Good year for spuds? What about the flavour?

[Jeanied]

I have loads of potatoes growing on the lottie - they have been doing well and I pulled the first one yesterday to have for supper. It was an Ulster Prince. I was sooooo disappointed with the flavour.

Basically there wasn't any!

Anyone got any words of wisdom for me? How can I persuade the rest to get tastier?

[Two_Sheds]

Too much water? (rain)

[VirginVegGrower]

I've had a terrible yield this year compared to last year. I'm leaving them longer.

[redser]

My earlies in buckets are lovely. Still waiting to try the spuds in the ground.

[Jamesy_uk]

Ground ones were just like supermarket cheapo spuds no taste but the bags I grew in they wer e lovely and buttery and yellow in colour compared to ground ones being almost a cream white (same variety).

[Jeanied]

Well I am not digging any more up for a while to see if the situation improves - I shall also try a foliar feed and some mulching to try and make the growing medium a bit richer. I may even add chicken pellets.

[Jelliebabe]

Jeanie - I dug up an Ulster prince the other day - there was one teensy potato there and no it wasnt the seed either!

[VirginVegGrower]

Ground ones were just like supermarket cheapo spuds no taste but the bags I grew in they wer e lovely and buttery and yellow in colour compared to ground ones being almost a cream white (same variety).

I've had the same, bags at home have been lovely. It's a mystery to me, it really is.

[scarletrunner]

Well I am not digging any more up for a while to see if the situation improves - I shall also try a foliar feed and some mulching to try and make the growing medium a bit richer. I may even add chicken pellets.

I always add chicken pellets between the rows before the final earthing up,it certainly gives them a growth boost!

[PAULW]

Dug four roots of lady christl and they are quite yummy

[binley100]

Yesterday we had some rocket , flavour was good but the yield wasn't . Today we've had a few purple skinned ones from the Centenary Garden but the chef could've cooked them a wee bit longer .
Lots have said how the main crop seem to be growing better than the first earlies and the yields aren't very good on the earlies.
I'll give mine another week and try again .

[Alison]

Only eaten ones out the tunnel so far (grown in the borders there) and they've been the same taste as usual but a bit lower yield which I put down to poor weather so they'd probably effectively had less growing time than normal. The outdoor ones all look good - also grown in the ground (don't do pots if I can help it) but obviously no idea on either yield or taste. Last year they were all smaller than normal (low rain fall?) and didn't seem to keep quite as well as normal.

[greenishfing]

i've grown Foremost for first earlies. The first ones I started off in cold frames and then moved the frames when they got too tall and the next bag I've grown completely outdoors. They've been absolutely great so far, good yield and fantastic taste but very, very muddy.

[Rhona]

I'm a bit concerned about our potatoes. A quick furtle two weeks ago revealed - similar to Jelliebabe - pretty much nothing so far. The leaves look healthy enough, but no tubers developing. I'm assuming that the poor weather is a factor, and will also leave in the ground longer to see what happens.

[Alan G]

What a year!!

Same problem here - loads of healthy top cover, but a furtle last week revealed limited yield underneath.

Harvested a couple of egg-sized Pentland Javelin and was completely underwhelmed by the flavour.

So much so I googled for people's views on the flavour and found its supposed to be really tasty. These weren't.

I'm also leaving them in the ground a while longer - hoping things improve, or that the other varieties (Arran Pilot, RD of York, Kestrel & Charlotte) fare better.