"Neil Tonks" wrote after...

"Bob Hobden" replied to"Vincent Burgum"
Can anyone tell me what I have done wrong. I grew potatoes for the first
time this year. For Earlies I planted Rocket, and for Maincrop used King
Edward. Both types produced wh\t I considered decent looking spuds in
reasonable quantities, but when I tried to ccok them they were bopth
terrible. Both varieties turned to a mushy pulp when boiled, but both
were
ok when chipped. What did I do wrong?

What you did wrong was plant the wrong varieties.
Rocket is supposed to be a good all-rounder with a waxy texture but
obviously on your soil it isn't.
King Edward is a floury spud and will beak up on boiling, which is why it
good for roasting, baking, chips and mash.
Both these varieties have a rating of 6 for disintegration on boiling.
For next year try the following if you like your spuds boiled but don't
like them mushy. (information from British Potato Council)
First Early...
Arran Pilot; Duke of York( when young); Dundrod
Second Early ...
Carlingford; Maris Peer; Spunta; Wilja
Main Crop...
Nicola; Pentland Hawk;
All the above have a rating of 8 or 9.


I had the same problem with Rocket, grown in the light sandy soil of the
garden I then had. Even when dug very young, it still disintegrated in a
few minutes when boiled. I only grew it the once!

Soil and growing conditions have a lot to do with it too. Our soil is Thames
silt/clay but as it's over gravel it dries out quickly in the summer too
leaving large cracks the spuds then lack water and then any will get floury.

Our problem is slugs; just finished digging up the last two rows of Golden
Wonder (MC) and whilst I had read they were slug resistant I reckon we only
got about 15% undamaged which means a lot get thrown away. The earlies,
Concorde, are usually OK.
Kestral (SE) have the best slug resistance I've found. (BPC rating 4) (mine
6)
Romano (EM) are the best Red for slug resistance.(BPC rating 5) (mine 4)
Looking at the British Potato Council data we might try Hermes, Lady
Rosetta, Maritiema, Midas, Pentland Dell, Spey, all of which are supposed to
be even better than Kestral for slug resistance at 5 (but I doubt it 'cause
our slugs can't read).
Now I need to look up to see if any of them are OK in clay. :-)

--
Regards
Bob
In Runnymede, 17 miles West of London