Utilising descriptions and characteristics from the British Potato Variety Database, plus some other online resources such as lovepotatoes, many faces of potatoes, and seed potato merchants JBA seed potatoes, among others, I've selected five varieties to go to war with for 2013, none of which I've tried growing in the past.
Second earlies;
Bonnie - detailed description here
Osprey - detailed description here
Maincrop;
Red King Edward - detailed description here
Markies - detailed description here
Pentland Squire - detailed description here
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| Potatoes! |
As we await for their arrival, I have egg boxes put aside for when chitting* commences.
* But is chitting really necessary? The cynic in me reckons the seed companies just want to get shot of their seed potato stocks as soon as possible, so ship them out really early in the year. Far too early to plant, so what do we do with them?
'I know, tell them to stick them in egg boxes for weeks on end, until the ground and weather conditions are suitable for planting. Tell them it's called 'chitting' and it's a necessary part of planting potatoes'.
Yeah right, like anyone's going to fall for that load of nonsense :)
Hope you have better luck with potatoes this year!!
ReplyDeleteThanks guys. After last year's disaster I think I need all the luck I can get. The picture I've used, was my potato patch from the year before, so I know they can do well. Fingers crossed.
ReplyDeleteHey Mark - nice blog.
ReplyDeleteI grew Estima last year on the advice of old boy who runs the allotment shop. He reckoned he's grew half as earlies, and left the other half to grow on into big baking potatoes.
Whether I fluked it, or the rain contributed, I'm not sure, but I got my biggest tatties ever.
Good luck!
Thanks Jonjo. I did have a look at Estima, but found they are susceptible to 'Blackleg'. On the heavy clay soil I have, that can be a real problem. Then again, if nothing I've tried this year comes up trumps, I might just give them a go next season.
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