It's where you grow it.

[Colin Miles]

A couple of topics to mull over during the Christmas period. First let me begin by quoting from an Alan Romans article, KG March 2003.

"Potatoes grown in the south of England can have 3 percent more dry matter than potatoes of the same variety grown in Scotland. Scotland does have longer summer day length, but light intensity and temperature are higher in the south.

Varieties can be very different in different parts of the world. I have pulled Scottish potato breeder Jack Dunnett's leg about how disappointing his 'Nadine' is in his native land, but it is highly regarded in North Africa and Australia.....'

So my first comment would be that perhaps when anyone recommends a particular variety they should say - grown at latitude xxx. The second would be that big differences in weather from year to year may well contribute to big differences in perceived flavour - eg 2006 and 2007 - as well as differences in soil.

I then start to think, well, if this is true of potatoes, what about other veg? Perhaps this explains why you see comments on the KG web site complaining that 'this year's tomatoes have no flavour'. And what about other root veg? And leaf veg? How does day-length, light intensity and temperature affect the various components? And are those varieties which are perceived as 'good' no matter where they grow possess certain genes that mean their constitution remains relatively unchanged?

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Colin, i think this is what makes gardening so exciting for me. You can grow the same things year after year, but things are always different as no two years are exactly the same.
I feel it would be very boring if i was growing under controlled conditions.

[John]

Good idea , Colin.
I've added my latitude to my profile!

John

[Johnboy]

Hi Colin,
Certainly an intriguing subject and very well worth discussing.
I can give you an example of the differences from the same packet of seed.
Purple Sprouting Broccoli Rudolf has traditionally matured at the end of January, give or take a week or so, but the other year it matured at the end of October. This coincided with the last crop of my summer PSB so I ended up with a very unexpected glut and then no Broccoli in February. I sowed again the following year from the same seed source and that year it had returned to norm. You may think that I had sown the wrong seed but I had sent some plants out from the same tray to my BIL in North Wales and his didn't mature in late October but in mid January the norm for him. What caused this I have not got the foggiest idea but my BIL is 90 miles north of me and lives just inland from Rhyll. With PSB frost is said to be the initiator of the onset of harvest. We certainly didn't get a prolonged period of early frost or even cool weather. I have had to put this down to one of life's mysteries.
JB.

[Colin Miles]

Johnboy, some of my Garnet, which is, I think, Rudolf by another name, started maturing well over a month ago, whilst some plants are still not in 'bloom'. Another observation is that my first crop of Charlotte, planted mid-March, harvested end June, beginning July, was ok, but my 2nd cropping Charlotte planted Aug 9th, harvested end Oct - beg Nov, tasted absolutely delicious by comparison. The first lot had about 14 inches of rain, the 2nd 10 inches. Temperaturewise September was actually better for the 2nd lot than late April/May for the first.

[Colin Miles]

Well here's another couple of mysteries, one of which I have mentioned before and which is still baffling me. Namely that the Robin cabbages grown last year were large and flat-headed, whilst this years are small and pointy - same seed. Then there are the Parsnips - Gladiator. Nice enough tasting and long - but so 'weedy'. They just didn't bulk up.

[Johnboy]

Hi Colin,
I do not think that Garnet is Rudolf by another name because when Garnet came out it was said to be about a month earlier than Rudolph. I have so many different PSB that I have not bothered with Garnet as yet. No doubt I will not be able to resist.
Having said that Moles put a new market with some
strange name which I think they now sell as Summer Purple which I grew and it looks very like Garnet but have different maturing times. All very baffling.
I think that these are seeds originate from the Southern Hemisphere. (only my thought mind)
With regards to your Parsnips I feel that they may have run out of nutrition. I always give my Parsnips a feed around July and have some wonderful results.
This feed is the liquor from a shovel full of FYM steeped in a 2 gallon bucket fill the rest with water then pour off the liquor into another bucket and top right up with water as the dilution rate.
I do the same for Carrots if I grow them in the beds but since my last couple of experiments I have separate dedicated raised beds for Carrots.
This coming year they will be grown in Comfrey Straw multi-purpose Compost. (See new posting)
As for your cabbages I shall have to pass on that one!
JB.

[Elderflower]

To briefly return to Colin`s original post - of what significance is `dry matter` in potatoes?
Does it affect how they grow or how you should cook them?
I saw a table of potato varieties that gave the figure for `dry matter` for each but didn`t tell me what this figure meant in practical terms.
Frustration!
(Reminds me of a set of car maintenance instructions - meant to be foolproof - that began with something like, "First locate the sprocket flange." Aaaagh! fell at the first hurdle! )

[alan refail]

Elderflower

High dry matter = "floury" potatoes which are more likely to disintegrate on boiling.

Low dry matter = "waxy" potatoes, salad-type, which hold together well when boiled.

Does that make things easier?

More information on this useful site

Sorry, I can't help you with the locating of the socket flange

[Elderflower]

Thanks Alan - that`s great! Simple as that eh?
But so important when choosing a spud to grow!
Wish I was clever like you.

Interesting article on the website too.