THE TATTIES THREAD 2018

Discussion in 'Edible Gardening' started by ARMANDII, Jan 1, 2018.

  1. pete

    pete Growing a bit of this and a bit of that....

    Joined:
    Jan 9, 2005
    Messages:
    47,692
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Retired
    Location:
    Mid Kent
    Ratings:
    +84,304
    Well, my King edwards have been a total disaster, dug them all up as the tops had died to pretty much nothing, and I got pretty much nothing underneath.
    The plants never did look good, and went limp at the first sign of sunshine.

    Something I've noticed, has King edwards always had red eyes?
    They are selling them in the shops and they have red eyes also.

    I can remember getting 14lbs of KEds from the local greengrocer when I was a kid and I dont think they had red eyes.
    Last spud I grew that looked similar was Cara.
     
  2. JWK

    JWK Gardener Staff Member

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2008
    Messages:
    30,676
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Surrey
    Ratings:
    +45,604
    My memory is very poor and I cannot even recall growing growing King Edwards, I don't even know why I'm replying as I'm no use what so ever.
     
    • Funny Funny x 2
    • Like Like x 1
    • Friendly Friendly x 1
    • Useful Useful x 1
    • Ned

      Ned Evaporated

      Joined:
      Apr 25, 2017
      Messages:
      2,309
      Occupation:
      Prime Minister
      Location:
      The Moon
      Ratings:
      +5,404
      Ahhh :grphg:......don`t be daft :psnp:
       
      • Friendly Friendly x 2
      • ARMANDII

        ARMANDII Low Flying Administrator Staff Member

        Joined:
        Jan 12, 2019
        Messages:
        48,096
        Gender:
        Male
        Ratings:
        +100,834

        [​IMG]
         
        • Funny Funny x 2
        • Like Like x 1
        • Agree Agree x 1
        • JWK

          JWK Gardener Staff Member

          Joined:
          Jun 3, 2008
          Messages:
          30,676
          Gender:
          Male
          Location:
          Surrey
          Ratings:
          +45,604
          This was bugging me, I did grow King Edwards in 2015 in a couple of ways. Firstly as grafted Tomtatoes (tomato top grafted onto potato tubers). These have a distinct pink colour, they were grown in a greenhouse in grobags:
          20151018-PA180040.jpg

          Secondly as normal plants outdoors in clay soil in my allotment, the pink colouring is not as obvious:
          20151018-PA180014.jpg

          Mine were all grown from the same batch of seed tubers so the resulting tubers vary in colour depending on growing conditions. It might explain why you recall seeing King Eds in your youth pete with very little pinkness.

          Who needs to remember anything when you have a spreadsheet and keyworded photographs - although this morning I had forgotten about both those things.
           
          • Like Like x 1
          • Funny Funny x 1
          • pete

            pete Growing a bit of this and a bit of that....

            Joined:
            Jan 9, 2005
            Messages:
            47,692
            Gender:
            Male
            Occupation:
            Retired
            Location:
            Mid Kent
            Ratings:
            +84,304
            Thanks John, interesting, mine were grow outside and have definite red areas around the eyes.
            I'm not going to put up a picture as they are all about the size of those baby spuds you can buy in plastic bags.:biggrin:
            I've got a feeling the seed was naff, never seen anything like the dismal crop.
             
            • Like Like x 1
            • Steve R

              Steve R Soil Furtler

              Joined:
              Feb 15, 2008
              Messages:
              3,892
              Gender:
              Male
              Occupation:
              Carer
              Location:
              Cumbria
              Ratings:
              +3,698
              I grow KE every year, I have to...there is simply no better potato for roasting.

              Redness or pinkness is always there around some of the eyes for me. I remember as a child we had two choices of potatoes at our local greengrocer in Liverpool, it was Irish whites or King Edward, and I could tell the difference by the reddish patches on the KE's.

              Pete, where your Ke's kept well watered through the hot weather? It is the last four weeks or so where the water is really needed to bulk up potato tubers. My plants where poor all summer, never larger than 18 inches and by the start of July they looked pretty much dead. But I watered after that and got a reasonable crop..

              Steve...:)
               
              • Informative Informative x 1
              • silu

                silu gardening easy...hmmm

                Joined:
                Oct 20, 2010
                Messages:
                3,682
                Gender:
                Female
                Location:
                Igloo
                Ratings:
                +8,083
                Not a sign of blight yet but decided to cut off the haulms of my PFAs yesterday just in case as the weather is not nearly as good/dry as it has been.
                The only spuds I have not cut down yet are my Sarpo Mira (1st year of growing these) The haulms must be about 5ft tall:yikes:. They have fallen over but still looking pretty healthy. As I intend to store the majority of these for eating over winter, should I remove the haulms now and then lift in about a fortnight or can I leave the haulms to die back naturally? I had a furtle around and certainly what I saw were the size of huge bakers so hope they indeed are good for baking?
                 
                • Like Like x 1
                • Scrungee

                  Scrungee Well known for it

                  Joined:
                  Dec 5, 2010
                  Messages:
                  16,524
                  Location:
                  Central England on heavy clay soil
                  Ratings:
                  +28,996
                • Vince

                  Vince Not so well known for it.

                  Joined:
                  Mar 10, 2008
                  Messages:
                  1,861
                  Gender:
                  Male
                  Occupation:
                  Retired
                  Location:
                  North London / Lincolnshire Fens
                  Ratings:
                  +3,499
                  Cara for me, best all-rounder by far BUT

                  King Edwards for roasting
                  Desiree for mash
                  Maris Piper for chips

                  I just wish I had enough room to grow them all!
                   
                • Steve R

                  Steve R Soil Furtler

                  Joined:
                  Feb 15, 2008
                  Messages:
                  3,892
                  Gender:
                  Male
                  Occupation:
                  Carer
                  Location:
                  Cumbria
                  Ratings:
                  +3,698
                  An interesting paper and method scrungee, are you really cutting down on your seed potato order this next season to one seed of each desired variety? :snorky:

                  Joking aside though, I guess your intending to use this for Kondor and the small stock of this seed you hold.

                  Steve...:)
                   
                  • Like Like x 1
                  • Agree Agree x 1
                  • Scrungee

                    Scrungee Well known for it

                    Joined:
                    Dec 5, 2010
                    Messages:
                    16,524
                    Location:
                    Central England on heavy clay soil
                    Ratings:
                    +28,996
                    Yes, and some Kennebecs. With the Kondors I'm hoping that taking stem cuttings will leave scab behind [1], producing scab free clones. That method does seem to have the potentional for producing a large number of seed spuds for the following season, dividing a saved potato up, one eye per piece, taking the growing points out to encourage sideshoots, then removing and rooting the sideshoots which will each form a small tuber for planting the following season. All done under covet in containers using fresh MPC, rather than risk infection and/or blight by growing outdoors in open ground.

                    I might have missed it, but I cant recall seeing anything in thst paper about what tubers the plants used to produce the stem cutting went on to produce themselves.



                    [1] I also want to try burying some spuds in moist MPC until they produce rooted chits, then removing these from the tuber, washing the roots in 1:9 thin bleach/water to kill scab bacteria and transplanting. Not wanting to waste my limited stock, I'll get some other sprouting spuds in very early under lights and check whether this kill the transplants.
                     
                    Last edited: Nov 19, 2018
                  • Steve R

                    Steve R Soil Furtler

                    Joined:
                    Feb 15, 2008
                    Messages:
                    3,892
                    Gender:
                    Male
                    Occupation:
                    Carer
                    Location:
                    Cumbria
                    Ratings:
                    +3,698
                    I only saw the Kennebecs mentioned in the article, unless I missed something too. No surprise in that I guess its one of their more popular varieties, and mine too after growing them this year.

                    Steve...:)

                    [Edit]
                    Second paragraph: "Propagation tests were made with the varieties Kennebec, Netted
                    Gem, Norland and Saco."
                    [/Edit]
                     
                  Loading...

                  Share This Page

                  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
                    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
                    Dismiss Notice