Master My Garden Podcast
Master My Garden Podcast
- EP260 The Best Potato Varieties For The Home Garden In My Opinion!!!
The podcast explores essential potato varieties to grow in home gardens, detailing the best options for salad, early, second early, main crop, and blight-resistant potatoes. It invites listeners to reflect on personal gardening experiences while considering regional preferences and challenges.
• Importance of selecting the right potato varieties for individual gardens
• Overview of the top salad potatoes, choosing Charlotte variety as the best salad variety.
• Discussion on early varieties, including the versatile Sharpes Express
• Celebrated British Queen as the ideal second early potato
• Best main crop potato recommendations, including records
• Growing insights on blight-resistant varieties like Sarpo Axona and Vitabella
• Encouragement for listeners to explore various potato types and gardening identities
If there is any topic you would like covered in future episodes, please let me know.
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Until next week
Happy gardening
John
how's it going, everybody, and welcome to episode 260 of master, my garden podcast. Now, this week's episode is out on the 24th of january and I'm recording it, you know, a few days before that and there is a forecast of quite a significant storm here in Ireland. So, as you're listening to this on Friday, the 24th of January or afterwards, I hope that the storm hasn't been too bad, that your tunnels, your gardens haven't been too badly affected and that everybody's safe and well after it. It's talked about being a very significant storm and there's talk of winds, you know, the likes of which we haven't seen in Ireland before, and you know we're a windy country generally, but you know some of the gusts and speed gusts that they're talking about certainly are not common here. So, yeah, it sounds like it's going to be an interesting few days and fingers crossed polytunnels, glasshouses and so on don't get too badly affected. As I say, there's no point in giving advice on what to do in your greenhouses have sort of survived and that everyone is safe and well afterwards.
Speaker 1:This week's episode is quite a simple one. It's one I've covered before, but I want to come at it from a slightly different angle this week, and it's just talking about potato varieties. Now, the last time I covered this was on episode 209, which was back in January 24. And the reason I covered it this time of year is that it's the time when you see all the potatoes in garden centers, online and all the availability of seed potatoes, and I suppose it sort of raises the question as to what are the best varieties to grow. And, depending on where you're listening, there'll be, you know, certainly in Ireland we have no doubt we have, you know, a sort of a love affair with potatoes. It's a staple in our diets, it's part of our history here as well and it's a it's a hugely significant and important crop here and people really have kind of strong feelings and and emotions about potatoes generally, which sounds a bit weird to say, but that is, that is the truth. Um, variety wise, there's such a huge choice now and the diversity in in varieties over the last, you know, over the last kind of 10 or 15 years, has been quite a bit.
Speaker 1:Having said all that, my personal favorites are still a lot of the, the older, traditional ones, as I said. Then there's regional favorites and you know there's areas that certain potatoes do really well in and other areas that they don't. So I suppose my favorites list is kind of driven by what works really well around here. But there is some, there is some potatoes that do well across the all of ireland. I know some of the varieties that I'll talk about. Our UK listeners probably have different ideas on them because they, you know, there's certain varieties Mars Piper, for example, is, you know, one of the, if not the most popular variety in the UK and our US listeners, I know a lot of them are growing varieties of potatoes, many of which I've never heard of, you know. So it's um, it's, it's different in different regions, in different places, but I'm speaking about them from, you know, from an Irish perspective, from an Irish garden perspective, and hopefully there's some, you know, common ground there that you will find useful in your own garden.
Speaker 1:The idea of this one like last year I covered it I spoke about pretty much you know, all the varieties that you would find available on the Irish market and the reasoning for that was to give the pros and the cons of kind of each and by giving the pros and cons you kind of give people an idea of what they might like to grow. Obviously, people you know know they trial things, they try different ones and and so on, but it's good to know of you know a few kind of solid ones that kind of fit the bill. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to kind of talk about it. I am, of course, coming at from my perspective, from my point of view and my opinion. Yours might be totally different, but hopefully you'll find it useful. The so the way I'm going to do it is, as I said, last year I spoke about almost all the varieties that you kind of would find available, and this time I'm going to kind of name what I think is the best in kind of a couple of categories. So firstly I'm going to talk about what's the best kind of salad potato to grow, then what's the best early variety, the best. Secondarily, the best main crop, the best blight resistant variety, because they've become hugely popular, and previously I didn't have any experience with blight potato, blight potato varieties or blight free varieties, should I say. But over the last few years I've been growing those, not exclusively, but trying to switch more or less all to blight-free varieties. Some have really impressed me, some not so much, and there has been some surprises, even this year and, yeah, it'll be interesting to hear those.
Speaker 1:So, to kick it off off, anyway, it's the salad potatoes, and salad potatoes are essentially the earliest ones that you're going to have and they are as the name suggests. They're used in salads. They're suitable for kind of boiling only and then chopping up and having in salads. They're they're the smaller, um, generally white skinned, and they're typically creamy or wetter inside than most of the other ones. Now, that's not a taste that is, I suppose, traditional in Ireland. In Ireland, generally speaking, we would have always liked the flourier type potato, whereas the salad types are more like the european potatoes that we would have seen coming in over the years. But definitely as a salad potato they're. They're phenomenal. They're going to be the earliest you know for your home garden. They're going to be the earliest one that you're going to that you're going to be able to harvest in your garden, because there's such a there's a short, a lot shorter time to maturity, even even a lot earlier than early varieties, and they're going to be, as I say, the first ones that you're going to be able to to harvest and take to the table.
Speaker 1:So over the years I've tried a couple. I have tried pink fire apple, not madly impressed with it and it's an interesting looking potato but wouldn't be very, in my opinion, wouldn't be very tasty. And I think, when it comes to salad potatoes, there really is one standout and that's Charlotte and that is, in my opinion, the best salad potato that's available. Opinion the the best salad potato that's available and you know, most people that grow it have phenomenal results for quick maturity, lovely, white skin, very clean. Because it's quick maturity, you're getting it out of the ground or out of your pots a lot earlier than any potential disease problems you know occurring. So they're always clean, they're easy to grow, very successful and, yeah, an ideal, ideal, probably the best, as I say, a salad potato. So for anyone that's grown in pots, then the likes of a charlotte is a superb one to go with. Any of the salad potatoes are quite good, but charlotte is particularly good in pots. Again, matures quickly. That's a big plus when you're growing in pots and, yeah, it's a, it's a really good, really good and, without a doubt, in my opinion, the best salad potato that's available. Then you're looking at earlies and there's, you know, quite a big variety of earlies here and again, with most of the earlies.
Speaker 1:Depending on where you are in the country, you're going to get them into the ground or into the polytunnel in january time, and then you know, in other parts of the country it might be a bit later. Saint patrick's day is was always the kind of traditional day for getting your potatoes planted, but down in the you know, the southwest of the country particularly, or the southeast of the country as well, where the temperatures might be a bit a bit higher um, then you, you can definitely get, as I say, potatoes planted into your polytunnel or your greenhouse in january, and that that'll give you a very early crop. They're slightly longer to maturity than your salad varieties, but they're they're phenomenally good. And within that, then you have some really good varieties, things like home guard not a favorite of mine, necessarily, but a very, very popular one. You have some really good varieties, things like home guard not a favorite of mine, necessarily, but a very, very popular one.
Speaker 1:You have duke of york and red duke of york, two excellent potatoes. They're really kind of, you know, older varieties, kind of heritage varieties and traditional irish stroke english varieties. They're, yeah, really really traditional, uh, good quality ones. I would find that red duke york and duke of york. While phenomenally nice and tasty, they crop quite lightly. I would have thought, um, or they certainly did, anytime I grew them. So, yeah, they're really good. Or there's another very good one, irish variety as well, and that's you know, that's a good early variety, but the one I'm going to go for as the best early variety is sharps express.
Speaker 1:Now, the reason I'm choosing it is that a lot of these potatoes they can be limited in how you cook them, but sharps express is good to boil, to steam, to bake, to roast, to chip, to mash. So it's good for all forms of potato cooking and, as you know, in ireland we, we, we like all those forms. So to have the versatility in your early potato is certainly something that's that's that's worthwhile. They're a long tuber or longish tuber, not necessarily a round type potato. They're kind of oval shaped potato, very, very white in color and nice purple flower. A lot of the time you don't necessarily get the, the flowering before you start harvesting, but they are a really good and, in my opinion, the best um early potato that you can grow.
Speaker 1:As I say, there is so many other good ones out there and certainly when it comes to potato varieties there's regional favorites, that typically is because traditionally certain varieties grow well in certain areas and then, as a result of growing well, they become the kind of norm or the kind of yardstick that people judge all other potatoes against. So sharps express is one, though that kind of is popular everywhere and grows well everywhere, so that's a really good and, as I say, in my opinion, the best early potato that you can have. When it comes to second earlys, there's a smaller choice of varieties here, but even if there was a big choice, this kind of debate or this one is the foregone conclusion, and I think most people across the country would agree with this. One no-transcript eating potato, in my opinion, is British Queens, and I was on a podcast with Coleman Power a couple of weeks ago just chatting about growing your own food and for some reason we kept coming back to potatoes and there was a bit of a joke in it where Coleman said that he felt that I was probably going to grow British Queens till the day I die, and I'd say he might be too far wrong because it's something that I would definitely. Those two months from the 1st of June to the end of July when you're harvesting your British Queens, you're having your real butter with salt and, yeah, that is something that's just phenomenal and it's it's a taste that cannot be beaten by anything else. Now, british queens, I've always grown.
Speaker 1:A couple of years ago there was a wet, kind of cold spring. They went into the ground a little bit too late and they weren't quite ready to harvest when I was going on my holidays and, as any of you that listen to the podcast all the time know, they were flattened with blight when they came back and I was very disappointed with that. It was really, in the space of two weeks, a really heavy infestation of blight and, yeah, caused some problems and as a result of that, I started growing some blight free varieties as well for the later cropping. But in terms of British queens, last year I grew them in huge containers and they were just out of this world, and they are out of this world typically because they're second airlies.
Speaker 1:You will get them out of the ground, or you should be able to get them out of the grounds, provided you get an early enough start on them before there's any kind of real blight problems. So normally I wouldn't say that it's a big issue, but they, you know, sometimes they can be if you get going late, but they're a really good one to grow in pots again. So, like charlotte, like sharps, they're very good ones to grow in pots. They're less versatile in terms of the cooking, so they are good to steam, they. But typically they're so flowery that when they burst open you they're very difficult to boil, or you have to be very careful when you're boiling them because they can go to go to mush in the pot quite quickly. But definitely, in terms of taste, um, they are by far the best.
Speaker 1:Second early variety and we'll see later on if it takes the crown as the best overall. And when it comes to main crop, then there's a huge choice and I suppose main crop is one where, again, it's slightly later maturing than salads are the earliest, earlyslies are next second earlies. After that then you're into main crops and main crops are really the ones that are going to be growing, and growing strongly during during blight periods. So that's why you know, if you're growing your own at home, you need to stay on top of of blight when're doing it and a lot of varieties are susceptible. So you have to have some way of treating or keeping them clean and that is why over the last number of years, particularly here in Ireland, with damper, warm and damp kind of summers, ideal blight weather, that blight-free varieties have become so popular.
Speaker 1:But I'm basing this on, I guess, on taste and you know, on, I suppose, my favorites. I guess that's that's the best way of putting it. And when it comes to my favorites, there is some obvious notable contenders, but the one I'm going for is records. So very, very, very similar, or I find they're quite similar to british queens. They're slightly later, they don't burst open as much, but they're just a phenomenally good and really nice, really nice potato. They are susceptible to blight. They will definitely need treatment, you know, or they'll need to be kept, fed with seaweed as well to keep them really strong. But in terms of taste, I don't think you'll get anything. You know anything, as as nice they're, they're second only in my eyes to to british queens when it comes to potatoes. So, as I said, there's other regional ones that do really well. I know that in certain parts of the country they don't grow records at. I say there's other regional ones that do really well. I know that in certain parts of the country they don't grow records at all. Then there's care pinks go grow really well in certain areas and hence their favorites of people. So by all means don't be afraid to let me know if you don't agree with any of these other areas. They're they're very fond of golden wonders.
Speaker 1:Again, it's, it's quite a good potato. In the uk I know you guys are firm favorites of maris piper and so every area has different things. Rooster, I suppose, has been the you know in terms of what you'll see in the supermarkets has been the number one selling potato here in ireland for a number of years and it is quite versatile, a little bit like what I said with the sharps earlier. Can be used for all the different formats of cooking, which gives it that versatility. It's typically a big, a big cropper as well, which again is why people like it.
Speaker 1:I don't grow it. I've never grown it because, to be honest with you, it's, it's so widespread that and it's a good potato, but the taste won't excite you or blow you away the same way as a british queen or a record would. So it's a fine, fine potato, not a thing wrong with it, and I would recommend that, if you want to go ahead and grow it because you know, it is a good potato to grow, but just in terms of having something that tastes that bit better, that bit nicer, then it's not taste wise. I don't find it as good as, say, the records or whatever. So, as I say, loads of notable ones in the kind of main crop section Other areas, you know, pentland, javelins are very, very popular very good potatoes. There's kind of other ones like wilja and loads of others there's, there's thousands of varieties of potatoes. Some of them, you know, some of them are popular in certain areas, in certain countries. But just for me, yeah, record, that's the kind of main crop one that I'm choosing.
Speaker 1:Then, when it comes to the best blight free varieties and as I said, a couple years ago I had no experience with blight free varieties at all, but I have grown them now for the last few years and I suppose over time, over time, you get to see sort of the proper results of it. I had immense slug problems the first year. Second year, um, not so bad, and this year has been good. So little to no. A small bit of slug damage again on aloe with, which leads me to believe that that is potentially just susceptible to it.
Speaker 1:Very, very good variety, very nice potato. Looks a little bit like a rooster, only slightly darker and maybe not quite as big in terms of physical size, and that's a really good potato. But it is a second early. So it's quite an early variety and definitely has full blight resistance and, you know, grows well, crops well. Very little wrong I can say with it, but it does seem to have in when I'm growing it here it seems to be a little bit vulnerable to slug damage and as an example of that this year I had in a raised bed I had a full, a full drill of aloe. Down one side, down the center I had sarapowaxona and down the other side I had vitabella. So Aloe, really nice, first the crop, it's secondarily but it was the first crop of the outdoor varieties Really good potatoes, good size, but again a bit of slug damage on them.
Speaker 1:On the opposite side, vitabella, beautiful potato, really white potato, nice and clean, no slug damage really on them, and that's in the same bed as the Aloe Wits that were. No slug damage really on them, and that's in the same bed as the aloets that were getting slug damage. So again you can see why I'm thinking aloet is susceptible to slugs if anyone has been growing for a good number of years, maybe you'll tell me something different, but it just seems to be obviously getting affected here for some reason. And vitabella, a really, really good blight free variety and certainly one I would recommend. Maybe it'll be the one that I'll recommend as the best.
Speaker 1:But I want to chat to you about sarpo exona first. So I tried that the first year, the year that I had, you know, really bad slug damage across a lot of varieties, and so I didn't see the true benefit of Sarp Oxona the first year. So I grew it this year in a raised bed with a row of aloe on one side, vitabella on the other. They were harvested first and as they were harvested, the all the clay was earthed up onto the middle drill. Now we're up to the 24th of January now and I'm still harvesting potatoes, sarpoexona, out of that bed.
Speaker 1:So the last harvest I took out was about two weeks ago and there's a lot of things, a lot of really positives I can say about it. The first thing was that all of the sarpos back over the years would have been seen to be the perception was that they were quite, quite waxy or watery, which, again, as I say, it's not the type of potato that you know that we really like here in this country. But I remember a number of years ago when I was speaking to klaus leitenberger for an episode of this podcast. Klaus said that they're actually really good varieties, but the problem is people take them out of the ground too early, that when they're left in the ground, the the potato essentially dries and you end up with a really dry flowery potato, which I was surprised to hear. So, anyway, second year grown axona last year was a problem with with slugs. This year have left it in the ground and only today, within the last hour, I've had Sarpo X Orla for dinner and I can confirm that what Klaus said is 100% right.
Speaker 1:So they're really big potatoes. Some of them were phenomenally big, I must weigh. There's some of them that are like 30 centimeters long. They're huge, phenomenally big. It's hard to even believe how big some of them are, but they are huge. And then there's a big mix in between, but most of them are kind of good size, what you consider to be a big potato and, as I say, some phenomenally big ones within that den as well. No, absolutely no blight issues. They're the top growth is so strong, like stocks that are kind of, you know, three, four foot long, really vigorous top growth. All of that was taken off a few months ago and completely earthed up and I've been just harvesting them as required now. It has been really successful now. We did have a week of snow and I haven't harvested any since then. So it'll be interesting to just have a look and see has that affected them in any way? But they're so heavily that I don't think it will.
Speaker 1:But the, the, the. I suppose what I can say is that they are a really, really good potato. They're definitely one that has complete blight resistance. The flouriness, if left in the ground long enough, is definitely there and it's, as I said, the kind of flouriness that we like. The only small and it is a very small downside that I would say about it is that while they're very flowery, they're, the taste is not phenomenally good. Wouldn't have the same taste quality that, say, for example, the british queen would, or the record would, or even the sharps express would. So slightly very flowery but slightly nondescript in in in the tasting of it, um, but that's a minor, minor downfall, because every other quality of it is so good? It's certainly not what you know. People would have always said that the sarpos, all of the sarpos, are quite waxy, and that's certainly not the case.
Speaker 1:So for me then it comes to the best blight free. It's a. It's a toss up, then, between, just on my own experience and somebody else. As I say, I might have better ones, but just on my experience it's either sarp or sarp waxona or vitabella, and given, given how good they are for the 24th january, as I'm still harvesting directly from the ground, which typically you're not supposed to do, but anyway, that's that's the way I'm doing it at the minute um, given how good they are at this stage, I think it has to shade it over vitabella. Vitabella is a really good one, early variety that you will have harvested long before now, but sarpoexona, for how flowery it has become, for how disease resistant it is, for the sheer size of the potatoes, is definitely, in my opinion, the the blight free variety that I would choose.
Speaker 1:So to recap, on all of those, as I say, potatoes, in ireland it's a kind of a know people will have loads of opinions on it, but certainly Charlotte is, in my opinion, the best that you can get in terms of a salad potato Sharps Express. Excellent, early and again. My choice there British Queens. There is no choice there. That is the best potato and if I was to give an overall potato it would be british queens. And yeah, I think, I think coleman was right I probably will grow these and eat these till till the day I die.
Speaker 1:Uh, records then as the main crop. I give the nod on the main crop. But you certainly could, you certainly could give the nod there in terms of you know for home growing. Could. You certainly could give the nod there in terms of you know for home growing. If you want to have you know, just put them in the ground and not have to do anything with them. You certainly could go for you know your sarpoaxona there it certainly would stand up. But just in terms of taste, I'd say record and then blight free. Is was a close one between Vitabella and Sarpoaxona, but Sarpoaxona, in my opinion, slightly shaden it. And yeah, that's only a tip of the iceberg.
Speaker 1:That's five varieties, maybe 10 mentioned in total or 15 mentioned in total. There is thousands of varieties of potatoes and by all means try them. Certain ones will grow well in certain areas. You'll get used to what works for you and what suits you. Just from my perspective, this year I'll be growing Charlotte in pots. I'll, depending on timing and how good or otherwise the spring is, I'll grow Sharps Express in pots, british Queens the same, and definitely Sarpo. Exona gets the nod. Again, I don't as much as I like them, I don't grow grow records because again, if you, if you miss a week or you go away for a week, solilis or whatever, um, and you get a high blood pressure, it's very hard to to mind them. So that's that's my reasoning there. But, yeah, really good varieties.
Speaker 1:Other things you can be doing at the moment is you know we'll be, we'll be talking next week about getting started with sown seeds. Again, I see loads of people already sown tomatoes and and so on and you can and they will grow. But I've just said it before, the big thing with that is you have to have somewhere to put them and are you going to keep minding them, keep nurturing them for the next two months, three months, before you can get them out into the tunnel. So I don't see any great advantage in getting started early. You know you'll still have loads of time in February. You'll still have loads of time in february. So we'll, next week's, next week's episode will be seed sowing guide for february, and you know we'll, we'll give you the pointer as to how to get started.
Speaker 1:But do proceed with caution. At this stage of the year, there's no need, no need to get um, to get sowing mad yet, even though you know we're into the new year, everyone's getting excited for spring, but there is no panic on on getting going. So other things you can be doing is, you know, onion sets again, be lining those up. You can still plant all your bare root fruit bushes, fruit trees, strawberries, all of that, all of that can still be planted this time of year. So there's loads to be doing in the garden in terms of at this time of year. So there's loads to be doing in the garden in terms of the you know, the ornamental garden. We roses, bare root roses, can still be planted. Great time to be planting trees and hedges still. So, yeah, there's so much to be doing, so much that you can be doing. And, yeah, next week's episode on the seed sowing guide for feb, and you'll start to see as we move up through the weeks, now that you know we'd be picking up. We'd be picking up the pace and and getting going a little bit more.
Speaker 1:I have no sewing done yet. I still have a good bit of tidy up to do with my tunnel. We've had a week of week of snow here two weeks ago. Um, fingers crossed the storm that's coming this week doesn't do any damage. But after that then I'll be getting kind of set up, organized. All the seed lined up. Yeah, have a good few of the peas and beans, all those things ready, seeds ready. Um, have to do a little bit of a look through and just see what else I need. There's a few other bits and pieces that I need. Get all those lined up, get the area ready, get the all the compost, everything like that, ready. Have everything set up and then once we start getting into february, depending on what the weather's doing, we'll get going and, yeah, I'll keep you posted on all of that.
Speaker 1:But potatoes is definitely one you can get sourcing now. It's important to get them early because certain varieties you know do set out. So if you have your eye on something or you want to get something, just uh, get out, get it early, keep it in a in a dry, cool place for the moment. You can start chitting them out then in a couple of weeks time and then, yeah, get them into the ground once the temperature ground temperature has risen high enough. So, yeah, it's a. It's an episode, that's as I say.
Speaker 1:I've covered it in in a different kind of way before and the reason at this time of year to cover it is that a lot of people are looking at potatoes, considering potatoes and wondering which varieties to go for. If you're growing for the very first time, if you know you're starting and you you don't have much space, I'd be looking at something like a charlotte, because it's just versatile, it'll mature quickly, you get it in and out before there's any. You know pressure around blight and so on, and then you know you can start to graduate then and get more varieties and add more. And if space is not an issue, have a go this year, get three or four varieties. It's um, it's a probably one of the most satisfying, if not, it's not in terms of space. You know you dedicate a lot of space to it for a lot of time, for a reasonable return, but not a huge return.
Speaker 1:But if you're not stuck for space, definitely get grown potatoes, because they do taste just so much better, and I'm already dreaming about june time, when we can get british queens with half a pound of curry gold on top and some acol island sea salt. And yeah, it's the simple things, simple things that keep me going. So that's been this week's episode. Get out and start sourcing your seed potatoes. That's been this week's episode. Thanks for listening and until the next time, happy gardening, thank you.