I thought that before buying this year I would ask 2 Q's about first
earlies and maincrop.

1/ Does small seed potato mean small crop? By small seed size I mean pigeon
egg size or smaller, and large seed size I mean chickens egg or larger.


2/ In the UK. which is the earliest first early cropping variety you have
grown?

I intend to grow:
Swift,(first early) purely because I have read they are THE first early.
Arran Pilot,(first early) for their beautiful taste.
Pentland Javelin,(first early) taste, size and cropping, though a later
crop.
Maris Piper,(main crop) I like these because thet crop well and are so
versitile in boiling, baking, chipping and keep well.

I haven't mentioned disease resistence and have had scab with the P.J. and
M.P. last year. Could be due to watering?

This year I am planting area 8m by 6m (big area to me) so I would like to
hear any views/ criticism or general help.

Thanks
Baz

On Jan 5, 12:36*pm, Baz wrote:
I thought that before buying this year I would ask 2 Q's about first
earlies and maincrop.

1/ Does small seed potato mean small crop? By small seed size I mean pigeon
egg size or smaller, and large seed size I mean chickens egg or larger. *

2/ In the UK. which is the earliest first early cropping variety you have
grown?

I intend to grow:
Swift,(first early) purely because I have read they are THE first early.
Arran Pilot,(first early) for their beautiful taste.
Pentland Javelin,(first early) taste, size and cropping, though a later
crop.
Maris Piper,(main crop) I like these because thet crop well and are so
versitile in boiling, baking, chipping and keep well.

I haven't mentioned disease resistence and have had scab with the P.J. and
M.P. last year. Could be due to watering?

This year I am planting area 8m by 6m (big area to me) so I would like to
hear any views/ criticism or general help.

Thanks
Baz * * *

What happens is this.
You plant all your potatos at whatever time you deem fit. (A seperate
topic)You can dig the "earlies" up sooner than the "main" crop.
The earlies have fewer potatoes but they form sooner than the main
crop.
If you were to dig up the main crop early, there would be lots of
little potatoes.

The main point being you don't plant the earlies early. You get a crop
of decent sized potatoes early. But less of them then main crop
varieties.

Same applies with seconds for an intermediate crop.

The traditional time for planting out was Good Friday but his is
********.

You can sprout them indoors in a cool light frost free place which
allegedly gives them a start over unsprouted.

No lime. Light soils are best. hoe up to cover developing spuds.

Watch out for blight, your main enemy(Warm damp weather June or July.
Ask e appearance of early symptoms. Can be sprayed if caught early. If
not, dig up before the blight spreads from leaves to tubers.
That's it.

On Jan 5, 12:36*pm, Baz wrote:
I thought that before buying this year I would ask 2 Q's about first
earlies and maincrop.

1/ Does small seed potato mean small crop? By small seed size I mean pigeon
egg size or smaller, and large seed size I mean chickens egg or larger. *

2/ In the UK. which is the earliest first early cropping variety you have
grown?

I intend to grow:
Swift,(first early) purely because I have read they are THE first early.
Arran Pilot,(first early) for their beautiful taste.
Pentland Javelin,(first early) taste, size and cropping, though a later
crop.
Maris Piper,(main crop) I like these because thet crop well and are so
versitile in boiling, baking, chipping and keep well.

I haven't mentioned disease resistence and have had scab with the P.J. and
M.P. last year. Could be due to watering?

This year I am planting area 8m by 6m (big area to me) so I would like to
hear any views/ criticism or general help.

Thanks
Baz * * *

Ideal size for seed pots is egg size. But IME makes little diffence to
crop size.

harry wrote in
:

On Jan 5, 12:36*pm, Baz wrote:
I thought that before buying this year I would ask 2 Q's about first
earlies and maincrop.

1/ Does small seed potato mean small crop? By small seed size I mean
pige
on
egg size or smaller, and large seed size I mean chickens egg or
larger.
*

2/ In the UK. which is the earliest first early cropping variety you
have grown?

I intend to grow:
Swift,(first early) purely because I have read they are THE first
early. Arran Pilot,(first early) for their beautiful taste.
Pentland Javelin,(first early) taste, size and cropping, though a
later crop.
Maris Piper,(main crop) I like these because thet crop well and are
so versitile in boiling, baking, chipping and keep well.

I haven't mentioned disease resistence and have had scab with the
P.J. an
d
M.P. last year. Could be due to watering?

This year I am planting area 8m by 6m (big area to me) so I would
like to hear any views/ criticism or general help.

Thanks
Baz * * *

Ideal size for seed pots is egg size. But IME makes little diffence to
crop size.

Egg size eh!
Could never beleive it!

Baz(confused Baz)

harry wrote:
We have tried Romano, not much luck, but not Victoria, so I will buy a
sample or 2. Looked at Victoria on web and has properties we want.
We had Kestrel one year. Absolutely tasteless.

Just goes to show. Kestrel are one of our favourites. Tasty /and/ pretty.
Make great mashed potato.

Bob Hobden wrote:
So far Victoria (MC) has passed the test as has Kestrel (SE), and Mayan
Twilight proved excellent for saut? and as a salad, but still looking for a
good early or two and a red maincrop although Romano did well a couple of
years ago but we couldn't find any "seed" last year.

We had BellaRosa a few years ago, and they were absolutely lovely,
especially when roasted. But we've not been able to find them again.

Vicky wrote...

Bob Hobden wrote:
So far Victoria (MC) has passed the test as has Kestrel (SE), and Mayan
Twilight proved excellent for saut? and as a salad, but still looking for
a
good early or two and a red maincrop although Romano did well a couple of
years ago but we couldn't find any "seed" last year.

We had BellaRosa a few years ago, and they were absolutely lovely,
especially when roasted. But we've not been able to find them again.

Looks like it isn't going to be available this year either....
http://www.charlton-park.co.uk/potatoes.html

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

In message , Bob Hobden
writes


Vicky wrote...

Bob Hobden wrote:
So far Victoria (MC) has passed the test as has Kestrel (SE), and Mayan
Twilight proved excellent for saut? and as a salad, but still looking
for a
good early or two and a red maincrop although Romano did well a couple of
years ago but we couldn't find any "seed" last year.

We had BellaRosa a few years ago, and they were absolutely lovely,
especially when roasted. But we've not been able to find them again.

Looks like it isn't going to be available this year either....
http://www.charlton-park.co.uk/potatoes.html


It's coming up to the time of year for the various Potato Days held in
mainly rural areas. FWIW there's the 4th Annual Potato Day at Drimpton,
West Dorset on Saturday 12th February 2011.... that's between Chard and
Beaminster (SatNav DT8 3RF).... 1030 - 1530.

If this is considered spam I apologise - not meant to be. If you're into
spuds these days are excellent and very interesting. There will b. c. 70
types of seed potatoes available along with expert help/advice.
--
Gopher .... I know my place!

Gopher wrote:
Looks like it isn't going to be available this year either....
http://www.charlton-park.co.uk/potatoes.html

It's coming up to the time of year for the various Potato Days held in
mainly rural areas. FWIW there's the 4th Annual Potato Day at Drimpton,
West Dorset on Saturday 12th February 2011.... that's between Chard and
Beaminster (SatNav DT8 3RF).... 1030 - 1530.

If this is considered spam I apologise - not meant to be. If you're into
spuds these days are excellent and very interesting. There will b. c. 70
types of seed potatoes available along with expert help/advice.

Cheers - we usually go to the Hampshire one, but it's a long day out, and
Nick always wants to try a different one. I'll note down yours and work out
if it's any 'better' to get to. Seems a bit late, I think the others tend
to be end of Jan!

"Bob Hobden" wrote in
:

Saw one lady buy one of lots of varieties one year and put them all in the
same plastic bag which I though was a bit silly as she won't know the name
of anything when choosing for the next season.

My first year at veg. gardening went to a market to buy some seed potatoes
and bought 3 varieties, Arran Pilot and others which I can't remember the
names. They were put into plastic "asda" type bags and on the long trek
back to the car one bag split open so my son in his wisedom put them on top
of the 2 other bags which also split. When we managed to beg a bag to put
them into they were mixed up as you can imagine.
We arrived home all muddy and put them on egg boxes and the like not
knowing one from the other. A few days later they were sprouting and could
see 3 different colours on the shoots. Black, red and green.

We organised them by colour, nearly 200 seed potatoes.
They were so cheap to buy I think thats why we bought loads.

My uncle came to visit us and told us the black ones are Arran Pilot, the
green ones etc.

That was 2007 and the whole lot cost less than 5 quid.
Baz

alan.holmes wrote:
But will they just send 8 of each variety?

I have a lot of trouble trying to find places where they sell seed potatoes
individually, the packs have far too many seeds for me.

Alan - if you can't find anyone else, give me a prod nearer the time of the
potato days and I'll let you know which we're going to, and you can make an
order that I can pick out for you and post on, if you like.

In article , Bob Hobden
writes
Goodness knows, we only grow a few of one or two earlies tending to
grow more Kestral (SE) and Victoria and Romano maincrop. This year we
are trying Belle de Fontenay and probably Foremost buy haven't been
happy with any we have grown on this site so far.


I think Charlotte are the most versatile I've grown, they can be dug up
early and small or left to get large.

Doesn't seem to get blight too early either.
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

In article , alan.holmes
writes
But will they just send 8 of each variety?

I have a lot of trouble trying to find places where they sell seed potatoes
individually, the packs have far too many seeds for me.


Many garden centres etc. will sell a 'bag' of potatoes at this time of
year. So we go armed with plastic bags and sticky labels. |Put 3 of one
variety in a plastic bag, name it and put in paper bag supplied by GC.
then take three or four of something else and do likewise. We can end up
with about 4 varieties of potatoes all in plastic bags but in the
original paper bag . They never seem to mind!

Janet
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

wrote in message
...
alan.holmes wrote:
But will they just send 8 of each variety?

I have a lot of trouble trying to find places where they sell seed
potatoes
individually, the packs have far too many seeds for me.

Alan - if you can't find anyone else, give me a prod nearer the time of
the
potato days and I'll let you know which we're going to, and you can make
an
order that I can pick out for you and post on, if you like.

That is very kind of you, the only ones I could not see were main crop, if I
do not see any soon I will let you know!

Alan

"Janet Tweedy" wrote in message
...
In article , alan.holmes
writes
But will they just send 8 of each variety?

I have a lot of trouble trying to find places where they sell seed
potatoes
individually, the packs have far too many seeds for me.


Many garden centres etc. will sell a 'bag' of potatoes at this time of
year. So we go armed with plastic bags and sticky labels. |Put 3 of one
variety in a plastic bag, name it and put in paper bag supplied by GC.
then take three or four of something else and do likewise. We can end up
with about 4 varieties of potatoes all in plastic bags but in the original
paper bag . They never seem to mind!

I have done that in the past, but the nearest place that does that is about
10 miles away!

Alan




Janet
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk