What's your favourite spud?

[Noosner]

I'd really like to hear what is everyone's fave spud to grow and why? Would like to attend next year's potato day armed with some info.

[Scarlet]

Pink fir apple. Lovely salad potato, grows really well for me, stores well too. Lovely flavour.

[Bigmallly]

My favourite is King Edward, a main crop good size tattie for chips, Very good resistance to scab, some resistance to blight.

[bearded bloke]

If you eat haggis then you really must try Kerr's Pink,the ultimate mashing spud

[solway cropper]

It really depends on your soil and situation as what does well for one person might be a disaster for another. The potato popularity polls tend to throw up a few which most folks seem to agree on. Lady Christl, Charlotte, Nicola, Kestrel, Picasso....and so on. A new one I tried this year was Sharpe's Express. A first early with excellent flavour and higher yielding than I've ever had with Lady Christl. Plants often had 30 usable tubers!

[greenishfing]

I still haven't found the perfect potato. It should taste great, store well, be immune to blight and scab and be impervious to slugs.

If anyone ever discovers a potato that fits these criteria I want some.

[Noosner]

Thanks, folks, that's a real help, great info there.

[Vince G]

International Kidney for me for a first early. It's the spud that was taken to Jersey and is now marketed as Jersey Royals.

Maincrop wise, I don't think you can make a better roastie that with a Maris Piper. Bit susceptible to blight, but not much of that around this year so far it seems

[Hans Mum]

Pink Fir are Mine too...... last year one supermarket had them at £5 per kilo I must've had 100 Quid's worth

[Nicos]

Charlotte are mine.
Great salad potato and yet if left to grow make lovely chips.
Yes, they are waxy, but they do store well too!

Nice creamy top flavour

[Alison]

The problem with this thread is there are so many varieties and they taste and texture will vary depending on soil type and watering. Personally the worst tasting crop I ever grew was Charlotte which many people love. The crop was great by weight but the spuds fell apart and had no taste. For earlies I love Ulster Classic (difficult to get hold of), Salad Blue as second earlies and vary my main crop but tend to go for a naturally blight resistant variety like Sante. Also always grow some PFA which I really love as they keep so well and give a nice salad type through into the New Year but obviously no good for mash.

[Noosner]

Thanks v much again, everyone. I know there'll be differences between people's crops according to soil type, weather, diseases etc in any given year, but I love hearing about folks' enthusiasms for different varieties. It is much nicer than looking up individual spud reviews on tinternet.

I've never had anything like a decent crop of spuds since getting the allotment 5 years ago. There seem to be various different issues but the main one is slug damage. But the actual plant remains one of my favourites at the allotment because of the beauty of the crinkly dark green leaves, coming through in Spring.

Having said that, I'm determined to get better results next year.

[BUFFS]

I am addicted to salad blue, makes weird coloured chips and roasties, last year we had a dinner of steak in balsamic(purple) with purple haze carrots and salad blue tatties,it just looked peculiar but the tatties are always gorgeous, I grow mine in half dustbins using seaweed in the base the same way I do my charlotte(they then taste the same as jerseys) and don't seem to need any extra fertiliser..

[Penellype]

I've tried various types (King Edward, Pink Fir Apple, Duke of York, Maris Bard, Charlotte, Pentland Javelin, Sarpo Axona + Sarpo Mira not yet tasted) but I always keep coming back to good old Desiree. This year I grew some at my friend's house, where slugs and snails are a HUGE problem as the garden is surrounded by open fields and overgrown shrubbery, but so far the potatoes we have harvested have been undamaged. If I was going to be hyper critical they are not the best for salads, and the eyes tend to be rather deep making them slightly tricky to peel, but I can live with that.

[brownfingers]

Just about any spud is fine as long as you take these simple steps.
1. Peel.
2. Slice.
3. Cut into strips.
4. Immerse in hot fat until golden brown.