choosing potatoes to order

[rxkeith]

i have a fedco catalog, and maine potato lady catalog comparing taters, and prices.
i didn't realize it cost so much to ship potatoes.
so i am looking at peter wilcox aka purple sun aka blue gold. says it has 40% more vitamin c than your average potato.
that sounds good. above average yields, more good, very tasty, and stores well, good, good good.
fedco states susceptible to daunting degree of scurfs, wilts, and blights. uh oh, not so good.
now, i don't what scurfs are without looking it up. probably doesn't have anything to do with smurfs.
anybody grow this one?

i am thinking i want to order an early, a mid season, and a late variety potato, something i can't get locally. the feed
and seed only orders a limited variety of potatos, and is not interested in carrying other varieties. i'm friendly with the owner,
and have asked now and then if he would expand the selection. nope, not gonna happen.
i am leaning toward fedco due to lower shipping costs, but they have fewer varieties listed.
any must grows i need to try?
we bake em, boil em, add them to soups or stew mostly.


keith

[Uncle_Feist]

I'm a sucker for new, and untried older tater varieties, but I also know that Kennebec is hard to beat for an all purpose variety. I personally think it's one of the best frying taters of all time.

[Spike]

I also like Kennebec but I am sure others know better than me.

[karstopography]

Kennebec were a revelation when we cut them up and frenched fried them. Simply wonderful. Maybe there’s even better.

I truly like the taste of red potatoes such as Red Pontiac.

Year after year, the feed store here has four varieties. Two reds, Pontiac and LaSoda, one white, Kennebec, and Yukon Gold. The price is right, though, and the shipping costs negligible. Seems like the online sources are considerably more pricey.

[rxkeith]

kennebec, i can get locally. typical reds are norlund, and pontiac. yukon gold, norkota, katehdin,
and a russet of some type are the other ones available locally. they all do well here. superior is another
one. that might be a good one for fries. no purples, bicolors, swirls or fingerlings though.
price per pound locally was about 70 cents last year. used to be 50 cents not too long ago

keith

[bower]

A lot depends on your soil conditions, what kind will do best for you there. We have scab here pretty chronic in the soils, so some spuds are not worth growing that might be fine elsewhere.
I had a look at Fedco, so I can tell you what I thought of the ones I've grown.
In the late potatoes, German Butterball was pretty awesome. High yield, good tasting, and seemed pretty disease resistant too. I didn't mash them but they were great roasted or oven fried or chunked and boiled for a salad.
Red Pontiac I grew last year, forgot they sometimes get that black or hollow heart thing, so there are some defects in otherwise good looking and some large potatoes. Maybe a boron thing? IDK. Overall these are fine as an all purpose potato, quality wise. These were my favorite for some years back when we grew potatoes every year. We grew Kennebec too, they were huge but... I've always liked reds better.

In the early potatoes, I really like Norland, they're pretty reliable although a smaller potato, taste and quality roasted or fried is great.
I grew Red Gold a couple years ago, they were very tasty, very nice, but pretty poor yield for me here, small potatoes and susceptible to scab.

I've had my eye on the French Fingerlings for a couple of seasons now. They're highly rated for taste and yield, but I can't get them locally either.

[AZGardener]

Hoss Tools has potatoes.
I'm not affiliated with them, but have been happy with seeds I've purchased.

https://hosstools.com/product-category/ ... /potatoes/

[Acer Rubrum]

For less common ones, I've really liked Purple Viking and Mountain Rose. Both are early varieties and were productive for us.

The Purple Viking has purple skin and white flesh. They taste similar but not the same as a typical red. I like them better.

Mountain Rose has red skin and pink flesh. They taste more like a white potato than like a red imo. Super good.

We usually do the standards (Red Norland, Yukon Gold, Kennebec) for our main varieties. We did All Blue this year and last year, though. It's a late season variety that is tasty, productive and keeps well. The only downside is that the skin is the color of the soil and that makes them easy to miss when harvesting.

[Danny]

We've ordered purple viking, irish cobbler, la ratte, peter wilcox, upstate abundance, and pinto.

A smurf could get scurf, it would be silvery or black spots and flaky on the smurfs. On potatoes, it affects the skin, creating a silvery or black spot, but the potato is still good, just less attractive, especially if for sale.

[brownrexx]

I started just growing Kennebec. The reds get terrible scab in my garden and Yukon Gold seemed to get diseased even though I bought certified disease free seed potatoes.

I enjoyed growing different fingerlings for variety but lately I just stick to Kennebec.

[Seven Bends]

I started just growing Kennebec. The reds get terrible scab in my garden and Yukon Gold seemed to get diseased even though I bought certified disease free seed potatoes.

For red, did you try Norland? It's scab-resistant, though of course not scab-proof. Red Pontiac is my favorite red for flavor & yield. Haven't had too much problem with scab unless it's a really wet summer or we leave them in the ground too long.

I agree about Kennebec - great potato, does very well here in the mid-Atlantic. Yukon Gold yielded well but was utterly flavorless in our garden, which surprised me because everyone raves about the flavor. Maybe something about our soil.

[Seven Bends]

Has anyone ordered seed potatoes from Morgan County Seeds? Looks like a great way to try several varieties because you can buy by the pound, and their prices are very reasonable. My hesitation is that I can't find any indication of the approximate shipping cost, which can make a big difference for something heavy like potatoes. I may try contacting them to ask but thought I'd check here first to see if anyone knows from experience.

We used to be able to buy seed potatoes by the pound at multiple stores nearby. Now all the hardware stores and garden centers around here only sell them in the fancy retail boxes. Last year we couldn't even get decent seed potatoes by the pound at the nearest farm co-op, which is 40 minutes away. I ended up finishing out my last potato row with a retail net bag of assorted seed potatoes (varieties unspecified) from Walmart, various colors and shapes.

[FarmerShawn]

Purple Sun is one of our favorite varieties, and so far has not been a problem to grow at all. German Butterball is another favorite. (I grow over twenty varieties each year.) Magic Molly is a stunning purple one that is hugely productive for me. And Russian Banana is a wonderful fingerling.

[brownrexx]

@Seven Bends I believe it was Red Norland that I grew but it was several years ago and I am not positive but it was definitely scabby.

[rxkeith]

i have several rows of red pines going from the front to the back of the property, so as many pine needles as i can rake.
i took some of those pine needles, and put a generous amount in each row of potatoes. no scab whatsoever. scab becomes
an issue when the soil ph is too high. the pine needles as they slowly break down are slightly acidic. norlund, i grew this year,
and they were all good. so, if you can get a hold of some pine needles, throw some in the hole or trench when you plant potatoes.

i should add that the taters that i have, and carry over each year are magic molly, pinto which is very good, russian banana (i think),
and there might be a few rose finn apple in the mix. mulling over purple all the way through vs gold flesh, a red skin/yellow flesh,
german butterball might be a good one to try. soraya has also caught my eye.

soil here is a sandy loam about two feet deep with a red hard pan below that. we found that out when we had a septic system put in. you need four feet of perc. or you have to go raised mound. more $$$$. the place used to be a dairy farm back in the day.


keith

[Uncle_Feist]

Adirondack blue has been productive for me. It's always included in the red, white and blue tater salad for our independence day feast.

Along with the apple pie..

[worth1]

Irish lumpers.