Saturday 31 August 2019

Potato "Highland Burgundy Red"

I harvested the last of my potatoes this week. They were "Highland Burgundy Red", grown in a 35L plastic tub like all my others. This was the only Maincrop variety I have had this year. All my other varieties were First Early or Second Early ones. I've never really had a lot of success with Maincrops, I just don't think they are well suited to growing in containers, especially in a hot dry Summer. The meagre crop from this tub proves the point:


This is the yield from two seed-tubers (both grown in the same pot) and amounts to just under a kilogram. A disappointing result. I don't think they would have grown much more even if I had left them another couple of weeks, because the foliage had already died down.


The quality of these potatoes remains to be seen, but outwardly it doesn't look too promising. Yes, the skins are a lovely carmine pink colour, but they are also very rough.


Still I suppose that is what you have to expect from a Maincrop variety. Peeling them before use would be normal, unlike in the case of Early varieties where you either just rub the skins off or eat the potatoes with the skins on (we usually do the latter).

After-note: We ate some of them as mini Jacket Potatoes last night. Texture was good - almost floury and creamy at the same time. Taste also good. As a bonus, the flesh stayed pink too - not the dirty grey that some red-fleshed potatoes go!

2 comments:

  1. I've been doing a mini experiment this year with different varieties grown under different conditions. Whilst not particularly scientific the results so far are interesting. 2 tubers per 30L pot.
    Variety Growing medium Yield per tuber/g
    Anya ground 430 -lower yield than I'd normally expect but were grown near a hedge
    Anya MPC pot 840
    Anya MPC/straw pot 390
    Apache MPC pot 1227
    Belle de Fontanay MPC pot 890
    Charlotte MPC pot 1225
    Charlotte MPC/straw pot 850
    Jazzy MPC pot 1220
    Kifli MPC pot 1600
    Kifli MPC/straw pot 1160
    Sarpo Una MPC pot 1400

    I still have some pots of Ambo, Blue Danube and Carolus to harvest and previously have had yields of Sarpo Mira of around 2Kg/tuber in 30L pots. For this experiment I also tried tubers on soil covered with straw but got no usable tubers as they'd all been devastated by slugs and wood lice.

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  2. Have you polished those potatoes? We only peel potatoes if the skins are damaged or we are making mash.

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