Wednesday 17 June 2015

Blight-resistant potatoes update

Some of you may remember that earlier in the year I was kindly given some potato tubers by David Shaw of the Sarvari Trust. They were some of their blight-resistant varieties, Axona, Shona and Kifli.
Despite already having loads of other potatoes on the go, I planted some of these, because I was keen to see for myself whether their blight resistant qualities have been developed at the expense of taste and texture. That was a couple of months ago, so I thought it was time to give an update.

The potato plants have grown quite big now. Here you see them side-by-side. Left to right: Kifli,  Shona, Axona.


As expected, the haulm (foliage) is clean and healthy. This is "Kifli".


This is "Shona".


And this is "Axona". This one has fewer leaves, but it has very sturdy stems.


Here is a closer look at the main stem. It has a very odd shape - bulbous and twisted - and it has smaller leaves growing from the main leaf axils.


The main selling-point of these potatoes is their superior disease resistance, and I think this may well be put to the test before long, because the weather is warming up and getting more humid. These are ideal conditions for blight!

A couple of the seed tubers didn't get planted, but I don't think it's too late. Next time I have a container free, I think I'll plant this one. It's certainly well-chitted!

3 comments:

  1. It will be interesting to hear what you think of the taste as that's the most important thing really.

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  2. Taste is so important. You don't seem to have a lot of trouble growing potatoes most of the time, but some years can be harder than others.

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  3. Those plants certainly look healthy. I'm looking forward to seeing what the overturned pots reveal at harvest time.

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