potatoes main crop harvesting..
BLT
Posts: 525
This is rather a pain, I grew King Edwards main crops in several tubs and have harvested about 2/3rds so far. I stored the unwashed booty in a large hessian sack in a cool dry place. Today I cooked up a few and to my dismay, some potatoes didn't seem to cook normally and these had a more solid icy feel and were not nice..
There was no sign of any diseased tubers.. I cannot therefore pick them over an discard the dodgey ones.. What is this problem as I have never had this happen before.. Any way of preventing this happening again would be appreciated..
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That's very odd - I've never come across that - have you grown King Edwards before?
How did you cook them? Have you tried baking or roasting, or was it just boiling/steaming?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I alway grow /king /eds and yes I tried boiling them first and it was some out of that batch that were like that. /today /i roasted a few and a couple were hard and didn't taste good. /the same problem. I have experienced this is a shop bought variety years ago.. No idea what causes it or how to prevent it.. thanks for your reply..
hello, I think I know what you're talking about - I once bought a sack of potatoes and however I cooked them and for however long I cooked them, they had that 'raw' quality about them, yuck! I don't know the cause of it either, but it's not pleasant. I just dug up my spuddies today, and was disappointed with the quantity (barely enough for Sunday lunch round at our gaff!). Don't know about the quality yet, but the earlies were good, so fingers crossed.
My maincrop desiree were smaller than they have been in the past couple of years but they did seem to be better quality, I usually dig them on a dry day and leave them in the sun to dry off, then I grade them into perfects large into one bag, medium into another bag, imperfects damaged by digging e.t.c. and small into a bag for using first. Then remember to keep an eye on the other stored bags which are in a cool dry place to make sure that none are deteriorating. We are still using the second earlies but had some desiree baked and they were delicious, so all in all not a bad year for potatoes.
This isn't something I've encountered in my many years of gardening, but having an inquiring mind (nosey) I'm intrigued by the problem.
This is about the sum total of what relevant information I could find: " The individual potato cells are susceptible to breaking down based on the amount of starch in the potato. Higher solids (starch) potatoes have larger cell size and tend to not break down as easily when over mixed versus a low solids potato (such as a red or yellow skinned variety) which has smaller potato cells."
BLT did you leave them to dry out the skins in sun before storing? Where does everyone store, I know the bumph says in your cellar (but who has one) I have two "proper" storage bags woven material, with blackout linings, but you can only get so many in there, tried shed, garage, these bags are in spare bedroom, but bit of a nuisance in there. I see one on-line site says you can keep them in a see thru plastic bag in your kitchen cupboard, as they will keep out light stop them going green? Have a very small kitchen. But my King Edwards have been OK this year, have done roast and mash from them, no problem.
I keep mine in hessian sacks in the garage and never had any problems for the last couple of years, they last until the end of the year I know some people who grow enough to last 12 months but I haven't got the space to grow them and I always think that if they are hit with blight one year I will have lost a lot of hard work and given up a lot of growing space for nothing.
Yes Nanny Beach I did dry them off, its not all of them, just some of them.. Mine were in a hessian sack too in a cool dark frostfree place.. I have 3 batches harvested and sored separately.. This 'Icy raw effect' must have happened before, yet I have no answer, very puzzling. It means I cannot confidently serve my potatoes to dinner guests!! just in case they are unlucky.. I too only have limited space so I grow in tubs in batches..
I tried storing in sacks, they went green, and of course then poisonous. I only have limited space for storing, not growing. Perhaps try cooking them a different way?
I did, I boiled some tonight they were ok.. I am just wary of tt particular batch now and wondered if I could do something different for the next planting...
I have storage space but not so much growing space..I am going to revamp tharden for next season adding raised beds..Got the kits just need to asseble them...maybe tomorrow even..