Advice on Potatoes

NewBoy2 · October 2020

1. What types of potatoes produce the best Baking Potatoes please.

2. A neighbor has asked me to give her potatoes every week for as long as possible throughout the year for her family......hardship reasons

I have researched and Marshalls say.

1st earlies June to Oct
Salads Same
Mains July to Oct.

Can you suggest others that would extend the " season "

I have space for @ 12 potatoes in one bed but I can use add another 12 as its for a good cause.

Advice please.

Obelixx · October 2020

Have a read of this as the best variety to grow can depend on your local soil and climate. https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=716

I have grown Charlotte twice at OH's instigation and because of the heat and drought here early in the season both times they have been late to develop and then suddenly grown huge and been floury rather than waxy.

Dovefromabove · October 2020

Cara and Setanta are both good baking varieties with a good flavour. They also have good disease and pest resistance.

My brother is a large potato farmer supplying major supermarkets and these are two varieties that he recommends.

purplerallim · October 2020

I grew Markies ( main crop) good quantity, size and disease free. Mash and roastable. Stored since September and doing well.

fidgetbones · October 2020

My hubby prefers roasties. The absolute best is edzell blue, but nigh on impossible to get now, we find that sarpo blue danube are very good for roasties.

I have to say that on what you can buy potatoes for, you can use the space for much more highly priced produce. If I am short of space, the potatoes are the first to go. The runner bean row will be the last to go. Raspberries are especially cost effective to grow your own. We had a couple of quids worth for breakfast nearly every day this summer.

Skandi · October 2020

All bakers are maincrops but not all maincrops are bakers.

Maincrop potatoes will store untill the following year so there's no need to extend the season as such. To get the earliest potatoes try Solist which if you get them in the ground in March will produce mid to late May.

I grow small scale commercial (not bakers) and we start with Solist for May sales, then go on to Folva followed by Dita. but none of those are a floury baker they are all boiling potatoes. However all of them even the earlies will store all year if you wait for them to mature on the plant.

I would think you want two types an early to enjoy as new potatoes and then a high yielding maincrop for storage, with 12 plants I would expect to get 6kg of new potatoes or up to 24kg of maincrop

NewBoy2 · October 2020

Baking potatoes.........thanks for the advice.

Apologies........what I was trying to grasp was are there say 3 different potatoes to plant to have as long a producing season as possible.

My neighbor doesn't care what type they are as long as she has "spuds on the table "

I know there are salads , 1st earlies etc.but they all seem to be ready at the same time over a limited number of weeks.

If I plant some every 2 or 3 weeks will they be ready at 2 or 3 week intervals or do the potatoes all come at the same time.

With carrots and beetroot I can produce a sready supply over many weeks.

I have asked some of my allotment neighbours but all I get is "Well there are salads , 1st earlies " etc

purplerallim · October 2020

The early potato are ready a good few weeks ahead of a main crop, but I haven't found much difference between mid season and main crop. The earlies are to use straight away, the mains keep.
Potato don't seem to do succession cropping unless its different varieties. I only have limited experience as have never had the space to go big. Hope this helps @NewBoy2

Dovefromabove · October 2020

When I grew more than the odd few spuds, I grew a few first or second earlies and planted the rest of the plot with maincrop varieties (some early maincrop, some later ones)... that seemed to work. This explains it a bit better

https://www.ukgardening.co.uk/potato-varieties.php

strelitzia32 · October 2020

So what you want is a steady supply of potatoes across the longest period, and you don't mind what variety or when?

If so, your best bet is to succession plant and try to control the amount of sun and feed each plant gets. So, plant first then second earlies etc. Plant 4 to 8 at a time (or 2 to 3 potato bags), leaving 3 weeks between them.

When you get to main crop time, do 2 plantings a month apart, and double the amount you plant (I.e. Plant 8 or 12 each time). Put half of each planting into full sun location, put the other half into a shadier location.

The shadier ones will take 4 to 6 weeks longer than the sunny ones to mature, giving you a bit more succession. It's not guaranteed because potatoes are hard to succession plant, but I've had some success controlling the crop by using the full sun/part sun approach.

BenCotto · October 2020

Following Strelitzia’s advice, you could make your choices from this selection. Comb through it to find potatoes that might crop at different times in the season

https://www.seedpotatoesdirect.co.uk/15-seed-potato-types?q=Use-Baking

Advice on Potatoes

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