Friday 8 August 2014

Spuds, spuds and more spuds!

I have been harvesting potatoes again. I'm not complaining about this - far from it, I am really enjoying the long period over which my potatoes have been maturing. This demonstrates the wisdom of choosing to grow several different varieties. Earlier this year I got my seed potatoes from a "Potato Day" at Whitchurch, where you could buy potatoes individually, enabling you to have exactly what you want, rather than being obliged to buy by the kilogram or net. I shall definitely be doing the same next year.

As most of you know, I grow my potatoes in containers, which makes it easy to harvest in succession. Whenever we need more spuds I just go out in the garden and tip out the contents of one more container:


There's that moment of anxious anticipation, waiting to see what the crop is like - and then the spuds come tumbling out...


And then you scrabble around in the compost with your fingers, lifting out all those little golden beauties...


This latest batch is from another plant of "Nicola".  It weighed 776 grams - not as good as the last one of this type, but still good.


I am really pleased with the quality of the potatoes I have grown this year. Even these ones which have been in their containers for several months are still smooth and unblemished. I will almost certainly grow my potatoes in the same growing medium (composted stable manure) next year too. I have learned through experience that potatoes grown in dry compost are much more prone to disease (especially Scab) than ones grown in compost with a high level of "bulky organic matter". I know that some people advocate surrounding the seed potato tubers with grass clippings, but in view of the issues I encountered this year with compost contaminated with clopyralids (used extensively in domestic lawn weed-killers), I am not going to recommend this!


Luckily for me, the best is probably still to come... I have the Pink Fir Apple ones to look forward to. I hope they will be of a similar standard to those already harvested!

8 comments:

  1. Lovely potatoes. When I grew them I would have loved your selection of potatoes. Around here it was hard to find anyone selling seed potatoes, must less a large variety.

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  2. Those sure look nice. I hope when I harvest this weekend they look that nice!

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  3. I've never seen anyone have more success with container grown potatoes than you. I've tried it a few times with poor results so I've given up. But we're not big potato eaters around here so it's not a big deal. Still, it might be nice to tip pot of homegrown spuds once on a while...

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  4. they seem delicious! look very nice!!!

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  5. I'm growing more potatoes than I've ever grown before this year as I planted loads in the allotment as well as in containers. The allotment grown ones seem to be doing really well with no slug damage in the ones I've harvested so far, I may not have to use quite so many containers next year if the rest are as good.

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  6. We grow Nicola too - she's fairly reliable.

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  7. Your potatoes are perfect, no blemish! I'm waiting on our potatoes, I grow them in potato bags. I don't have a lot of room. Cooking is wonderful with fresh ingredients. What are you planning to do with your potato harvest? I'm from Idaho, you know famous for potatoes! :)

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    1. Priscilla, we normally eat the new potatoes very soon after harvesting them, and keep them very simple. I like to cook them well in advance and let them cool down to lukewarm temperature before eating them.

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