Kitchen Garden Forum

Anybody tell me what it is

A completely rotten blighted potato?

The Sarvari Research Trust (SRT) is the organisation that breeds new, disease resistant varieties of potato that are traded by Sarpo Potatoes Ltd (SPL). At its core is one of the UK’s leading experts on late blight of potato, Dr David Shaw

Spot on Peter, This is a Sarpo Mira. The first time I have ever had blight get down to the tubers.
I had two rows of 8 plants, 16 in total, to dig out and the first plant had 6 examples like this.
None of the remaining 15 plants had any rotting tubers and produced over 60lbs

Also harvested the sweetcorn 'Lark' before it all got demolished. Some of the stems had been knocked over & broken, we think most likely by foxes, the cobs on those had been nibbled, we think by rats or birds, so they were a compost job.

The small cobs piled to the left are reserved for the chickens.

Mrs S sampled a kernel from one cob and ended up eating the whole thing raw. They are very tasty

I always eat my sweetcorn raw, one at a time straight off the plant, hence I don't grow too many. I'd be interested to know what the Sarpo spuds taste like?

Had Sarpo Mira spuds mashed last night, they mashed well without becoming just a wet soggy mess and tasted fine.

Trouble is the blight spores may be inside some of them and not yet apparent. Going to have to keep an eye on them

You've put me off growing those then

tigerburnie wrote:You've put me off growing those then

WHY ?????

Same applies to any potato that suffered blight to even the smallest degree.


Actually I am surprised there hasn't been a bit more reaction to the picture of the blighted potato, there has been enough views, it would seem I am almost alone on the forum in not having seen one before.

Tasting fine is something I am looking to better, I'll take my chances with the blight and go for taste.

I've had quite a few start rotting in the storage bags but I did not see any blight

Mine are rotting too, also not from blight. They were once again attacked by slugs so they don't keep well even though you can generally cut out the affected bits you have to use them quickly. These are my Cara & King Teds, last year of growing them!

I have a nice little pile of Jazzy completely unblemished & various sizes (some huge). Nice tasty spud and totally adaptable to any cooking method. Apparently you can take them as an early, 2nd or main crop. I took mine as earlies & 2nd's but will leave them longer next year - blight allowing obviously!

Pa Snip, are you sure the badly blighted potato WAS a Sarpo Mira? Maybe a rogue variety got mixed in? We used to grow Sarpo Mira (and the other Savary Trust varieties) and never had a failure, but your example looks awful! What we tend to suffer from is 'hollow heart', especially in the very large potatoes. And if you don't use them up fairly quickly, they start to rot in storage.

Luckily, we rarely suffer from potato blight and our tomatoes have never been affected in our nearly 40 years of growing them in this village, albeit in the greenhouse. This year, we seem to have escaped leek rust as well. Our leeks have been spotted with rust the last few years, usually around this time of the year, but so far this year (touch wood) they are completely clean. Must have been this year's weather.

Monika wrote:Pa Snip, are you sure the badly blighted potato WAS a Sarpo Mira? Maybe a rogue variety got mixed in? We used to grow Sarpo Mira (and the other Savary Trust varieties) and never had a failure, but your example looks awful!.

Definitely Sarpo Mira, certified seed. They do only claim as 'blight resistant'

Positively revolting.

I've had blight that badly before, paper bags of foul smelling semi-set custard.