seed potatoes. oh woe is meeeee.

[Flummery]

Oh dear Phil - they do say never give a toddler a choice!

I would heartily recommend Charlotte and Lady Chrystl. I've also grown Sante but wasn't impressed. It's suposed to be mega healthy as the name suggests so presumably would cope better in a blight year. However, they were quite hard if you know what I mean - I think the terminology is 'high in dry matter' - anyway, hard to boil to perfection.

How do you choose? Rather you than me!

[Cutecumber]

I choose 3 types a year - a very early, an early-ish and main. If I like them I grow them again, if not I move on.

If you have loads of space and the budget to match, grow as many as you fancy, otherwise, randomly pick a couple of earlies, a couple of salads and a couple of mains for storing and see what they're like. Whatever types people might recommend, success will depend on your own growing conditions and your own preferences in terms of taste and texture.

There's always next year anwyway - you don't have to grow 'em all this year.

[Birdie Wife]

Last year was a disaster for me spud-wise, similar for most people I guess - i got hit by lots of late frost and blight. So this year I've gone for Epicure (it's supposed to come back strongly after frost), Lady Balfour (blight resistant) and Ulster Chieftain(freebie!).

[Paul Wagland]

'Vivaldi' is a new release from T&M and well worth a look. It's only been possible to buy them from Sainsburys (for eating, not planting) until this year. They're very tasty as a new or salad spud and cropped pretty well for me last year (yes, I planted the supermarket ones!).

[ysb33r]

Charlotte are good to do in buckets for salad spuds. That takes them out of the garden and leaves that space free for others. I tried rocket and swift a couple years back and one of them was rubbish. If I can find my notebook, I will post which was the not worth trying again one!

Rocket worked well for me.

Last year I tried Rocket, Pentland Javelin, Lady Christl, Kestrel, Picasso, Desiree, Mimi.

but this year it will only be:

• Rocket (due to good performance)
• Charlotte (never tried them before, but like them very much)
• Desiree (good performance, not affected by slugs)
• Ulster Sceptre (I got it for free from T&M)

P.S. I have clay soil

[middlefield]

I've bought mine mail order from Marshalls this year, and have 3kg of each of the following:

• First early - Maris Bard
• Second early - Maxine
• Main crop - Valor
• Main crop - Sante
• Salad - Anya

So, we're experimenting with them, I've also got the 95p ones coming from DT Brown (the 95p came out the account yesterday, so we'll see if they turn-up)

I'm expecting Marshalls to arrive any time as they took the money Tuesday so I'll see how that pans-out and if I need to top-up with other makes I've got loads of room and a family with capacity to eat spuds!

[veg4681]

I choose 3 types a year - a very early, an early-ish and main. If I like them I grow them again, if not I move on.

There's always next year anwyway - you don't have to grow 'em all this year.

Actually you could grow most variety (upto 10-15) in a year if you only grew 3 tubers per variety but it's the buying in small qty that's the most impossible bit .

Those variety that I can get from supermarket, I will definitely try them as Anya, Vivaldi, Charlotte, Rooster??, Desiree?? from Sainsbury (they sell King Edward too but my DH says they're too ordinary) and hopefully Mayan Gold from Tesco if I can get my hands on them! My local green grocer sells Wilji and Romano but not sure these are worthy ones unless someone can tell me so.

Not bad, that's 9 choices already but what I really, really, really want is a Ratte, makes me think it's even more premium than Anya or Pink Fir that is still unlikely to be available at GC but fingers crossed that I'll find one there. BTW anyone tried the Yukon Gold, a Canadian pot?

[gojiberry]

Just got back from local garden center they had 44 varieties of seed potato (to many to give a list) on top of which they had 14 organic choices. Didn't get any as I have already ordered by post. They were all £2.49 to fill a bag. I estimated that you would get between 2.5 and 3kg in a bag. Guess where I'm going for my potatoes next year. The two potatoes that were all all gone were rocket and arran pilot both first earlies, probably due to a lot of blight around here.

[oneflewover]

Just about on topic,

I got some seed potatoes yesterday from Wilkos, that was the easy bit. Now what do I do with them. Surely to early to start "chitting?" them yet.

[Paul Wagland]

Hey Veg4681, you can get both Mayan Gold and Ratte from Thompson & Morgan - Never tried Ratte but Mayan Gold did well for me last year.

[shirlthegirl43]

Just about on topic,

I got some seed potatoes yesterday from Wilkos, that was the easy bit. Now what do I do with them. Surely to early to start "chitting?" them yet.

People are starting chitting now - some folks are able to plant in February cos they know they won't get any more frost.

[Hazel at the Hill]

People are starting chitting now - some folks are able to plant in February cos they know they won't get any more frost.

Or they are too impatient to wait any longer! My rocket spuds were planted in the ground 24 Feb last year, but I reckon I was lucky for them not to be caught by the frost - they were showing foliage mid april.

[moggssue]

Hmmm - no mention of Pentland Javelin, am I going to be disappointed then, since I just recently got 10 tubers? I also have some Cara (I think!) and some Maris Peer.

[SuperDad]

What a great website! I've been looking for something like this for ages. I didn't like the suppliers websites as they only told you the good points - never the downsides!

[gojiberry]

Like many last years potatoes were a bit of a disaster, (blight) although I did get a good few charlottes. Im going for Sarpo this year both varieties. The Mira seems to have a mixed reception on this thread. I understand that the mira will continue growing till the first frost which given the current climate could be Nov/Dec. I understand that if you do leave them till then you will have massive potatoes that are extremely floury and probably hollow in the middle. So I think the art will be regular checks and lift when a nice size.