Potato Varieties 2017

[mothhawk]

I only have room for a few so only grow earlies. This year I'm trying Nicola.

This is a good site that gives all the characteristics of the different varieties, plus a chart for each showing its good and bad points.

Best Potato Varieties - GardenFocused

[hop-a-long]

Also forgot to mention- I've a few Edzell Blue spuds still knocking around, they keep coming back in my raised beds every year! I bought 5 of them about ten years ago and they have earned their keep for colour alone if nothing else. Probably the most floury potato I've come across, good with lots of butter!

Sounds like Yukon Gold is pretty popular, I haven't heard of that one before- would you folk recommend giving it a try?

[Ryleh]

I'll be growing Swift, Charlottes and Picasso. I'm also going to be trying some sweet potatoes for the firs time so I'll see how they go.

Can anyone suggests a potato type that is good for stewing, most of the potatoes ive tried so far basically disintegrated in the stew and I'd rather have nice chunks of potato to tuck in to

[Dalrimple]

Maris Peer ,Pink Fir Apple ,Charlottes ,Sharpo Mira and maybe some Anya.
i'll grow some in those white woven bags which are used for sand bags and i'll put em in a trench,I did this last year and by adding plenty of slug pellets when I but the spuds in I only found 6 spuds that had slug damage ,thats not bad out of 25 bags and with them buried in the trench they only needed minimum watering! mind it was a bit damp last year LOL . atb Dal.

[oakridge]

We have gone completely out of our comfort zone this year with Sarpo Mira, Sarpo Kifli and Ratte. We were badly hit by blight last year for the first time in 40 years hence the Sarpos and the Ratte were highly recommended and tasty on a Rhine cruise we went on a couple of years ago. The have been ordered from D. T. Brown.

[Minimag]

We have also overdone it this year. We got our plot late last year and grew Charlotte and Maris Peer - planted in September time for a Christmas crop, this worked quite well.

This year we are growing King Edward, Swift, Maris Piper, Charlotte, Pink Fir Apple and Golden Wonder. The swift is in bags in the greenhouse whilst the others are chitting in our greenhouse, ready to be planted mid-march.

The Swift are really just to get early potatoes, the King Edward for roasting, Maris Piper for chips, Charlotte for salads, Pink Fir Apple for mash and Golden Wonder because my boys want to try home-made crisps!

[Muddy_Boots]

Reading this thread made me go up to the spare unheated bedroom to check on the chitting progress of my seed potatoes, all 7 seed trays are chitting nicely with the Anya progressing well as they will be the first to be planted.

Varieties to be planted on plot 2 are:

Anya 4.5kg
Charlotte 3kg
King Edward VII 4.5kg
Pink Gypsy 1.5kg
Belle de Fontenay 1.5kg
Charlotte (Reds) 1.5kg
Ratte 1.5kg

and a full tray of Kestrel for £1.50 a bag from Wilko's

Any I haven't enough room for will be planted on plot 3, the abandoned plot next door and will be done under the guerrilla gardening ethics and I will deny any knowledge of them if anyone asks, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more.

[Minimag]

I Like the guerrilla gardening idea, the day after I dug my potato beds, half was designated as outside my plot, I might just have planted the potatoes before I dug the bed!

[Muddy_Boots]

One thing I will be doing this year when planting my spuds is the same as I did last year, the results were no slug damage whilst alot did suffer on other plots with quite alot of damage from the blighters.

The old boys at the allotments told me to plant your spuds as normal but before covering them just chuck a a small handful of slug pellets in with the seed potato and then cover them over. The pellets won't affect the hedgehogs or birds as they are underground. What it does is kill any slugs that are in the soil that decide to try and make a meal of your seed potato and gives further protection to the developing potatoes as they dissolve down and have permeated into the soil where the new spuds are forming.

Funnily enough when I was told about this trick I then remembered my dad telling me the same tip when I was a teenager planting spuds in my grandad's back garden.

[oakridge]

Bill Sowerbutts form 'Gardeners Question Time' used to say that the best way to get rid of slugs is to chuck a hundred weight of pellets in your neighbours garden.

[Dalrimple]

I allways put some in with seed spuds, no point digging a garden just to feed slugs with your produce for the sake of £1 worth of pellets it gives you the edge.Dal.

[oakridge]

I forgot to mention that I have had great success with nematodes over the last 3 years so I think I will stick with that method.

[eatitall]

Just a tip for everyone. No matter what new potato you grow and like. Would you like them for your Exmass/New years dinner as well.
OK. well you need to acquire some Large mixed chocolate boxes, containers. How many? depending on who's coming to dinner.
Lift your crop. Put sawdust or "Dry" peat. Into the choc boxes. Place your selected pots in. Keeping them separate. And layer the box up to the top.
Then seal them with Gaffer tape. Dig a hole in your garden approx. 18in deep. And bury them, don't forget where.
Dig them up for your Xmass/new year dinner. Perfect if you do it right.
One year I had to use a pick axe though.....

[Thatch]

Spud varieties

Because of limited space both at home and on the lotty I grow Anya and Charlotte in bags, they are great salad spuds and the flavour is fantastic. The other variety I shall be growing this season, is Rooster, in a new 9ft x 4ft raised bed at the lotty. I love them for a great all rounder but especially as a roasting spud.

[farmer56farming]

Linzer Delikatess, salad potato the best taste of all .