Kitchen Garden Forum

dear Westie, its a while since you posted on this thread but I've only just read it! You said your International Kidney Potatoes were looking weedy and behind all the others. Thats exactly the same as mine. They all were chitted at the same time, planted at the same time and in the same plot. Marfona and Charlotte are both doing really well, but IK, are also rans this year.

Thought I dig one of my IK's up to see what
was going on underneath. Firstly they are not
IK's despite the bag saying so as they are floury
although the right shape.

Anyway surprise - they were massive the size of
a baking potato so have obviously been draining
the plant. I will talk to the guy I got them from as
he is quite knowledgeable and might know if they
got mixed up with something else but they looked
like IK's when I planted them.

Taste Ok and keep their shape well so not a total
diaster - I will have to see if they will dry off and the
skin will set though or I'll never use them all up.

Westi

Westi wrote:they were massive the size of a baking potato ...Taste Ok and keep their shape well so not a total diaster

Hi Westi, I'd be interested to know if you identify the variety. I'm still looking for a reliably cropping Baking potato (ie one that grows to 5-6 inches and is floury). Am trying Cara again this year but always get a mixed crop and only some of large enough size with lots of smaller ones mixed in. I'm impressed that yours are so big already in the season.

Hi Westi,
I think that you are many weeks late in lifting your IK and this is why they are so big and unlike IK lifted early for salad purposes. As they grow larger they lose the new potato characteristics and you are unused to this potato at this particular stage.
I grow Maris Bard and for new potatoes they should be lifted early and if left will do exactly what your IK have done. This is actually why I like Maris Bard because they go on to produce a really good all round use potato right up the large ones for baking.
JB.

Thanks for the ref. to the Potato Council guide to diseases etc. The leaves of some of my pots. (in pots) are going brown, though when I dug one (Charlotte) the spuds seem OK, though poorly developed. From the PC site it seems I might have Verticillium Wilt - any advice on this? Leave alone or uproot and destroy?
And now for ..... my cauli's, though nicely developed are getting a pinky mauve tinge on one side of the head. Is this OK to eat? What's the cause?
Many thanks, John N.

we have been a bit hit and miss on our site. the two who garden next to me have yellowing haulms on thier spuds but mine are green and a good crop. there has been one plant in the middle that went all yellow but the rest are fine. we have not had the rain and warmth so I intially suspected blight but again to early which is why I only grow earlies. i thought perhaps it could be a mineral deficiency as the two by me have not fed the ground and both are new to it so don't realise that the ground has not been fed with a good layer of muck for eight years that I know of. the old gal who had it before only used grow more and the occasional barrow of muck given her. stil you never know these things are sent to try us. good luck all.