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seed potatoes. oh woe is meeeee.

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  • seed potatoes. oh woe is meeeee.

    what a dilemma
    popped into my local independant garden centre tonight to see what seed pots they would be stocking for this year just check this lot of self selecters minimum purchase one potato upwards average price £1.60 a kilo
    kondor
    charlotte
    harmony
    sante
    saxon
    kestrel
    nadine
    lady chrystal
    swift
    accent
    ulster prince
    rocket
    vanessa
    pentland javelin
    oh woe is me one row of each or what any advice recommendations please.
    this will be a battle from the heart
    cymru am byth

  • #2
    Have a look at the descriptions in the on-line catalogues (eg. T&M have a very wide selection, but also see Alan Romans and Dobies) and see what you like the look of! Think about what you use potatoes for - some are floury for lovely mash/baking, some are more waxy and make great boiled spuds or salads. Some are general purpose. You should also aim for a range of early/mid/late season unless conditions dictate otherwise - for example you might prefer to concentrate on early varieties if you are short on space or if your area suffers a lot from blight.

    Dwell simply ~ love richly

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    • #3
      Charlotte are good to do in buckets for salad spuds. That takes them out of the garden and leaves that space free for others. I tried rocket and swift a couple years back and one of them was rubbish. If I can find my notebook, I will post which was the not worth trying again one!
      Happy Gardening,
      Shirley

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      • #4
        Yeah I understand your dilemma. Personally I would go for variety. Using the sites mentioned by Birdie Wife, I'd identify each potato by its cropping group (first earlies, 2nd earlies, maincrop etc) and cooking characteristics (general use potato, waxy for salad potato, roasting etc). Then you can pick the mix that you want although I tend to shy away from the cheaper ordinary ones that you might be able to get from shops/supermarket (just my thought).
        Last edited by veg4681; 10-01-2008, 06:09 PM.
        Food for Free

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        • #5
          Dear Phil,
          My usual spud order is 3kg rocket first early(salad/new) in the tunnel, 3kg charlotte(salad/new and baker if big enough) outdoors and 8/10kg valor maincrop storer (masher/roaster/chipper/baker). this usualy sees me through without having to buy any from the palaces of hell.

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          • #6
            rubbish????????

            dear shirlthegirl, dont take this the wrong way but what do you mean by rubbish????

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            • #7
              Originally posted by bravo2zero View Post
              dear shirlthegirl, dont take this the wrong way but what do you mean by rubbish????
              Just boring really, no flavour worth talking of. I did 4 different varieties, Duke of York (nice) Winston (gorgeous), rocket and swift (which I can't remember which was which now). If you find rocket good then perhaps it was swift that were the 'average' ones. All were planted in buckets, all with horse muck, all with the same treatment. Crops were all good but just the one type lacked enough 'specialness' to warrant growing again.
              Happy Gardening,
              Shirley

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              • #8
                I did 10 differant spuds last year,
                5 Cherie 1st early nice,
                5 Lady christl 1st early very nice,
                20 Foremost 1st early cant fault these,
                20 Vales emerald 2nd early fantastic tasting spud,
                10 Bonny 2nd early these had a second growth with all the rain ended up the size of a baker but hollow not over impressed,
                20 Maris peer 2nd early one of my favourite spuds,
                20 Anya my favourite salad spud,
                20 Harlequin early main crop very nice spud,
                20 Maris piper excelent spud,
                6 Mayan gold nice spud would def grow again.
                Last edited by PAULW; 10-01-2008, 07:12 PM.

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                • #9
                  interesting paul w
                  are mayan the blight resistant ones.
                  last year i did
                  swift
                  charlotte
                  anya
                  rocket
                  desiree
                  earlies and salad did well but desiree suffered due to the amount of water we had on the allotment in june and july.
                  this will be a battle from the heart
                  cymru am byth

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by shirlthegirl43 View Post
                    Just boring really, no flavour worth talking of.
                    I'm guessing that that was the rocket, Shirl - I grew them though impatience as they were billed as being the earliest of the lot, but they didn't taste of anything in my view.

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                    • #11
                      Phil The blurb does not say they are blight resistant but when you cook them you would think they already had butter in them yummie.

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Hazel at the Hill View Post
                        I'm guessing that that was the rocket, Shirl - I grew them though impatience as they were billed as being the earliest of the lot, but they didn't taste of anything in my view.
                        Cheers Hazel. I just hope for better spud growing conditions than last year!
                        Happy Gardening,
                        Shirley

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                        • #13
                          Last year I grew Lady Christl, Charlotte, Edzell Blue, Maris Peer, Maris Piper, Rooster and Nicola. 25kg seed tubers of each - this year I will be growing 50 kg seed tubers of the following - Lady Christl, Charlotte and Edzell Blue (poss Duke of York as well as that is a favourite up here)
                          Maris Peer are not too anyones taste up here and I quite literally gave them away for duck food !!
                          I did also have a trial pack of Bonnie which did well for me too but I have to draw a line somewhere !!
                          Rat

                          British by birth
                          Scottish by the Grace of God

                          http://scotsburngarden.blogspot.com/
                          http://davethegardener.blogspot.com/

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                          • #14
                            I tried Edzell Blue last year and got a tiny crop despite the blight that totalled everything. Think I might try them again this year as the couple we got (marble sized) were really tasty.
                            Happy Gardening,
                            Shirley

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                            • #15
                              Hi
                              I found this useful for looking at the different potato varieties
                              The British Potato Variety Database
                              Good Luck with your choice
                              Debs
                              www.johndebs.piczo.com

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