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Container grown potatoes split when steamed

glenysb19TGThVglenysb19TGThV Posts: 4
in Fruit & veg
I've grown Swift and Charlotte potatoes in containers this year. With both varieties the skins split when they are steamed. In some cases a layer of the potato also comes away. Looking at a previous discussion, it was suggested that steaming the potatoes would make a difference but that isn't what I've experienced. Does anyone know if the this issue is something to do with growing conditions e.g. not enough water? 

Posts

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    I suspect yes, not enough water.   They'll taste OK but be a bit floury which is not what you want from Charlottes.  Serve them fashionably crushed with lots of salty butter.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    It can also be due to soil type, my parents in law grow several hectares of potatoes and one of the types that I also grow is very very different in our respective soils, mine come out waxy and impossible to overcook, theirs come out as you describe always 10 seconds away from pre mashed. Another grower here has an issue with a main crop they cannot get them to come out well at all, but their neighbour on the other side of the hill has no issues. all of us get about the same amount of water, we only live 10 miles apart.
  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719
    Did you "harden" them off properly, before cooking,?
  • glenysb19TGThVglenysb19TGThV Posts: 4
    Hi. I didn't harden them off so will try that when I next lift some of the potatoes.
  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719
    If it's dry you can dig them up,and leave them on the surface for a few days, otherwise green house staging if you have one,or indoors. I made this mistake the first time I grew spuds,and they completely disintegrated!
  • myclayjunglemyclayjungle Posts: 162
    Can I ask what you mean by harden them off?  Do you dig them up and leave them somewhere dark for a few days?  I'm digging up supposed new potatoes but boiling them.  Their skins are also splitting, but I assumed I've just been over cooking.
    Coastal Suffolk/Essex Border- Clay soil
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Do you not rub the
    skina off your new potatoes before cooking them?  I always dig them up, wash and rub the skins off and cook them immediately …they’re cooking within 20 minutes of being dug up. 

    You only need to ‘set’ the skins of main crop potatoes you’re going to keep for more than a couple of weeks or so. If the skins have been ‘set’ they won’t rub off. 

    If your potatoes are splitting open when you  cook them the likely cause us that they were not watered enough when they were growing … a common fault with container grown potatoes. 



    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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