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[squidsin]

I'm growing some new potatoes in a sack at the back of the garden. I planted them in June, and the foliage has now died away completely. I wasn't planning on harvesting them until December - can I just leave them in there or will they rot or sprout or something?

[chickencam]

They may get frosted if they are outdoors, also if you planted them in june and the foliage has died back, you may find that they are no longer waxy new potatoes, and that they are more like main crop. It is also worth checking if the tubers are in good condition, you could then leave them in the soil, but protect it from too much cold or wet.

 

New potatoes are usually harvested as the flowers start to go over and the foliage is still green.

[sjp]

I normally leave my christmas spuds in the poly pots till christmas eve with no problems

the only thing that might be a problem is if they had blight then that will get into the tubers frost might be a problem if it goes really cold and the soil in the sack gets solid with ice

[squidsin]

Well I thought I'd have a poke around and see what I'd got and they are teeny tiny! The size of marbles! Curses! I have no luck with spuds - admittedly these were a random bag of supermarket spuds that had chitted themselves so I decided to plant them - but can anyone recommend me a good early or maincrop potato to plant next year? I did red Duke Of Yorks this year but think I put them in too early as they got frostbite!

[chickencam]

Our favourite early is Bonnie closly followed by Spunta and maincrop Desiree and Picasso

[sjp]

if you want 'new' potatoes

Red duke as you've mentioned

orla,Mimi, puritan(if you can find it) red scarlett Anya, Adora,dunluce lady Crystl and rembrant all first earlies

Linzer Delikatess, roseval, ratte,celine all secound early salad

cecile, juliette,nicola main crop salads

Cara, red cara, kerrs pink, rooster pink fir apple are all good main crops but rooster isn't really a boiler I haven't inclueded Picasso because I find cara has better disease resistance cara is one of picasso's parents

[Daphne]

SJP - you certainly seem to know your potatoes

 

I'm a big fan of Lady Cristl and Nicola; not tried many of the others you mention, except Kerrs Pink but I do have a good potato farm nearby so I'll keep a lookout.

 

I read somewhere that 10% of potatoes are mislabelled (not sure if this was retail or seed). Have you found any problems in that way?

[sjp]

SJP - you certainly seem to know your potatoes

 

I'm a big fan of Lady Cristl and Nicola; not tried many of the others you mention, except Kerrs Pink but I do have a good potato farm nearby so I'll keep a lookout.

 

I read somewhere that 10% of potatoes are mislabelled (not sure if this was retail or seed). Have you found any problems in that way?

 

I've got a modest potato collection of about 30- 40 vareties of heritage and rare spuds plus I grow about 30 modern ones each year (3 tubers of each ) that I display at 3 or 4 places each year.

I'm displaing them the next to weekends here http://www.rococogarden.co.uk/ as part of they're harvest festival event.

as for the mislabeling I've been court twice in the last 2 years by spuds that were labeled wrong last year brought linzers that turned out to be somthig else this year Axonia is wrong

[chickencam]

Oh that's a shame, we are away this weekend and the Rocco Gardens are only up the road from us, we go about once a year usually.

[..lay a little egg for me]

sjp, as you are a potato expert, perhaps you can help me out! We go to Sweden every year on our hols and over there they have the most wonderful new potatoes that are quite yellow in flesh. They are sold in the supermarkets simply as "Swedish potatoes" so we don't know what variety they might be! We would love to grow them here or something similar...any ideas?

[sjp]

Oh that's a shame, we are away this weekend and the Rocco Gardens are only up the road from us, we go about once a year usually.

I'm there next weekend to

[sjp]

sjp, as you are a potato expert, perhaps you can help me out! We go to Sweden every year on our hols and over there they have the most wonderful new potatoes that are quite yellow in flesh. They are sold in the supermarkets simply as "Swedish potatoes" so we don't know what variety they might be! We would love to grow them here or something similar...any ideas?

the only swedish one I know is Blau Mandel but that's a purple skined one it's not available at the moment in this country as the guy that maintains it for the UK is stil bulking it up has it brought new seed stock last year.

most european spuds are yellow fleshed. Linzer Delikatess is from Austria and is one that gets used by M&S in it's bagged salad potatoes you can sometime get it as seed potatoes from here http://www.dundrynurseries.co.uk/

I do a bit of research and see if I can come up with some ideas

[..lay a little egg for me]

Thanks sjp, I guess it might be some variety that would do well in northern climates so perhaps the Austrian variety you mention could be close. I will have to try the M&S potatoes and see if they remind me of Sweden!