As my potatoes have always fallen prey to blight by early July, this
year I tried the new potato varieties Sarpo Mira and Sarpo Axona which
were developed for blight resistance. I've been enormously impressed.
The plants have been large and vigorous and no signs of blight yet. For
the first time ever, I'm digging up large tubers some weighing about 12
ozs. Hardly any slug damage either.

I wondered whether anyone else had tried these varieties and how they
had had turned out.

Janet G

Janet Galpin wrote:
As my potatoes have always fallen prey to blight by early July, this
year I tried the new potato varieties Sarpo Mira and Sarpo Axona which
were developed for blight resistance. I've been enormously impressed.
I wondered whether anyone else had tried these varieties and how they
had had turned out.

Janet,

I haven't tried them personally, but there have been a couple of
favourable reports in Kitchen Gardens in the last couple of months.

HTH

Sarah

On Tue, 16 Aug 2005 13:42:25 +0100, Janet Galpin
wrote:

As my potatoes have always fallen prey to blight by early July, this
year I tried the new potato varieties Sarpo Mira and Sarpo Axona which
were developed for blight resistance. I've been enormously impressed.
The plants have been large and vigorous and no signs of blight yet. For
the first time ever, I'm digging up large tubers some weighing about 12
ozs. Hardly any slug damage either.

I wondered whether anyone else had tried these varieties and how they
had had turned out.

Janet G

How have they turned out flavour-wise?


Pam in Bristol

"Sarah Dale" wrote in message
...
Janet Galpin wrote:
As my potatoes have always fallen prey to blight by early July, this
year I tried the new potato varieties Sarpo Mira and Sarpo Axona which
were developed for blight resistance. I've been enormously impressed.
I wondered whether anyone else had tried these varieties and how they
had had turned out.

Janet,

I haven't tried them personally, but there have been a couple of
favourable reports in Kitchen Gardens in the last couple of months.

HTH

Sarah

Please, what is 'Kitchen Gardens'??
Is it a magazine or what?
Thanks,
Chris in Somerset

On Tue, 16 Aug 2005 22:44:26 +0100, "CK" wrote:
Please, what is 'Kitchen Gardens'??
Is it a magazine or what?
Thanks,
Chris in Somerset

I think Sarah meant "The Kitchen Garden" magazine and forum.
home page here :-
http://www.kitchengarden.co.uk/
forum he-
http://www.kitchengarden.co.uk/forum/default.asp

hth

On Tue, 16 Aug 2005 13:42:25 +0100, Janet Galpin wrote:
I wondered whether anyone else had tried these varieties and how they
had had turned out.

Sorry, I cannot help with your question !
but this site seems very impressed with Mira ( I googled it after I
saw your post)
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/suttonelms/sarpo.html

I'd like to thank you for posting that info. because I gave up on
growing most potatoes many years ago because of blight and now only
grow a few first earlies, which are consumed before the blight strikes
!

So it sounds like I should give them a try next year.
Thanks.

The message
from Sarah Dale contains these words:

Janet Galpin wrote:
As my potatoes have always fallen prey to blight by early July, this
year I tried the new potato varieties Sarpo Mira and Sarpo Axona which
were developed for blight resistance. I've been enormously impressed.
I wondered whether anyone else had tried these varieties and how they
had had turned out.

Janet,

I haven't tried them personally, but there have been a couple of
favourable reports in Kitchen Gardens in the last couple of months.

HTH

Sarah

Yes, some of my seed potatoes were from the Kitchen Garden mag offer and
the others were from a Thompson and Morgan package.

Janet

The message
from Pam Moore contains these words:

On Tue, 16 Aug 2005 13:42:25 +0100, Janet Galpin
wrote:

As my potatoes have always fallen prey to blight by early July, this
year I tried the new potato varieties Sarpo Mira and Sarpo Axona which
were developed for blight resistance. I've been enormously impressed.
The plants have been large and vigorous and no signs of blight yet. For
the first time ever, I'm digging up large tubers some weighing about 12
ozs. Hardly any slug damage either.

I wondered whether anyone else had tried these varieties and how they
had had turned out.

Janet G

How have they turned out flavour-wise?


Pam in Bristol

The Sarpo Mira are fine. Having said that, I'm just please to have a
decent crop of maincrop potatoes at all as I'd nearly given up on them.
I've mainly been baking them and they have quite chewy skins which I
don't mind but some might. I don't know whether this might change if I
left them to mature for longer.
They're medium-textured between floury and waxy, I would say. They're
deep red and quite attractive appearance-wise and the tubers tend
towards long and thin.
Janet

The message
from (WaltA) contains these words:

On Tue, 16 Aug 2005 13:42:25 +0100, Janet Galpin wrote:
I wondered whether anyone else had tried these varieties and how they
had had turned out.

Sorry, I cannot help with your question !
but this site seems very impressed with Mira ( I googled it after I
saw your post)
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/suttonelms/sarpo.html

I'd like to thank you for posting that info. because I gave up on
growing most potatoes many years ago because of blight and now only
grow a few first earlies, which are consumed before the blight strikes
!

So it sounds like I should give them a try next year.
Thanks.

Yes, I was close to giving up too which was why I wanted to sing their
praises.

I looked at the website pictures and would say mine look like the second
picture. To have really bushy foliage still fresh and green in
mid-August is astonishing for me as I wouldn't normally have any foliage
left at all by now, except a few brown withered bits. I planted mine in
mid-March.
Janet G

On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 02:20:16 +0100, Janet & I wrote:
I gave up on
growing most potatoes many years ago because of blight and now only
grow a few first earlies, which are consumed before the blight strikes
So it sounds like I should give them a try next year.
Thanks.

Yes, I was close to giving up too which was why I wanted to sing their
praises.

Yes indeed, well done.
I even gave up reading the cats, without mentioning any names but they
all say that their new cultivar is absolutly the bees knees and better
than sliced bread, but after (insert number) years one gets immune! So
consequently these new potato varieties never even crossed my ken
threshold !

I looked at the website pictures and would say mine look like the second
picture. To have really bushy foliage still fresh and green in
mid-August is astonishing for me

indeed, me also !

My favs. were Salad Red, Salad Blue and Congo Black ( or was it Black
Congo ?) but 20/25y ago there were no virus free strains and what with
the blight as well we were down to just a few ounces per plant, which
was somewhat silly!

But it does put the old Irish situation into perspective !
I'd be long dead if I had had to rely on my garden !!

WaltA wrote:
On Tue, 16 Aug 2005 22:44:26 +0100, "CK" wrote:

Please, what is 'Kitchen Gardens'??
Is it a magazine or what?
Thanks,
Chris in Somerset


I think Sarah meant "The Kitchen Garden" magazine and forum.
home page here :-
http://www.kitchengarden.co.uk/
forum he-
http://www.kitchengarden.co.uk/forum/default.asp

Thanks Walt, apologies for the confusing reference - I did indeed mean
the The Kitchen Garden magazine. An excellent publication NAYY.

Sarah

On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 18:15:12 +0100, Sarah Dale & I wrote:
http://www.kitchengarden.co.uk/
forum he-
http://www.kitchengarden.co.uk/forum/default.asp

Thanks Walt, apologies for the confusing reference

my pleasure, and no problem

- I did indeed mean
the The Kitchen Garden magazine. An excellent publication

True. I used to read it a lot but sadly it is not on the shelves of my
local newsagent any more

However, I was looking at their home page just now and they say about
availability - "and some supermarkets"-
anybody know which supermarket ? Would that be a supermarket chain or
down to the individual store and its manager I wonder ? This latter I
suspect, else they would have said on the page if it had been a big
chain thing.
I must instruct my domestic staff to keep a lookout !

I thought that it could trace its origins all the way back to John
Seymore(sp?) (*) and the days of the Backard Farmer, but could find no
ref. to that on the site, so perhaps my memory is at fault or maybe
there is another mag. out there with a change of name ?

* the prototype for "The Good Life" perhaps

On Tue, 16 Aug 2005 13:42:25 +0100, Janet Galpin
wrote:

As my potatoes have always fallen prey to blight by early July, this
year I tried the new potato varieties Sarpo Mira and Sarpo Axona which
were developed for blight resistance. I've been enormously impressed.
The plants have been large and vigorous and no signs of blight yet. For
the first time ever, I'm digging up large tubers some weighing about 12
ozs. Hardly any slug damage either.

I wondered whether anyone else had tried these varieties and how they
had had turned out.

I have not tried blight-resistant potoato varieties, and though I have
had blight on tomatoes for the last 5 years (last year not so
seriously) I have never had blight on my potatoes. There will be none
on them this year as the tops have died down almost completely.
I tried to dig some this morning but the ground is too hard to get the
fork in!
The tomato blight has never hit till August, and I think it is usually
carried in with rain, which is forecast for us tonight! I'm only just
picking (outdoor) tomatoes, so I have fingers crossed!




Pam in Bristol

WaltA wrote:
[...]
I thought that it could trace its origins all the way back to John
Seymore(sp?) (*) and the days of the Backard Farmer, [...]

* the prototype for "The Good Life" perhaps

My father told me the Seymours were known figures in BBC circles, so
I think John and Sally probably were at least in part an inspiration
for the series, though of course there was no real resemblance.

--
Mike.

On Thu, 18 Aug 2005 13:30:04 +0100, "Mike Lyle"
wrote:

WaltA wrote:
[...]
I thought that it could trace its origins all the way back to John
Seymore(sp?) (*) and the days of the Backard Farmer, [...]

* the prototype for "The Good Life" perhaps

My father told me the Seymours were known figures in BBC circles, so
I think John and Sally probably were at least in part an inspiration
for the series, though of course there was no real resemblance.

Yes, of course, truly.
Your "inspiration" was an inspiration and a much better choice of word
than my "prototype"

After I posted the above I did a google ( yep, wrong order, I know !)
to check on my spelling and found an obit. in "Smallholder" March2005
here :-
http://www.smallholder.co.uk/the_wes...S_PEOPLE5.html
watch that for wraps,
if it doesnt work then Google on Seymour smallholder (tick the UK
spot) and it should be top of the list.