potatoes « TopVeg – growing veg,fruit&herbs

March 4, 2011

Early (or new) potato varieties

Filed under: potato — Tags: early, new, potatoes, variety — TopVeg @ 8:13 pm

Early (or new) potato varieties are planted from January to March and are ready for digging from May-July.
Second earlies are planted between February and May and harvested from July to October.

Examples of early potato varieties are:
Ultra-Early Potato – Lady Christl

LadyChrstll-new-potatoes

* high yielding
* numerous uniform attractive tubers
* good all round disease resistance, although it is slightly susceptible to Foliage Blight
* excellent cooking qualities & great flavour

Extra Early Salad Potato – Rocket

rocket-potatoes

* firm, waxy texture tubers
* good for chipping
* responds well under polythene
* best under long day length conditions of Northern Europe

Very early – Winston

* good yields
* bold white tubers
* a very short growing season
* good drought and heat tolerance
* powdery scab resistance
* masher, chips,bake,roast

First Early Potato – Sharpes Express

* low resistance to dry rot, late blight on foliage and late blight on tubers

First Early Potato – Red Duke of York

* low resistance to late blight on foliage, late blight on tubers, common scab, potato leafroll virus and potato virus Yo .

First Early Potato – Maris Bard

Maris-Bard-new-potatoes

TopVeg favourite!

* high yielding and early bulking
* good resistance to potato virus Y, gangrene, potato leaf roll virus, drought, damage and bruising
* moderately susceptible to spraing, powdery scab
* susceptible to potato cyst nematode
* medium dry matter with good boiling and frying quality
* good all round cooker

Second Early Potato – British Queen

* round tubers
* white skin

Second Early Potato – Charlotte

charlotte potato

* moderate yields
* uniform, smooth skinned tubers
* high resistance to foliage and tuber blight
* susceptible to potato cyst nematode
* medium dry matter
* waxy cooked texture
* salad potato

Second Early Potato – Kestrel

kestrel-potato-variety

* good yields of very attractive, long oval, coloured tubers
* good all round cooking quality
* good chipping potential, particularly early in the season

Second Early Potato – Edzell Blue

* heritage variety
* very floury texture
* mashes & bakes well, though difficult to boil
* best known blue- skinned variety

Early (or new) potato varieties mature in 8 to 10 weeks, so are the first to be ready for eating.

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February 9, 2010

When to Plant Seed Potatoes

Filed under: potato — Tags: plant, potato, potatoes, seed, when — TopVeg @ 11:43 am

When to plant seed potatoes depends on many factors:

variety of potato
location of potato plot
weather
condition of soil
protection available

seed-potato-in-planting-hol

Potato varieties can be divided into three main types & each type has a different growing season:

New Potatoes, or earlies – planted from January* to March and are ready for digging from May-July
Second earlies – planted between February* and May and harvested from July to October
Maincrop- planted in April and harvesting is in September and October

*WARNING – in the UK most potato planting is usually delayed until March, in sheltered and southern areas, or April in colder parts, unless protection is available.

If potatoes are planted too early there is a danger that:

the seed will rot in the ground if it is wet & cold
the shoots will be frosted off when the new, tender shoots emerge before the last frost.

potato-shoot-emerges

Location of potato plot is important:

Plots in the south of the UK can usually plant a few weeks earlier than those in the north
Sheltered plots can be planted earlier
Plots in frost pockets need extra care

potato-shoots

The weather for the current year determines when the potatoes can be planted. Temperature, rain & snow effect planting date. Some seasons are later than others, as is 2010!

cover soil

The condition of the soil must be right. There is no point putting potatoes into wet, cold soil. They will not start to grow & will probably rot off. But the ground can be covered with plastic to keep the rain off, so that the soil is kept dry before planting the potato seed. The plastic will also warm the soil a few degrees.

potato-row-polytunnel

When protection is available, potatoes can be planted earlier. Types of protection put over seed once planted:

black plastic
cloche
polytunnel
straw

When to plant potatoes in containers

Late January in an unheated greenhouse, cover with fleece in frosty weather
Outside in late February in mild southern areas, or April in colder parts. Protect from frosts when forecast.

Click this link to buy some potato seed.

When considering the best time to plant potatoes there are many points to consider.

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December 21, 2009

How to prepare soil for potato planting

Filed under: potato — Tags: plant, potatoes, seed, seedbed — TopVeg @ 1:45 am

The soil must be prepared before potato seed is planted. The prepared soil is called a seed bed.

The condition of the seed bed at planting is critical to the success of the potato crop.

The potato seedbed should be:

level
made up of fine particles
even – the same all over, & to a depth of about 6 inches

The seedbed for potatoes is prepared on the same day as planting the potatoes takes place. Do not work the soil if it is wet. If you have a planned date for planting potatoes, the soil can be covered over a week or two before planting, so that it does not get rained on, and will be dry when you want to work it.

rake-potato-land

Use a rake to level the seedbed.
Stand on a board, placed over the adjacent ground, to protect the soil from being trampled down.

firm-soil-down

When potato seed is planted into a dry seed bed, the soil particles and crumbs are at their minimum size. When it rains after planting, the soil crumbs will expand, making the soil firmer around the seed, so that the soil is in close contact with the potato seed, allowing the seed to take in water. Soil/seed contact is important.

If soil is sticking to hands and tools when preparing the seed row, the soil is too wet for planting. When planting into soil which is too wet, the soil particles will shrink as they dry out, and the soil will become loose and open so that the soil/seed contact is reduced.

The soil should not be worked into a dust, because when it is watered, it will slump and become too dense, so that oxygen is not available to the seed.

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July 21, 2009

Early Potato Varieties in France?

Filed under: potato — Tags: early, new, potatoes, seed — TopVeg @ 7:05 pm

Roger has asked for advice on which early potato varieties are grown in France.

Roger says:

“We have planted Charlotte, belle de fontain, and a couple of others non of which were First early’ s. First Earlies ’s have a very distinctive taste.” But he cannot find any first early potato seed in France.

Have any vegetable gardeners in France been able to source early potato seed?

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May 7, 2009

Selenium-enriched potatoes

Filed under: potato — Tags: potatoes, selenium — TopVeg @ 2:11 am

Selenium-enriched potatoes are being grown in Ireland.

The potatoes are enriched with 14g of selenium per 100g; regular potatoes only contain 0.2mg selenium.

In Ireland 20 per cent of men and 50 per cent of women don’t attain the recommended daily dose of 55mg.of selenium.

Like many agriculture-intensive countries, Ireland has low-levels of selenium in its soils due to farming practices. Finland in the 1980s countered this with a government-backed scheme to enrich the soil with selenium.

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April 27, 2009

Mayan Potatoes

Filed under: potato — Tags: mayan, potatoes — TopVeg @ 7:28 am

Mayan potatoes have been developed in Scotland from an ancient variety which was brought back from the wilds of Peru.

Mayan potatoes:

have more flavour than normal spuds
bulk up on water
are quicker to cook – saving time and energy
yield less than conventional potatoes

mayan potatoes

There are several varieties of Mayan potato, including these 3 early maincrop potatoes:

Mayan Gold

Mayan Queen

Mayan Twilight

Mayan potatoes cook in a third less time than ‘conventional’ potatoes & have an excellent flavour.

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March 15, 2009

No-dig potatoes for the urban gardener

Filed under: potato — Tags: container, grow, potatoes — TopVeg @ 3:41 pm

Urban gardeners with no space, and no wish to dig, can grow potatoes in
simple containers:

    * growing potatoes in a bag

    * planting potatoes in pots

* buckets make ideal containers for growing potatoes

no-dig-potatoes

Hippy gardener sells no-dig potato kits

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July 27, 2007

Why do some Potatoes Crack as they Grow?

Filed under: potato — Tags: potato, potatoes — TopVeg @ 2:23 pm

Some poatoes are cracked when they are dug out of the ground in the vegetable garden. The cause of the cracking is usually irregular rainfall or watering.

This year the UK experienced dry conditions in the spring. The first rains to end the drought caused a spurt in growth, which caused the potatoes to crack.

cracked-potatoes

Some gardeners are finding that when they dig a root of potatoes out of the garden, the large ones are cracked, but the smaller potatoes are perfectly formed. The potatoes in the photo above are all from the same root of potatoes, the variety is Estima.

The reason for the big potatoes being cracked and not the smaller ones is that the smaller ones were not initiated until after the drought, whereas tuber initiation of the larger potatoes had occurred when it was still very dry in the vegetable garden.

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