potatoes for baking?

[KayJay]

Hi everyone,
I have just dug up some Kestrel potatoes, they are lovely but my teenage sons eat more baked potatoes than anything else! Are there potatoes that can grow large and are suitable for baking and can they grow in a garden or in sacks?
Hope someone can help
Thanks

[TEB]

I would imagine there are a lot, I particularly like Arran Victory, a big spud great for roasting but my all time favourite is Red Duke of York - they are lovely roasted/Baked, I have grown both in pots/containers but best results for me were when grown in the ground.

[Two_Sheds]

any spud will grow large if you leave it in the ground long enough.

Estima and Marfona are recommended for jackets: Potato Varieties - Potato Council

[peanut]

I grew Winston this year, they make delicious baked potatoes.

[ladylottie]

I grew Kestrel last year and must have missed a couple because when I dug up the First Earlies this year there were a couple of huge Kestrel spuds. And very nice baked they were too! Almost wish I'd grown them again this year......... Ah well!

[Sheepish]

There's another list here of which varieties suit different types of cooking. (I'm sure it's not fully comprehensive but it does give a lot of options.) Kestrel's on the best for backing list.

Potato Varieties, What to Grow For Flavour, boiling, baking, roasting, chipping, mashing, salad

[zazen999]

Amorosa this year were huge for us, and loverly baked.

The Organic Gardening Catalogue

[womble]

I grew those free Hunter seed spuds this year and some of the potatoes were the size of a kids rugby ball, no kidding I'll have to take some photos when I get them out of the store. Biggest spuds I've ever seen.

[KayJay]

wow

Thanks everyone for sharing your fantastic knowledge Can't wait to try some
Are they easy to get hold of? online or local garden centres?
Kath

[bluemoon]

Most varieties of potato are easily found and all the ones recommended here are fairly popular, so you shouldn't have any problems. There is a variety called Cara, which grows very large without any effort at all, you get massive crops in both numbers and size and it's what many of the catalogues suggest for baking. DO NOT BUY IT, they are completely flavourless and will just taste of whatever you happen to put on them. Their one attribute is the crop size, but who wants masses of something so dire?

[KayJay]

I've just looked at those websites. Great If I leave my other Kestrels in their grow sacks and keep watering them will they grow much bigger? and how long do I leave them. They have flowered and some of the leaves are going yellow

[Banana]

I recall a previous thread where Tattieman suggests cutting some eyes out of the seed potato to increase the eventual size of the spuds.
Theory being that lots of eyes equals lots of little spuds, but cutting some eyes out leaving just 2 or 3 means you get a few large spuds