The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: macgro7 on April 07, 2019, 09:07:17 am
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What potato varieties can you recommend to grow? Couple of years ago I grew potatoes which tasted of nothing, were completely white inside (which I didn't really like either lol).
I'm thinking what to plant for flavour?
Thanks
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Last year, which was our first year growing here, we planted Riviera. An early potato we didn't expect too much, so we were surprised that they tasted so good and actually made great chips (in an Actifry)- the first time we've grown an early variety that would make chips. They stored well for 3 months, by which time we'd eaten them all. They were picked when the flowers showed, not when the foliage had died back.
This year we have picked a semi-early salad potato (Charlotte) and a semi-late (Spunta). Note that here potatoes are graded in 4 growth times (not three) and are also graded by size based on the number to a given weight. So the Spunta is an earlier large tuber main crop. Obviously we haven't tasted them yet. We are hoping for some Summer rain- the reason we steered clear of a main crop last year was the availability of rainwater, a problem we have solved now. But it's still a lot of work watering.
In the UK we grew Clara for blight resistance. I think taste may depend on the quality of the soil and the time harvested, so perhaps room for experiment? Ours have had a good dose of potash. They only get rainwater, or tap water that has stood for at least 4 days, as we know from experience that Chlorine kills the taste of vegetables in varying degrees.
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Having moved around Britain fairly frequently in the past, I have found that the taste of potatoes varies a lot between soils and local climate. In our allotments before we moved here, we always grew Desiree. We tried them here for the first couple of years but found them tasteless and unhappy in our ground.
This year, on our rich basalt volcanic soil (the volcanoes are long dead) in southern Scotland, we are growing Athlete, Rooster and Carolus, which are all blight resistant (our place was once a potato farm and the blight still lurks). We grew these same varieties last year and were well pleased with both the taste and the yield. All these are available through the big catalogues such as DT Brown and T&M.
However, your choice depends on what you want - salad potatoes, earlies, roasters, mashers, main crop storers, fluffy or waxy and so on. I usually try one different variety each year but as we were content with last years crop I just repeated it.
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Charlotte or Arran Pilot for ‘new potatoes’. The best roasting potato in my experience is another early variety: Red Duke of York. They also store well. If I had space for only one variety it would be the latter.
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I also go for Charlotte and Arran Pilot and Lady Cristyl in the polytunnelp- these are almost ready to harvest. :yum:
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My absolute favourite is pink fir apple. They are a salad potato, knobbly and hard to peel, but served warm, with a knob of butter and salad, I think they are wonderful. Haven't grown them for a few years, actually, and from memory they take a bit longer than usual.
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I'm a pink fir apple fan too; if I was going to the trouble of growing again, they'd be my choice.
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Golden Wonder But if you don't like floury potatoes then probably best to avoid.
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I love the taste of pink fir apples even though they're a pain to peel. Nothing wrong with just scrubbing them, though, and eating the skins as well.
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I've recently planted some Shetland Black Seed Potatoes, never tried these before. Have already started to sprout quite a bit so looking hopeful ;)
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Anya - a Pink Fir Apple / Desiree cross. Almost all of the flavour of PFA without the extreme nobbles.
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You don't have to peel pink fir apples. Just boil them in their skins as you would any new potato. Great flavour!
Having said that, I would agree with other people when they say that flavour depends on the soil and growing conditions. For years we grew Arran Pilot on sandy soil on our allotment. We tried other new potatoes but Arran Pilot always had the best flavour. When we moved to Somerset and tried growing them on clay they had hardly any flavour at all. We now grow Charlottes in the polytunnel.
So it might be best to ask your neighbours what grows well locally. :farmer: