Kitchen Garden Forum

Our potatoes 'Swift' which we have grown for the first time this year have grown hardly any foliage and the crop is quite meagre. Has anybody got experience with this variety? There has been very little rain since May, but all the other varieties (British Queen, Anya, Sarpo Mira, Sarpo Axona, Golden Wonder) are doing fine.
Monika

Good evening Monika, i grow Swift as a very early crop under cloches, they do have A very short top on them what makes them ideal for this .
But the downfall of them, is as you said they don't crop that heavily and they aren't one of the best tasting earlies either.
So now i plant them about eight inches apart, to make up for the small crop.
Hope you get a decent crop of your other varieties.

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

Theres no fool like an old fool.

Dear Monika,
try lady christl it's almost as early but the yield is good and they taste a lot better than swift. I have had them by June 10th without protection in Cambridge.
IMHO swift has been superseeded by better varieties which are just as early and much better.
Regards Sally Wright.

Many thanks for the replies. I don't think we'll grow Swift again!

I have changed from Swift after a couple of very dissapointing crops, although they have grown well in containers in the greenhouse.

The tops are small, and I also plant at around 7-8 inches to compensate. Despite this I have had a poor yield, although the quality of the tubers has been good. We have had some very dry spells in spring, and I think that Swift need plenty of water to get decent tubers.

I have switched to Dunluce, and have had a good crop this year. I have also grown Rocket with good results.

I dug up what should have been my Kestrel second early potatoes last night. Bitterly disappointed as they were not kestrel at all.
It's even more annoying because when i was planting them i didn't think they looked like kestrel seed, although in a Kestrel bag.
They also have died off earlier as well, i think they must be a type of early.
Well thats the end of my kestrel home made chips for this year, but theres always next year, you can't beat a bit of forward planning.
(note for myself) Have more confidence in your basic instincts.

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

Theres no fool like an old fool.

I feel for you OH. 3 seasons ago I had some of my favourite Charlotte that half the crop dug as round white and prone to fall during boiling. I guess it is the garden centres that make the mistake when they split the bags into nets using work experience or illegal immigrant staff.

I say Geoff, you're being a bit hard on the garden centres aren't you?

I tried 'Swift' a few years ago and really all I would say about it is that it is 'swift' - crops quickly - it didn't have any other redeeming features. Our favourite first early for the last few years has been 'Rosabelle'. This is a red-skinned variety with tasty yellow flesh. An excellent salad potato.

http://www.plantdepommedeterre.org/eng/var.php?var=90

If you don't have confidence in the varieties from your garden centre and you want to go for mail order next year, I'd strongly recommend Tuckers - for lots and lots of choice, good price and super quality.

John

Glad to read these comments about swift - I thought it was just my bad luck that they are disappointing. Will try something different next year.
Pol