on taste, as their are lots of options, and some prefer one sort to another based on personal preference.

Another way to look at it is to grow varieties which are hard or impossible to find in the shops eg 'Pink Fir Apple' which is a main-crop potato variety with a pink skin and cream, waxy flesh

PS any potatoes can be eaten as a new potato, its just a question of how quickly they develop from planting - so 'first earlies' are the fastest for example.

[moreteavicar]

Thank you.
As you are (relatively) down the road from me - when do you plant your potatoes - in terms of last frost?

[greenishfing]

I agree with the above. It's all a matter of personal taste. One of my local garden centres has a potato tasting weekend in January when they get their sets in. Maybe you have something similar in your area. If not suggest it to them. The difference in taste between varieties is amazing and the taste of that first handful of new potatoes every year is delicious.
I think "salad" potato is a modern term that actually means nothing. For a quick crop (ready in about 12 weeks from planting out) just buy sets of any first early. Some garden centres let you buy seed potatoes loose so you can try just a couple of potatoes from lots of different varieties.( label well when planting out.)

[moreteavicar]

I have "discovered" Bridgend Garden Centre

https://www.bridgendgardencentre.co....seed-potatoes/

They have a vast range at excellent prices.
Only trouble is deciding which ones to buy - I have 17 varieties in cart at the moment.......

[burnie]

I have "discovered" Bridgend Garden Centre

https://www.bridgendgardencentre.co....seed-potatoes/

They have a vast range at excellent prices.
Only trouble is deciding which ones to buy - I have 17 varieties in cart at the moment.......

That's not too far from me, I will have to make a visit in the New Year.

[nickdub]

Thank you.
As you are (relatively) down the road from me - when do you plant your potatoes - in terms of last frost?

Hi MV,
You might want to add your location in to your profile.

Hard to give any sort of dates when talking about gardening, as the weather differs so much from one year to another.

If you want an early crop best bet is to cover the ground with something which will help warm it e.g. black polythene (old silage bag ?) or poly carb sheeting - if you can do that you might get away with planting some in early March, assuming no snow or frost them :-)

Spuds are notoriously heavy feeders, so FYM or comfrey, even grass-mowings added to the soil will be desirable for extra fertility.

Happy gardening :-)

Nick

[Greenleaves]

My prefered variety for first earlies is either Pentland Javelin or Arron Pilot

[bikermike]

I have always understood a salad potato to be on waxy side (as opposed to crumbly) - Charlottes being a good example.

I grow Sharpe's Express - first early
Charlotte - second early
Pink Fir - main

As others have said, any young spud can be rubbed off and eaten, "new" potatoes are more to do with fast maturing and then eaten comparatively young so they don't get thick-skinned and knobbly.

My choice is a combination of habit, success (I had disappointing Red Duke of York and Pentland Javelin), and things that aren't easily available in the supermarket.

If I was restricted for space, I'd just grow charlottes as I love waxy potatoes.

[Thelma Sanders]

I have "discovered" Bridgend Garden Centre

https://www.bridgendgardencentre.co....seed-potatoes/

They have a vast range at excellent prices.
Only trouble is deciding which ones to buy - I have 17 varieties in cart at the moment.......

I've ordered mine from there as well, Spunta early ( we used to call them Cyprus potatoes when I was a kid ) and Pentland Javelin early and Inca Belle mains (new for me this year)
I like Bridgend because you can try new varieties in small quantities, and as you say, all at a very reasonable price

[Can the Man]

Salad potatoes are waxy potatoes and are not good for roasting, or mash. If your memory of new potatoes are of the skin falling off and melting salty butter into a floury potato then do not go salad. Traditionally in Ireland we grow British Queens as a first early they are lovely and floury but are susceptible to slugs and blight. I grow Nicola which are a 2nd early and a cross wax potato, when steamed they have a firm flesh with that split skin to eat on them, they are a nice oval shaped potato. I then grow Red rooster as my main crop though my neighbour grows records and he swears by them. And late crop is Golden Wonders, again very susceptible to blight.
We have a tradition in Ireland that the first spuds of the year should be in by st. Patrick’s day 17th March but where I live the ground is either too wet, cold and hard, so often I sow at the end of March early April.

[ecudc]

My go to waxy/salads are accent or jazzy (first early) charlotte (2nd early) and Mayan gold (main) for non waxy ‘new potatoes’ maybe lady christl or casablanca (both first earlies)

[Babru]

Worth searching out a potato day near you, you can buy in very small quantities and try lots of varieties. This site has some, but I know there are many more than shown here Potato Days and Seed Fairs for 2019

NB the dates are showing for 2020 not 2019.

[moreteavicar]

Thank you all for your advice.
Babru - Forest of Dean not too far from me so is in my diary.

[Randommoose]

There is the Potato weekend at Dundry nursery in Cheltenham on the 18th-19th of January:

Dundry Nurseries Potato Event and Potato Pete

It is useful if you want some advice, a big selection of varieties or to buy small numbers of seed potatoes. I found them handy when testing out varieties for my allotment but I didn't actually go to the potato weekend itself but they have potatoes in stock January till about April I think.