Patriotic potatoes

Patriotic potatoes!

Fears of potatoes rotting in the ground were unfounded. They've enjoyed the moist conditions and the horse manure that I dug in over winter. Those that got bitten by the frost in early May seem to have easily caught back up too.
I harvested a few from three different varieties today and it suddenly hit me. If only they'd been ready a few weeks ago I could have made a lucrative profit selling jubilee potatoes!

I like to grow as many different types of potato as possible. That way, if any varieties fail me, I'll always have plenty of others. It also gives me cover against the various afflictions that can strike potato crops.
But the main reason I grow so many varieties is for the range of texture, taste and colour. The floury ones are better for chipping and roasting, the waxy ones for boiling and salads.

So, here are the Earlies I have planted this year:


Salad Blue
More purple than blue. Purple flesh too which stays purple on cooking. This variety has always cropped very well for me and gives bucketloads of sweet tasting pototoes for boiling. Only downside is they can suddenly turn watery if overcooked, but purple mash is always a spectacle!

Red Duke of York
Dating from 1942, this heritage potato has a marvellous deep red skin colour and firm, yellow flesh. It is dry and mealy in texture and gives excellent chips and roast.

Dunluce
An excellent new potato which crops by the bucketload. Very firm flesh. I have found that Dunluces keep that new potato taste even if allowed to grow big. For this reason, I often harvest a few early on, then leave the others for later.

The jubilee chips made from the first three varieties.

Charlotte
I can never believe how much these sell for in the supermarkets. Although they are classed as Second Earlies, I already have a bumper crop of these lovely salad potatoes. Shame it's not really the weather for salads!
On that point, what on earth is a salad potato? Just a boiled potato gone cold I guess? Though they do stay nice and firm.

Arran Pilot
Around since 1930 and a gardeners favourite. A good yield last year so hoping for a repeat performance.

Edgecote Purple
Purple skin (surprise, surprise) and firm yellow flesh. Has been around since 1916. This potato is supposed to be an excellent all-rounder and I'm hoping it does well for me.
I will harvest this variety later on, as it supposedly shows good blight resistance. It's a Second Early too.

Bonnie
Bonnie by name... These white potatoes have rosy cheeks!
They produce an even size, large round spud, ideal for baking.

Swift
Supposed to be a high yielder and to produce the earliest potatoes. Mine seem to have been outperformed by other varieties. They have produced few leaves and the yield is nothing special.
Maybe not one for next year.
We have plenty more potatoes than we can manage anyway.

Thursday 28th June 2012
A stormy day in store

Blight
This warm, damp weather is ideal for fungi to take hold. The only redeeming factor is that it's been accompanied by a stiff breeze which should give enough airflow between the plants. This is one of the reasons for observing the advised planting spaces.
Still, today I received a text. I don't recieve that many texts, so I was half expecting it to be news of some far-flung mega rare bird. Unfortunately it was not.
It was a FAB text. (Fight Against Blight) warning of a full Smith period. You can sign up for these alerts with the Potato Council. It's easy to do and a useful tool in trying to avoid this decimating disease.

You may well be wondering what on earth is a full Smith period. I guess with so many Smiths in Britain, one had to have something named after him or her in the end!

This information is selected from blightwatch.co.uk. Please visit the website for more detailed information.


Smith Periods

---

Smith Periods for blight control are calculated from hourly temperature and relative humidity values.

A full Smith Period has occurred if, on each of 2 consecutive days:

the minimum air temperature was at least 10^oC, and

there were a minimum of 11 hours with a relative humidity of at least 90%

...

Smith Period conditions are conducive for sporulation of the potato blight pathogen on lesions - leaf wetness is also necessary for infection to occur. If Smith Periods occur at frequent and regular (7-10 day) intervals, there is a greater chance of blight development.

The Potato Council website gives lots of information, advice and links. Here's an example of the blight map they provide.

Display incidents from 12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec2012 to date Click on a dot to see incident details Click on a map to see your region 13 reported incidents to date for the selected region Id Outbreak Size Variety Reported Source Area Result 9082 Several Patches Marfona 13 Jun 2012 Crop/Other CT7 9086 Patch (1m2) Maris Peer 14 Jun 2012 Crop/Other CT7 9102 Patch (1m2) Other Maincrop 19 Jun 2012 Crop/Other GU29 9114 Scattered through field Desiree 21 Jun 2012 Crop/Other CT7 9118 Scattered through field Unknown 22 Jun 2012 Crop/Other NR10 9126 Scattered through field King Edward 25 Jun 2012 Crop/Other CT7 9130 Scattered through field King Edward 26 Jun 2012 Crop/Other CT7 9134 Several Patches Unknown 26 Jun 2012 Crop/Other NR14 9138 Single Plant Maris Piper 27 Jun 2012 Crop/Other PE20 9142 27 Jun 2012 PE11 9146 Single Plant Other Maincrop 28 Jun 2012 Crop/Other GU28 9154 Patch (1m2) Unknown 28 Jun 2012 Crop/Other NR11 9158 29 Jun 2012 DA13

Spuds

Saturday 31st March 2012
The weather turns - just in time for the holidays.

A couple of big jobs out of the way.

During the last week I have managed to get my early potatoes into the ground and mounded up. Some people like to get them in early in March, but when those tops poke through the mounds they will need protecting from the frosts, and I'm sure there's a fair few of those still to come.

Planting potatoes involves an awful lot of moving soil around. It's a big job. Most of the potato crop grows in the mounds of soil you heap up, not down into the ground below. As the shoots emerge, you mound the soil up more, but I like to make the mounds as big as possible at the beginning so I don't need to keep going back to the same job. One unexpected sharp frost, if it catches the young shoots, can set the plants back and undo all the effort of getting them in early.

I like to plant lots of varieties of spuds - they all have their own unique qualities, and I figure that if something goes wrong I prefer not to have all my eggs in one basket. I've gone for four varieties of First Early this year.

Red Duke of York did very well last year. A floury potato, it makes an excellent chip.
Also Arran Pilot, Dunluce and Swift, all for that classic new potato taste.

A little more colour and experiment with the Second Earlies.
Salad Blue I've tried before - a novelty potato with blue/purple flesh, though it can go a bit watery when boiled.
Bonnie is a delightful white potato with red blushes. Charlotte, a salad potato, the one that comes in small, very expensive bags in the supermarkets. Did very well last year. And finally, Edgecote Purple, a new variety to try, deep purple skins.

More Fence

Since the chickens have been given freedom to roam, they have behaved well. On the whole they respect the boundaries of the veg patch and have discovered the orchard and the long grass of the meadow to their liking. The boundary with Don's land here is not chicken proof, and although they'd have  long way to go to get to his vegetables, I don't want to give them any encouragement! So today's little job was to erect 50m of chicken wire fencing, a job which involves lots of walking up and down the fenceline, mainly to retrieve tools which always end up at the other end of the fence to where needed.

With a couple of hours left, I dug a bed around the base of one of the apple trees, a new home for the rest of the strawberry plants which Don gave us.

Eventually, I want to do this with all the fruit trees, with various plants and flowers underneath them, some for beauty, some to protect the trees from disease and pests.