Purple Potatoes - Help!

[MrsHippo]

Hi guys,

I planted some winter spuds on the 2nd August. Dug them up yesterday as I read they would be ready any time from November onwards.

Well half was in the ground, the other in a potato bag. Ground didn't do so well, but the ones that have grown look in good condition. However, the ones in my bag have purple spots. I am totally confused, I no nothing about potatoes. Is this a bad thing??

EDIT. Sorry, I don't know what potatoes they are as I can't find the label anywhere!

[Jeanied]

They are perfectly fine - they could be Kestrel which has purple eyes.
My favourite potatoes are Salad Blue which are purple all the way through and make tasty lilac coloured mash!

[Aberdeenplotter]

looks a bit like Bluebell. The colouring of Kestrel isn't quite so bright.

[Bren In Pots]

I'm going to have to grow something else apart for Aaron pilot for a change.

[Chippy Minton]

They look fine to me, it's the variety, but I'm not going to hazard a guess as to which one

[TrialAndError]

They look superb, proof that spuds planted in August and early September really work.

I'm interested though, why do you think the ones not in the grow bags didn't work?

[WendyC]

Presumably on the seed potatoes you put in, the purple eyes weren't so obvious.

[Two_Sheds]

I planted some winter spuds

I do get itchy at that term, because spuds aren't a winter crop.

You had success, and they're good, brilliant.

However, you planted them in summer and harvested them in late autumn. It may seem picky, but people are being ripped off by companies who say you can grow spuds in winter.

[Snadger]

I grow winter spuds. I just dig em when I need them through the winter. They are perfectly ok left in the ground unless we get a really long period of frost which freezes the top six inches of soil.
After all, what is a 'clamp' other than heaping tatties surrounding them with straw and covering with soil. Mine just haven't got the straw so the top tatties will succumb in the severest of weathers, which thankfully doesn't happen to often.For some reason tatties taste better when freshly dug rather than stored for months in a paper sack.
Snow is no problem either as it is an insulator!

PS I also grow winter carrots,winter swedes,winter parnips in exactly the same way!