Why I like to grow potatoes

Potato ‘Arran Pilot’ from T&M

‘Arran Pilot’ shows good resistance to potato scab
Image: Potato ‘Arran Pilot’ from Thompson & Morgan

Potatoes are easy to grow and take very little time and effort to look after once they’re in the ground. But there’s one disease that can scupper your plans and spoil your crop – potato blight. We asked guest blogger Richard Barrett for his expert advice on how to avoid this pesky problem. Here are his top tips for preventing potato blight.

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Preparing for 2014 – potato blight

We are in an area which suffers yearly with potato blight (Phytophthora infestans) and once you have had this terrible potato disease in your allotment or garden then it seems like it is with you permanently! There are still some copper based products that haven’t been taken off the market yet that have some control with regular applications, but if you are against chemical control or want to try another method then this is a way I have found around the problem.

Preparing for 2014 - potato blight

Lifting last year’s earlies

I did this as an experiment a couple of years ago and also successfully last year and have set my stall out to do so again this year. It is as simple as this. There are some very good quality first early potato sets available and T&M does a good range of varieties of these. They need no longer produce the small papery skinned types of years ago, which many of us remember from our younger days coming in to shops before the maincrops. Nowadays varieties such as Rocket, Pentland Javelin and Arran Pilot can produce large tubers comparable with the maincrops and the best bit of all is they mature and are ready for lifting before the dreaded blight strikes!

Preparing for 2014 - potato blight

Early salad spuds ‘Rocket’

I prefer the variety ‘Rocket’ myself. I have found that, in our area and my type of soil, this grows perfectly – it shows some resistance to slugs and produces nice large tubers. I am also trying Pentland Javelin this year, as this has some resistance to eelworm, which we do get among the spuds sometimes down the allotment. Last year I tried Rocket and Arran Pilot, which both matured ready to lift before blight arrived and again produced some really nice sized spuds. The two varieties I have bought for this year are set out in trays to start the chitting process, there is debate over whether the process of chitting is really required and from new growers of what chitting exactly is. It is simply the process of letting shoots grow before planting out and this can happen naturally, like when you find a potato in your veg cupboard that has fallen to one side and been there a while and has a shoot appearing from it. This is what chitting describes, albeit gardeners make them produce these by placing the tubers in egg trays or similar as in the picture. I find it does help with earlies but is not really required for maincrops – potatoes grown commercially are not chitted.

Preparing for 2014 - potato blight

Potatoes chitting

I have also started off some onion seed in the greenhouse, Bedfordshire Champion & Ailsa Craig. I start these off early to try and produce some nice large onions to keep through the winter. Kelsae is one variety many choose to grow as large as possible and these are very good for size and showing, but I find possibly due to the large size, they are very poor keepers and what I grow usually lasts over winter until the following year. I do though as a back up and fail-safe alternative grow some from sets every year. I find Red Baron produces rock hard tennis ball sized onions that are excellent keepers.

The allotment has been winter dug to help kill pests and help break down the large clumps and is now ready for 2014.

Preparing for 2014 - potato blight

Allotment prepared for 2014

Don’t blame gardeners for potato blight

Don't blame gardeners for blight

The potato plants on the left show the devastation caused by blight. The plants on the right are Sárpo.

Farmers should grow blight-resistant Sárpo potatoes

Gardeners and allotment growers can fight back against today’s accusations that they have ‘fuelled a national potato shortage’. According to the Potato Council, ‘grow your own’ gardeners are responsible for spreading the fungal blight that has devastated potato crops across the UK. But with gardeners and farmers alike having suffered one of the worst growing seasons in a generation – warm, moist conditions are ideal for the spread of blight – it seems unlikely that the blame can be put on any one set of potato growers. Ironically, in the past potato farmers were the ones blamed for causing blight problems for gardeners by leaving diseased plants and tubers in or on fields, enabling the fungal spores to reproduce and spread on the wind.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom, says Thompson & Morgan. A solution is at hand for home gardeners and allotment growers who may have experienced blight this year. They can grow Sárpo potatoes. On the official scale of blight resistance, Sárpo (pronounced ‘Sharpo’) varieties are the highest ranking. Sárpo potatoes were first bred in Hungary by the Sárvári family. Their work has continued through the Sárvári Research Trust in Wales, which further screens varieties to select the best resistance to new blight strains.

Don't blame gardeners for blight - grow Sárpo potatoes

A mix of Sárpo potato varieties

Exclusive to Thompson & Morgan, ‘Sárpo Mira’ has fast become a favourite for home growers, along with its sister, ‘Sárpo Axona’. As well as being resistant to blight, they are unaffected by slug damage and don’t mind drought. And they store incredibly well too. Gardeners can expect high yields, even in poorer soils, whilst the Sárpo range’s resistance to disease and drought means no expensive chemical sprays or excessive irrigation.

The chairman of the Potato Council was quoted today as saying that it would be better if people just bought ‘healthy, well-produced potatoes’ from retailers rather than attempting to grow their own. The response from Dr David Shaw, director of the Sárvári Research Trust has been immediate and vigorous. ‘Why do gardeners bother to grow their own?’, he asks, ‘Exactly because they do not want to buy “well produced potatoes” sprayed every week with chemical fungicide’. Colin Randel, T&M’s vegetable product manager agrees. Both men, considered experts in the potato industry, say that if all varieties grown were resistant, blight control would be much easier. Many amateurs already grow Sárpo varieties, but until farmers grow them and supermarkets supply them, blight will continue to strike.

Beat blight with Sárpo

Buy 60 tubers of Sárpo Mira for £7.99 – you save £6.95

or

Buy 40 tubers of Sárpo Axona for £9.99 – you save £7.97

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