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#1
21-01-2005, 09:55 PM
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Floury new potatoes
I was interested in Janes comments on the question of International Royal
kidneys and in particular the advise that the new potatoe must be picked at an early stage. I grew Arran pilots last year and suffered from very floury potatoes. Their boiling properties appeared to improve slightly with peeeling but in general they were a flop as a new potatoe particularly if left with the skin on. I put the problem down to a bad choice of seed but I am now wondering if I simply lifted them too late. Jak |
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#2
22-01-2005, 02:49 PM
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"jakalad" wrote ... I was interested in Janes comments on the question of International Royal kidneys and in particular the advise that the new potatoe must be picked at an early stage. I grew Arran pilots last year and suffered from very floury potatoes. Their boiling properties appeared to improve slightly with peeeling but in general they were a flop as a new potatoe particularly if left with the skin on. I put the problem down to a bad choice of seed but I am now wondering if I simply lifted them too late. Arran Pilot should be quite good re disintrigation on cooking but it's not the best. A better one is Duke of York. Personally, like Janet, we found an early that grew well here and we liked eating and have stuck to it ever since, our one is Concorde. -- Regards Bob In Runnymede, 17 miles West of London |
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#3
24-01-2005, 03:54 PM
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On Sat, 22 Jan 2005 00:14:00 GMT, Janet Baraclough
wrote: ~The message ~from jakalad contains these words: ~ ~ I was interested in Janes comments on the question of International Royal ~ kidneys and in particular the advise that the new potatoe must be picked at ~ an early stage. I grew Arran pilots last year and suffered from very ~ floury potatoes. Their boiling properties appeared to improve slightly ~ with peeeling but in general they were a flop as a new potatoe particularly ~ if left with the skin on. I put the problem down to a bad choice of seed ~ but I am now wondering if I simply lifted them too late. Jak ~ ~ I grew Arran Pilot the year before last, just because we'd moved to ~Arran where they were bred, and found them very disappointing at every ~stage. Now I've reverted to my all-time favourite Estima which I can ~recommend as a delicious baby new potato and also as a whopping old ~potato (we're still eating last years crop). I'm growing half a dozen varieties again I hope - which is the advantage of getting spuds by the tuber rather than buying huge bags! Last year I tried Accent (ok but only got 3/5 plants, can't remember them being amazing) Mimi (red salad, cherry tom size, nearly all hollowed out by slugs) Red Duke of York (the most stunning colour and delicious) Ratte (waxy salad - and I found some volunteers in December - which were perfect, hardly any slug damage for months underground!) Pink Fir Apple (very waxy salad - not much slug damage) Estima (weren't brilliant but then again they were planted very late so I'll try again) International Kidney (third year now, seem to like my lottie and seaweed meal and extract!) Sarpo Mira/Axona/Tominia (dug up start of November and ate for Christmas - very nice and they definitely didn't get blight, but then again neither did anything else...) So this year I'll drop the Accent and Mimi and try Kestrel. Rest the same. Chitting starts this weekend... -- jane Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist but you have ceased to live. Mark Twain Please remove onmaps from replies, thanks! |
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#4
27-01-2005, 07:18 AM
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#7
29-01-2005, 08:10 PM
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On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 07:23:59 GMT, Gary wrote:
~On 1/27/05 9:09 AM, in article , "jane" wrote: ~ ~ On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 07:18:32 GMT, Gary wrote: ~ ~ ~On 1/24/05 7:54 AM, in article , ~ ~"jane" wrote: ~ ~ ~ ~ On Sat, 22 Jan 2005 00:14:00 GMT, Janet Baraclough ~ ~ wrote: ~ ~ ~ ~ ~The message ~ ~ ~from jakalad contains these words: ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I was interested in Janes comments on the question of International ~ Royal ~ ~ ~ kidneys and in particular the advise that the new potatoe must be picked ~ at ~ ~ ~ an early stage. I grew Arran pilots last year and suffered from very ~ ~ ~ floury potatoes. Their boiling properties appeared to improve slightly ~ ~ ~ with peeeling but in general they were a flop as a new potatoe ~ particularly ~ ~ ~ if left with the skin on. I put the problem down to a bad choice of seed ~ ~ ~ but I am now wondering if I simply lifted them too late. Jak ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I grew Arran Pilot the year before last, just because we'd moved to ~ ~ ~Arran where they were bred, and found them very disappointing at every ~ ~ ~stage. Now I've reverted to my all-time favourite Estima which I can ~ ~ ~recommend as a delicious baby new potato and also as a whopping old ~ ~ ~potato (we're still eating last years crop). ~ ~ snip ~ ~ ~ ~ Chitting starts this weekend... ~ ~ ~ ~Chitting?????? Vell vot dos this mean? Dis verd chitting?  ~ ~ ~ ~ I get ze feeling somevon is taking ze Michael. ~'Taking ze Michael'? Vot doz dat mean? Dis 'taking ze Michael'? ~ ~ :-) ~ ~ (seriously, don't you let spuds grow shoots before you plant them out? ~ Or are techniques rather different in the freezing wastes of .ca?) ~ ~Is that what 'chitting' means-to let spuds develop shoots before planting? ~And by the 'vay...zee koldt ees ont the East koast nut ont zee Vest koast in ~.ca ah - vas not aware of *vot* location you had in .ca Zorry ~To answer your question...potatoes when in the sun will turn green and there ~will be an awakening of the seed...the buds will start. Should they not get ~enough sun they will 'reach' for it and develop long shoots. I was told a ~long time ago (last weekg) to break them (long sprouts) off before ~planting and I think the person who told me had an English accent. ~I have my spud seeds set up in a window that has the most direct sunlight. I ~want them to awaken but not develop long shoots. They were in the fridge and ~were sprouting there and I took them out and put in the sunniest spot I ~have. I want short stubby shoots not long spindly ones. ~Comments welcome on this theory. ~ Almost. Your friend was a bit out... General chitting theory goes that you can bring forward cropping by a couple of weeks if you start the tubers into growth before the outside conditions are warm enough to plant out. This is best done by keeping them in a cool but light place, which has the effect as you say of producing short, stubby and above all *green* shoots. Often these are a bulbous knob with tiny leaves at the top. To this end you put the tubers into eggboxes or modules, rose end up. This is the end of the spud opposite the tiny scar where it was joined onto the mother plant, and is where there is the greatest number of eyes. They should be about an inch long when you plant out, and experts seem to recommend keeping three shoots in general. Some folk say it doesn't matter if you don't chit. But the one thing they do agree on is that if you snap off already-growing shoots, you take away energy from the seed and the secondary shoots which will eventually grow will not be as strong and growth is delayed, defeating the object of chitting! So don't snap off long sprouts if you get them - try to keep them on while planting (though this won't be as easy as for short ones). I learned a few new tips at the potato day today too. If you have a variety eg Ratte that grows loads of tiny tubers rather than decent large ones, you are best using the plant's own tendency to have 'apical dominance', that is, to put most energy into one stem. Rub off all shoots apart from the strongest one and plant it exactly upright in the trench. For ones that tend to grow too large eg Kestrel, do the opposite (lay on side, keep as many shoots on as possible). I'll need to hunt out my notebook for the others... but I've never seen so many folk scrabbling for spuds in my life! It was a scrum! (And I now have 67 tubers of 11(!) varieties laid out to chit... wooops. Though only 7 were impulse buys...) -- jane Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist but you have ceased to live. Mark Twain Please remove onmaps from replies, thanks! |
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#8
30-01-2005, 10:11 PM
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I learned a few new tips at the potato day today too. If you ..... I'll need to hunt out my notebook for the others... but I've never seen so many folk scrabbling for spuds in my life! It was a scrum! (And I now have 67 tubers of 11(!) varieties laid out to chit... wooops. Though only 7 were impulse buys...) Hi Jane Thank you and the others for the info on 'floury' spuds. Interested to know what 'potatoe' day you attended. Was it the HDRAS'. Sounds kind of intereting and useful. I presume you would recommend. Just bought some Duke of Yorks and Fir Apples so I will see how they go this year. Looking for the Belle de Fontenay but thewy seem to be scarce. May try Ratte instead. May need another allotment just for spuds at this rate! Jak |
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#9
01-02-2005, 10:52 AM
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On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 22:11:51 GMT, jakalad wrote:
~ I learned a few new tips at the potato day today too. If you ..... ~ I'll need to hunt out my notebook for the others... but I've never ~ seen so many folk scrabbling for spuds in my life! It was a scrum! ~ (And I now have 67 tubers of 11(!) varieties laid out to chit... ~ wooops. Though only 7 were impulse buys...) ~ ~Hi Jane Thank you and the others for the info on 'floury' spuds. ~Interested to know what 'potatoe' day you attended. Was it the HDRAS'. Yes - I'm a member so went on the Saturday. By 9am the queue was across the front of the building and by opening at 9.30 the car park was full and the queue all the way back to the fence by the road! Glad we got there really early!! ~Sounds kind of intereting and useful. I presume you would recommend. yes - they also have a program of talks which have two basic ones - how to grow organically and pests/diseases. The others change each year, so this year we got two cookery demos (very good, and in true Blue Peter tradition there were dishes they prepared earlier which we got to try!) a report-back on the Sarpo blight resistant maincrop potatoes and a Q&A session with several folk including Alan Romans. ok I realise this is veering a bit OT as I'm now talking floury maincrop potatoes! The Sarpo report was fascinating. I grew two of each of the three kinds, and got foxcubbed so had no idea which was which (the cubs dug up or bit off the labels). Others without such little terrors managed to compare flavour, growth and blight resistance between the three as well as between them and normal cultivars. They really are much more resistant to both tuber and foliage blight. The flavours were the downside because they are very floury and apparently people these days tend to favour waxy. some 50-60% of triallers said they'd grow them again. I know I would (and am) - with them being so floury ie high dry matter, they roast superbly! The other comment on taste was more a psychological point - people were able to choose the variety they used as control, so invariably the Sarpos came last on taste/texture, since most people used their favourite for their control! They did score highly on both yield and tuber number (8-9 tubers per plant, 5-6.5kg per five plants). It was noted that thanks to distribution hiccups, most were planted very late in the season (early May) so probably didn't get to full potential. I am growing more Sarpo Mira this year. Though not too cheap at 20p a tuber, if I get the lowest quoted yield that works out at a pound for 5kg, or about 9p/lb which isn't bad. Some folk thought they were a bit sluggy. I personally found that they were very slug and scab resistant. And I didn't dig till November and my fellow allotmenteer is still digging hers having left them in the ground overwinter! And they are fine. And yes, we did get blight on the lotties. ~Just bought some Duke of Yorks and Fir Apples so I will see how they go ~this year. Looking for the Belle de Fontenay but thewy seem to be scarce. ~May try Ratte instead. May need another allotment just for spuds at this ~rate! Jak I know the feeling... but you can pack earlies in quite densely, it's the maincrops like Ratte which eat space. I love Ratte - as it's waxy and holds its shape in boiling, even after a few months in store. Potato salads at Christmas... mmm! Drat I've found a note on container growing which I should have mentioned in a reply to another thread... oops better go do that. -- jane Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist but you have ceased to live. Mark Twain Please remove onmaps from replies, thanks! |
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