Kitchen Garden Forum

This week it is reported that The Savari Trust in Wales have announced the release of four new potatoes after 10 years research. There were awarded listing by the Potato Council in June but only officially launched on Friday 14th August this year.
The four varieties are:
Sarpo Una
An early main crop with good foliage blight and tuber blight resistance.
Sarpo Shona
Blight resistant and Potato Virus Yo resistant. A white skinned variety with early main crop maturity
Kifli
A long white skinned variety with medium resistance to late blight and high resistance to Potato Virus Yo.
Blue Danube
A second early main crop with blue skinned tubers. It has good resistance to Potato Virus Yo, Leafroll Viruses, Blackleg and Dry Rot.

This sounds like particularly good news for Organic Growers but I suppose the commercial organic people will not be able to grow them until Organic Seed becomes available. Of course availability to the amateur grower may also be some way off.
JB.

Thanks JB.

Can anyone advise what the characteristics of these are, and more importantly, what they actually taste like? I appreciate it may be early days for this though....

Great. BUT what do they tast like !

I suppose you will all be surprised but I would hazard a guess that they taste like Potatoes!
How the hell do I know what they taste like!
I very much doubt that any new varieties would be accepted by the Potato Council if they were unpalatable.
There is me thinking that due to the difficulties with blight some cheerful news on the horizon would be better received.
In future I will not waste my time.
JB.

I must say well done Johnboy with the news about the Blight resistant new strain of Taters. take no notice of some who try to take the P.

I was hoping you were referring to tomato blight.
Very disappointed!

My sympathies, Johnboy. Some people are never satisfied

Johnboy wrote:How the hell do I know what they taste like!

Sorry JB, info like this is useful so please continue to notify us, but can I explain why I asked?

In the past and with some previous varieties of blight-resistant potatoes, I've heard people say that having grown them (very successfully) they felt the taste or cooking characteristics were a bit bland compared to traditional (and blight-susceptible) varieties.

Hi Bicci,
Just to inform you that the blight on Potatoes is the same one that causes the blight on your Tomatoes. Blight emanates from the Potato and spreads to Tomatoes and other members of the same family of plants. Less blight in Potatoes should ultimately lead less blight in Tomatoes.
JB.

Hi Colin,
The report I gave was only released on the 14th of August and nobody to my knowledge other than the producers of the new varieties have yet to grow them.
Had I said that I had trialed them then I could more understand your question.
Certainly I have heard the same about the Sarpo varieties already grown by several contributors to this forum but one mans meat is another mans poison. Different soils and other factors govern the taste of the same variety of potatoes grown under different conditions. I remember Alan Roman saying that the taste of a certain potato grown anywhere in the UK was absolutely awful but is now the best loved one in Australia where for some unknown reason the taste is wonderful. International Kidney potatoes produce wonderful Jersey Royals but on the UK mainland I do not know of anybody getting the same results and certainly not the taste.
What I was simply trying to point out was the good news about new blight resistant varieties coming on the scene. No more no less.
JB.

Abject apologies to anyone I have upset, maybe I could have worded my comments better, what I was trying [unsuccessfully] to get at was great if they are blight free, but if the flavour suffers in the meantime!

Dear Shallot Man, i think we all know that your posting meant no malice.
I'm sure we have all typed things that can be taken the wrong way, even me for that matter.

Hi All

Are potatoes and tomatoes related - I thought they were kind of cousins?
If this is the case why is there so much effort in creating blight free potatoes and nothing much going on in creating bight free toms. Could it not technically be possible to cross blight free potatoes with toms if they share some genetic makeup in common.

I would expect both crops are worth loads to producers but obviously toms are under cover so is this a reason?

This came out of discussion with folk at lottie and it kind of made sense to me at the time but feel free to tell me it is rubbish.

Westi

Hi Westi,
The Potato and Tomato are from the same family Solanaceae. The Potato is the villain of the peace because the Potato hosts the Blight Mycelium which is a fungus that will grow in a Potato and when planted and the conditions become favourable the fungus does what all good Fungi do they proliferate by shedding spores. These spores rapidly infect plants in the near vicinity and when the wind gets to work it scatters these spores far and wide. These spores also affect the Tomato (and the Pepper and Aubergine but not quite to the same extent) but the spores do not live in the Tomato plant. They gaily kill the Tomato Plant but that is an end to the process. Without the Potato hosting the Blight Mycelium there would be no blight in Tomatoes.
Now can you see why these Blight Resistant Potatoes are so important.
I do hope that this helps to clarify things for you.
It is best to burn all Potato haulm because the list of ailments that the Potato suffers from apart from Blight. Scatter the ashes on your compost heap by all means but it is madness to compost the haulm. This really applies to Tomatoes as well.
JB.

Johnboy. I must admit in my ignorance that I have always composted potato & tomato haulm's, but no longer.