New For 2012 - No. 3 - Rooster Potatoes

I like growing potatoes. Some people seem to think that because they are cheap to buy, you do better to use your space to grow something that would be more expensive. I totally disagree, on the grounds that I have never bought a potato that tasted half as good as one I'd grown. To be honest though, I can't remember when I last bought potatoes. For me there's one reason to grow your own above all other reasons - you can't beat the taste of naturally home grown.
This last year, I grew 15 varieties. These were Rocket, Homeguard, Pentland Javelin, Juliette,  Exquisia, Highland Burgundy Red, Salad Blue, King Edward  Maris Piper, Desire  Cara  Wilja, Harmony and Pink Fir Apple - 14 varieities repeated from 2011 - and Rooster, a new variety for 2012. Each year I like to try a new variety and ditch anything I'm not so fond of. In 2012 I ditched Edzel Blue and I didn't miss them. I read somewhere that they were supposed to make the best mash, but I wasn't really impressed.
I had looked at Rooster for a while without buying any, but one day noticed my girlfriend had bought roosters for her dinner, so I cadged a small one out of the pack to give it a try. I have no qualms about planting supermarket potatoes instead of certified seed potatoes, but you have to be able to recognise disease and be willing to take action if you see it. Anyway, nothing but healthy plants this year, and I was amazed to see my one Rooster potato produced 19 good sized potatoes in return. I realise now I should have put something in this picture to help judge the size, but too late now I've eaten them.

I confess I baked eight and then ate eight. They were really nice. So, these will be going in again this year. If you are short of space for potato growing, don't be shy about offering to dig up somebody else's garden. I planted 100 or so potatoes on somebody else's allotment this year. They were struggling to keep it in order, so I helped them out and they helped me and got a few potatoes as a bonus.

New For 2012 - No. 2 - Ulluco

With the aid of a £5 off voucher to spend on Ebay, I invested in some small Ulluco tubers to grow. I had been eyeing them for some time, but they did seem expensive. I planted 8, 3 of which stayed in pots, and five were eventually planted outside. The plants grew well and looked quite attractive.

Those planted in the pots came back into the greenhouse in September, which turned out to be a good move. When I finally dug up the outside crop after the frost had killed them there was very little in the way of tubers, and what there was was heavily eaten, presumably by slugs. Those taken back under cover survived right into December and had about 30 tubers on each plant. unfortunately they were mostly not very big. They have earned themselves a place on this years growing list though, with a challenge to grow bigger. I wont be planting any outdoors this year, but will have some in pots, perhaps bigger pots, and will put some into the greenhouse border. Happily this year, I will have an extra greenhouse, so more room to experiment.