Kitchen Garden Forum

I have grown Maris Bard for the first time, I was quite pleased with the yield and its resilience to the summer conditions. However quite a number of them have what appears to be hollow heart.

Hessayon states that it is due to prolonged wet after a period of drought, did I miss the dry period?
Seriously though, could it be anything else and are M.B. prone? It is a shame really because they mash up beautifully.

Hello Wigbag
I've noticed this before when the tubers have become very large. I agree with Hessayon (I wouldn't dare to disagree with him would I?) and have always put it down to growing conditions.
I don't think you can win with potatoes - it always seems to be too hot or too cold or too wet or too dry so that they get some condition or other. Mine usually get scab quite badly but with this year's wet weather they are amazingly clean-skinned but the wet has encouraged to slugs. With most of these conditions it doesn't seem to affect the eating quality.

John

Hi WigBag,
I always grow Maris Bard and have done for many years and I suppose occasionally I have had a few with Hollow Heart but it is the exception rather than the rule. I think that it is as John says it generally occurs in tubers that have been in the ground too long. To me Maris Bard are the perfect New Potato but if left they do grow surprisingly large and I think that it is only then that you run into difficulties. Used as a new potato I do not ever recall any hollow heart being present in the crop.
JB.

thanks for the replies guys, I bought Maris Bard after I had lost a load of Charlotte I was chitting to a bad frost in my lottie shed. I was limited in replacing them as it was quite late, so remembering the commendations here bought them and just chucked them in. I hadn't realised that they were an early so treated them as a main crop.

cheers

Hi WiGbaG,
Maris Bard are actually a second early and they do make quite a good main crop as on occasions my crop could not be dug due to health reasons. The properties are very similar to Maris Piper. The early Maris variety is Maris Peer. All the Maris varieties have run the test of time and to me are a superb range.
JB.