Kitchen Garden Forum

Alan, result of our monthly check through all the stored potatoes (which had been affected by leaf blight): only one Lady Balfour affected by blight, all the remainder (Anya, and a few Kestrel) are fine. Sarpo Mira are o.k. in any case.

Thanks for you contributions.

As promised here is a summary of the results which may be useful when planning next year's crop.

The Sarpo varieties were not affected by foliage or tuber blight.

Of those varieties which did suffer foliage blight, the worst for being affected by tuber blight in storage were

Red Duke of York
Lady Balfour
Ratte


Among those which you reported as storing with little tuber blight were (in no particular order)

Cosmos
Nicola
Dunbar Standard
Estima
Cara
Wilja
Kestrel
Accent
British Queen
Desiree
Aura
Charlotte
King Edward

I hope this will be of some help.

Alan

Sorry I'm late with my contribution folks. I missed this thread because I had confused it with the tomato one.

I grew this year Red Duke of York, Maris Piper, Sarpo Mira and Pink Fir Apple. All seed was from the Organic Catalogue.

The RDoY are earlies and I dug them all up before the blight became apparent. All plants and tubers were fine.

Maris Piper [early Maincrop] lost their leaves quite quickly in July, but the tubers were unaffected. Some are still in a sack at home and are still in good condition.

Pink Fir Apple ditto, but they are a late M-c, so I dug the last ones in October. BY that time all foliage had gone, but the tubers were fine and still are.

Sarpo Mira: the leaves lasted longer than any of the others, including crops sown later. By the time I dug the last ones up I could still see where they were. tubers fine.

Happy new Year
mike

Hi,
I planted Dunluce (early),and as maincrop Sante, Romano and some Valour(late keeper)
I had lifted about half of Dunluce (no blight whatsoever) when the rains came on 20th July.

Within days the foilage was showing signs of blight,but I was slow in removing the foilage. after about a week or so I pulled out all the foilage and covered over the ridges with more soil.
All to no avail, when I started lifting the crop soon after,90% was completely rotten,and only some small/medium survived.
None of the Dunluce that had been lifted before the rains had blight,nor developed it later,those in the ground were almost all ruined!

I have now used all of the Sante,have started using Romano,which should last for quite a few weeks yet, but the are not many Valour.

Strange but none of the stored potatoes showed any sign of blight when cut open, nor went rotten!
I do not store them in large sacks or boxes any year, in case they do go rotten and destroy their neighbours.

This years crop was a disaster,worst ever by far.
All the best.

Hi,

A question for the previous potato lovers!
When lifting your potatoes this year (2007)just how badly if at all were they affected?

Quite a lot of mine had turned into white jelly,almost impossible to lift. I used a trowel to lift with and place into a bucket before getting rid of the lot (millions!)far away from the plot.
Every other year with the varieties I grow there is almost none damaged then or later.

I would be interested in your experiences this and other years.

Ta!

My maincrops in 2007 were Sarpo Mira and Pink Fir Apple. I've kept them under the stairs in cardboard boxes. They have stored well up to now, although the PFA are becoming rather soft and hve lots of very thin shoots on them. I think we'll make a job lot of chips with them [tossed in olive oil and oven-baked]and a job lot of mash with the Sarpos, which are slightly less soft. We've just eaten some frozen Maris Piper mash which we stored away last September.
mike

Another update on the potatoes which had been affected by leaf blight:

Anya - still edible, though starting to sprout, no sign of tuber blight
Lady Balfour - fine and solid, not sprouting, no tuber blight
Sarpo Mira - fine and solid, no tuber blight
(Kestrel all eaten)

All the potatoes are stored in flat boxes (in one or two layers), covered with several sheets of newspapers and stacked up in an unheated, dry garage.

Hello all potato lovers!

I have just finished using the last of last season spuds, Sante and some Valour,though small,none showed any sign of blight.
Because I lost most of my crop to the dreaded "blight"last season, I have had to buy some from the local supermarket to try,no Sante there so I got a bag of Maris Piper, almost uneatable, and Estima, Yuck!!!!
It has been very many years since I have had to buy in any using spuds,as I have had enough each year to see me through until the next seasons crop is ready!
The difference is amazing,between home grown and bought in,my own may be all sizes and shapes but they taste good, the bought one were almost the same sizes and looked good, but they would put me off eating potato's.
It is usually Valour that is the last to be used,they may be going soft and starting to sprout, but they taste very much better than these I have just bought.
I have just planted 9 "Dunluce" sets into a frame today,into very fine slightly dry soil to get some earlier ones!


All the best!

.
Anyone have anything to say about their stored potatoes?

I did not lose a single stored potato to blight, not that there were many saved, when digging last summer,most were just gunge!

Planted mine slightly earlier this year, and intend lifting earlier, especially the earlies, just in case!

Cheers

Just a last posting from me about our potatoes which suffered from leaf blight last year: I have today used the last of the Lady Balfour potatoes which were affected by leaf blight last year but stored very well throughout the winter and spring. so, it appears, if you get the potatoes out of the ground promptly when the foliage collapses, it seems the potatoes WILL keep.

Monika wrote:Just a last posting from me about our potatoes which suffered from leaf blight last year: I have today used the last of the Lady Balfour potatoes which were affected by leaf blight last year but stored very well throughout the winter and spring. so, it appears, if you get the potatoes out of the ground promptly when the foliage collapses, it seems the potatoes WILL keep.

my maris piper had blight on the foilage but that was cut off immediatly and i lifted the tubers a bit later and they kept well till nov/dec.
just out of interest how many seed potatoes do you plant to keep you going up till now?

gcg, we usually plant 20 tubers each of four varieties (for 2008 they are Kestrel, Ulster Sceptre, Anya, Lady Balfour) and 40 tubers of Sarpo Mira. That keeps us, that is, two adults fully supplied as well as a few we give away to family and friends. We only have potatoes at about two or three main meals in a week, but I cook a lot of soup with them like leek and potato, broccoli and potato, kale and potato, lentil soup and pea and ham soup (both thickened with potatoes). The Anya variety we usually eat as a salad potato or as fried potato. Hope that helps.

thank you monika very helpfull

Hi !!

This year I have planted the following varieties.
And I hope I do not get wiped out by "blight" as happened last year!

6 kgs ....Dunluce ...Early
3 kgs ....Sante ...Maincrop
1 kg .....Valour ..Late maincrop

20 only ...Charlotte
20 only ...King Edwards
20 only ...Rooster ..Roasters
10 only ...Pink Fir Apple
6 only ....Cultra ..Just to try

The Dunluce planted under the Jeff Hamilton type cloche has full sized foilage, in a couple of weeks I will scrape away some soil to see what, if anything is there!
Though the first lots are usually watery,not very nice!

Cheers

We grow 110 -120 which keep us going all year, and in a good year they overlap with the following lot. So about the same as Monika.
This year:
Maris Bard - 1st
International Kidney - 2nd
Wilja - 2nd
Kestrel - 2nd
Romano - main
Cara - main
Saxon - main
Charlotte - salad
Pink Fir Apple - salad
-------------
Granny