Those six tubers (Yes, I know it looks like seven, but one of them has two bits, joined at a right-angle) are the total yield from one plant, grown in one of my big pots. I must confess that I am disappointed. I had hoped for more. It's not even as if I have been impatient and harvested too soon, because apart from those tubers in my photo there were only two other really minuscule ones, so I don't think that waiting another couple of weeks would have made any perceptible difference. Normally when I harvest potatoes I expect to see tubers of several different sizes, but this plant had only these few.
After washing the potatoes I weighed them. They came in at a meagre 281 grams:
Still, they are quite good-looking potatoes again. Not particularly pink, considering their name, and with one exception, not particularly knobbly by the standards of this variety, but nice nonetheless.
Now what about the Carrots? Whilst the ones grown in my big Woodblocx raised bed are good (by my standards), the "finger" carrots grown (as I have done several times before) in black plastic tubs in a raised wooden planter, have been pathetically bad this year:
These carrots are small and very "hirstute" this year - they are covered in a mass of hairy roots.
These carrots are useable, and I'm sure they will be tasty enough, but they will need a huge amount of effort to make them fit for consumption. I know from my experience with a previous batch that I will need to scrape them with a knife: scrubbing will not be enough. Scraping about 50 tiny carrots will take ages!
So is that a failure? I think the answer is probably "Yes". I spent money on the compost (which was almost certainly the reason why the carrots were poor); I spent time on sowing the seeds, protecting them from Carrot Root Fly, and watering them. I even spent about a quarter of an hour picking through the compost to find anything that might be worth saving. And what do I get? Enough carrots for a small helping for two people. They had better taste nice!!!
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P.S. Since drafting this post, we have eaten both the carrots and the PFA potatoes - both very tasty! I have to say that PFA beats all the other spuds I have grown, Hands Down, when it comes to taste and texture. I have to work on maximising the yield now...
I guess you see it as a failure because you have expected more. This year weather conditions did a lot of failures in my garden too. Too much rain, less sunshine - I had no tomatoes at all. The same was with my parsley. So it is, we have to accept it and hope for the better next season. The potatoes, though, have a very interesting shape.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't count your potatoes over all as a failure. It isn't uncommon for one plant out of many to do poorly and your other ones did so well. Now the carrots on the other hand. I just hope you find a good source of compost. It is sad to put so much time into something to have it fail.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't count it as a failure - you planted 1 and got 7 instead and they are nice size. My garden is a failure this year when I planted many things and barely got any of them back, with some things that didn't make it at all.
ReplyDeleteIt's a while since we grew PFA but I seem ti remember it never produced a huge crop. Failures are when your plants produce nothing - low yields are disappointing but not a failure,
ReplyDeleteMy PFA gave a bumper crop but only in a part of the plot that retained the most moisture
ReplyDeleteOur PFA were a total wipeout. I dug up two pots at the weekend and the yield was about 4 tiny tubers which put together probably would make up one of yours. Pah.
ReplyDeleteSuppose we invest lots into growing through our time and purchases like compost, and sometimes not the yield we would like but I think its still worth it!
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's a failure, you enjoyed them and that's what matters in the grand scheme of things.
ReplyDeleteIt is frustrating when plants don't do what we want them to. I haven't harvested my carrots or sweet potatoes yet so I have no idea how successful they were. I'd just try again with a different variety. Failure is only a disaster when we don't apply what we've learned to something else.
ReplyDeleteI would say it is a bit early to dig the Pink Fir Apple potatoes.. they are quite a late crop. They might put on a bit more growth in a few weeks. They really do enjoy the rain too., in a pot they might have got a bit dry from time to time. Doesn't look that bad to me.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say failure you've got two edible crops that will taste far better than anything you can buy in the shops. That's always a success in my book. Every year there's always a crop or two that could've been better but these are normally outweighed by many that exceed our expectations.
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