Potatoes/suitability/BLIGHT!

[MINESAPINT]

Hi, Just joined the forum.

Thought it might be timely to start a discussion on potato varieties, their suitability for various cooking methods & their susceptibility to disease - mainly blight.

There are plenty of web sites giving advice on blight resistant varieties and some advice is in fact contradictory. Whether a particular variety will succumb to blight in a particular season in a particular location I imagine will never be an exact science. I am particularly interested in growing a good mashing potato & a variety that will produce first class chips, brown & crispy.

I grow 4 varities every year on the same plot and do notice substantial differences in blight resistance & suitability in the kitchen. From memory this is my recent experience.

Last year I grew Winston, Pentland Dell, Valor & Kestrel. About 30 sets of each.

The Kestrel were affected by blight to some extent & I probably lost 20% of the crop. However I found them to be a first class chipper & we finished them off before christmas. Will grow again.

I still have plenty of the other varieties in storage.

Pentland Dell. Slight blight. Very good for chips. Will grow again.

Valor. Second year I have grown these. No blight. Excellent for mashing. Huge crop. Totally useless for chips. Will grow again.

Winston. No blight. Big crop. Slugs love them but I don't! When they are mashed they instantly turn very watery. The first time I did this I thought I did not drain them properly but in experimental conditions the same happens. Will not grow again.

Memories from previous years:

Edzal Blue. Decimated by blight but the few I managed to rescue from the crop made chips to die for.

King Edwards. Crop grew up out of the ground with many turning green. Badly affected by blight.

Cara. As far as I can remember not a big issue with blight. Good for mash but no good for chips.

I find Crisp n Dry good for chips and always double fry them.

I do strongly believe that variety selection is paramount when trying to beat disease and particularly so if you do not seek solutions to problems in little bottles.

Can anyone else recall their experiences which might help in decisions about which varieties of sets we will purchase in the next few weeks. Assuming UK of course.

Thanks

[old tree man]

Hi and welcome
If you are growing any crop in the same location constantly that particular crop will get diseased, because you keep taking the same nutrients year after year out of the ground and building up the same diseases year after year, the pests overwinter in the ground and wake up in spring to find the same crop and the attack starts again, that is why we have crop rotation, so the pests and diseases cannot build up.
I tend to grow diseree, a lovely red skinned pot, great for baking and makes light and fluffy mash, easy to grow heavy cropper and the whole family love it.
all the best

Russ

[red]

hi minesapint, welcome
last year I grew arun pilot.. it got pretty blighty
and desiree,, which also got it, but not as bad as the other.. and we got the crop in.
having said that.. last year was a terrible year for blight, and most went down with it

this year we are aiming for desiree, carla and valor.

[guyandzoe]

Its years since I did this professionally but do not National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) in Cambridge still do Uk official trials for EU listing. They used to publish official results and recommendations which were ace. I havent searched for their website but it might help.....

[MINESAPINT]

Thanks Guyandzoe,

I have come across NIAB but can only find a sample selection of varieties listed. Perhaps you have to subscribe for the comprehensive list. However I have searched under "Potato Blight League Table" and have a result.

Blight resistance is categorised by numbers 1 to 9. 9 being the most resistant. The only potatoes to score 9 are the new SARPO.

Next category 8 - Verity & Midas. (Very resistant).

Next category 7 - Orla, Lady Balfour, Stirling, Remarka, Robinta, Cara, Red Cara, Avondale, Pomeroy & Cosmos. (Resistant).

Categories below this are more susceptible to blight and organic growers should be encouraged to make their selection from the above list. Additionally it appears that a varieties susceptibility to blight can change over the years. Pentland Dell once classed as resistant is now classed as slightly resistant for example.

The problem is the site does not indicate the suitability of any of the above varieties for chipping, mashing, baking etc. so although I feel I have made some progress on the blight front the search is still on for culinary purposes.