The Jelly potato variety is another example of a new variety which is exclusive & not available to the small home grower in the UK. Jelly potatoes are exclusive to Greenvale who will be selling them to Tesco as their Farm Fresh Brand.
The Jelly Potatoes are:
- buttery in flavour
- creamy in texture
- high yielding
- short oval tubers
- smooth shinny yellow skin
- yellow fleshed
- bred in Germany
- medium early potatoes
- resistant to most diseases
Jelly is an interesting new potato variety which is not yet available for the home vegetable gardener.
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Janette is searching for the ultimate potato variety!
In her mind, the ultimate potato is:
- waxy
- yellow
- sweet
- early
- with a fine skin – not thick and grainy
- good in salads, sauteed, and boiled
If anyone has any suggestions for a potato variety which fits the bill please contact us & we will let Janette know.
Do you agree with her wish list? What is your idea of the ultimate potato…..
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Exquisa is a new variety of potato. The supermarkets try hard to keep exclusivity of the latest entrants on the market and the seed is kept under wraps.
Janette has asked TopVeg if we know of any suppliers of Exquisa potato seed. I have spent ages looking for a supplier without success.
The Exquisa variety was bred in Holland in 1997- and seems to be easier to find there!
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Exquisa Characteristics:
- yellow flesh
- smooth skin
- oval shape
- small to medium size
- very high yielding
- fairly firm texture on cooking
- multi-purpose or salad type
If anyone knows where to find some Exquisa potato seed please do contact us!
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snow-on-vegetable-patch
This example of how not to grow potatoes has proved rather successful. We tried it last year and it worked then, too.
Instead of lifting potatoes before the first frost and storing them in nice Hessian bags, we have left them in the ground.
tray-holding-plastic-down
We have covered them over with a blue plastic sheet to keep some frost off – and the snow, hopefully, has provided some insulation.
We lifted some Kestrel today, after pulling the sheet back.
plastic-pulled-back
We dug 2.5kg of Kestrel potatoes (the gardener said it was just from one side of the root!)
2.5kg-Kestrel-potatoes
The skins do look a bit scabby, but the skin scraped off easily and left a clean potato.
KestrelPotatoes
They do taste good! Kestrel are a second early. Click this link to buy some Kestrel seed potatoes.
But there is a risk to this strategy. If the frost gets down into the potatoes they will go soft and to mulch when they thaw out, rendering them useless. But we had a good 5C degrees of frost last night and the soil was still quite warm. Last year after a prolonged period of very cold weather we did loose one or two. So this exercise is definitely an example of how not to grow potatoes!
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Potato seed is chitting.
Chitting is the controlled production of sprouts on seed potatoes before planting.
But the controlled production of sprouts is the key. The length & strength of the sprout must be controlled to give a short (1.5-2.5cm (0.5-1in) long), stubby, green chit.
The 3 factors involved in chitting are:
- temperature – 4 degrees Celsius is ideal, but the temperature should not go above 10 degrees, neither should it reach freezing.
- ventilation – plenty of fresh air
- light – plenty of light – but not bright sunlight – a north facing window is best
Early and late-main crop potatoes could especially benefit from the chitting , but it must be done properly.
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Once potatoes are peeled, dark coloured spots (often black) may be seen.
These black spots result from tissue damage which causes a discolouration reaction. The black spots are only visible after peeling as they are below the surface.
Factors involved in the development of black spots:
- potato variety – some varieties are more susceptible than others eg Anya
- dry matter – potatoes with high dry matter are more susceptible to black spots eg Setanta. Low dry matter potatoes eg. ‘Kestrel’, ‘Nadine’ and ‘Picasso’ bruise less easily
- soil nutrients – low potassium increases blackspot susceptibility
- size and shape of potato
- condition of soil at harvest – dry stony soil will cause more bruising , which leads to black spots
- rough handling at picking time causes more damage, bruising and black spots
How black spots develop:
Once the potato is damaged, biochemical reactions occur in the cells, which include a colour reaction. It takes 10 – 20 hours for the black spots to start to appear, and several days for them to fully develop.
But this colour reaction can be slowed by:
a. cooling the potato down – as the enzymes work quicker at high temperatures & are inactivated at low temperatures
b. high humidity – this minimises water loss from the potatoes and reduces black spots
To reduce the occurrence of black spots:
- treat potatoes very gently when handling them
- if the potato is stored correctly the bruise will not develop
Bruises in potatoes are like those in apples, they are only in the damaged cells. The bruise does not spread. But stored potatoes with very high dry matter can develop black spots during storage, especially if they are allowed to dry out.
Black spots on potatoes are unsightly so it is worth trying to prevent them.
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SuperRedskinsRule has made a comment on TopVeg’s YouTube video Check if potatoes are ready to dig:
Great video and advice! This is the way to go… never mind the EU and their poisonous plans! My Granddad grew all his own grub and lived to 90! He’d pick his potatoes in October and they’d last right through until April! The rubbish in the supermarket lasts about a week! I’ve grown some potatoes in plastic bags this year, for the first time. They’re looking good! I planted them on first April – I reckon they will be ready in the next week or two.I shall now check them as you suggest! Thanks!
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This must be a record for our first new potatoes! Luck has been with us and we have had quite warm soil temperatures.
new-potatoes-15-May
With fingers crossed, we planted these Maris Bard on 12th February, very early because Mike was away for the following 3 weeks. The seed potatoes were particularly big, which helped to give us a head start.
Even though the potatoes were covered with polythene we had a scare last week when we had a ground frost early in the morning. Leaping out of bed at first light, we rushed out to sprinkle the potatoes (& strawberries) with water – a trick to keep the frost off.
Other than the frost protection, we have not watered these potatoes at all since they were planted- and we only had 9.5ml rain in March and none in April!
The soil is now very dry, so it is easy to dig the new potatoes out with your hands.
digging-new-potatoes
The soil is full of the potato roots – which have helped the potato plants to grow so well.
roots+new-potatoes
The first new potatoes were quite delicious!
