Which variety potato to grow this year???

[adjohnson1971]

Hi all. I'm just about to order my seed potatoes for this year but can't decide which ones. My favourite is the good old king edward but I find yields can be hit and miss with small spuds. For the past few years I've grown cara, which I found to be excellent but the slugs tend to get them before me. I'm considering using the nematode slug killer to keep slugs at bay. However which variety could I use which is similar to cara, which is high yielding, large spuds, tasty and some blight resistance??

[rustylady]

Try this site for information on potato varieties The British Potato Variety Database

[di]

I'm going to try to get to our local potato day and get just a few of lots of varieties.

Have you checked to see if there's one near you. They have tasting tables for some varieties but also experts on hand to let you know the qualities of each type.

[Pompeylottie]

This year, I'm growing Charlotte and Pink Fir Apple salads, Romano and Picasso for main crop, I found these have been reliable in the past and Romano in particular seem to have some slug resistance. My allotment neighbour grows exactly the same spuds from our allotment shop, in the same soil, - but he waters his regularly and they are twice the size of ours!

[dave_norm_smith]

Pink fir apple, Harlequins and Yukon Gold for us. The PFA's will all be in Morrisons buckets and bags due to the success last year!

[cazp]

Hi Dave
are you talking about the flower buckets (6 for 99p)? what sort of yields did you get from them?

I grew spuds in big bags almost too heavy to lift and ended up with two gluts, wanted to do more sowings this year in smaller containers like standard buckets.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Get the larger cut flower buckets if you can or any container about that size.

The first of my first earlies (Swift) will go down mid Feb in the GH all being well these should start to harvest in 8/10 weeks. I will use two sets per container and expect to get 2 good boilings from the first containers, this will rise the longer they stay in the ground. For later sowings I use 1 seed per pot and expect to get a similar yield.

Colin

[dave_norm_smith]

Hi Cazp

Yep, those are the buckets. I put a bit of horse muck into the bottom, covered with about 2'' of compost. Add one or two small PFA and cover over with compost mixed with potato fertilizer. I filled mine towithin about 3'' or 4'' off the top of the bucket, later topping up once the haulms were well clear of the bucket. They need to be well watered which to be honest I was a little tardy with but I ende up with anything from 600g to about 1kg per bucket, however I feel this would have been higher if I had been strict with the watering.

Another bonus was eating a bucket worth on Boxing day as a potato salad as placed the buckets I hadn't finished in the greenhouse until I was ready for them.

Don't forget to drill some holes in the bottom of the buckets though!

[shirlthegirl43]

Arran Pilot and King Edward in flower buckets here - I smuggled the seed spuds out when we came back after Christmas.

My fave all round spud is Winston though - lovely when small as new potatoes but grow on into lovely shaped potatoes for baking.

[Finedon.Dandy]

We have had problems with some sort of worms (wireworms is it?) so I asked a plotholder from the allotments over the road to us and all the old boys swear by Rocket which I beleive has some tollerance so we will be trying those for the first time this year. We cant have too many varietys as we only have a garden plot - about 1/4 size of what most of you have but we have gone for good old charlotte too which seems to do well and are harvested before any potential pests appear.

[cazp]

Dave/Colin

Thanks for this advice on flower buckets. Wow that is a lot of potatoes for such a small bucket (is it about 10 litres, the bucket? - just to make sure i am thinking of right size - the tall narrow ones).

I will note the varieties you have had success with. I have my eye on perhaps doing some Apache potatoes having tried some half price ones from Sainsbury's today which were very nice, usually expensive, and a bit unusual.

I may use some normal size household buckets for larger potatoes.

[dave_norm_smith]

Hi

There the ones, quite tall. Look on the JBA website, they use bags of about the same size to grow exhibition spuds in. The good thing as well is that because they were in compost they mine did not suffer with any nasties and were really easy to wash down to cook!

[Potstubsdustbins]

Cazp, There are two sizes readily available the ones I use for spuds are 280mm Dia x 260mm deep hold 9/10ltrs. Another container I find really handy is the ordinary cheap plastic bucket.

Colin

[cazp]

Cazp, There are two sizes readily available the ones I use for spuds are 280mm Dia x 260mm deep hold 9/10ltrs. Another container I find really handy is the ordinary cheap plastic bucket.

Colin

Thanks very much Dave/colin

I have also seen in tescos some tall 10litre buckets - which are quite sturdy with handles at 99p (in their budget range) - worth considering!

[cazp]

I will note the varieties you have had success with. I have my eye on perhaps doing some Apache potatoes

... I wonder if it is worth me buying the Apache's from Sainsbury's whilst on offer at £1 a bag, and chitting those.? I can't see any in the garden centre nearby... are there any problems with chitting supermarket spuds?

I want to grow a succession, so would I just chit the later ones at a later date? keeping them cold in the fridge until then?