The Maine Potato Lady

General Gardening
#121

Follow-up on a post of mine from last year.

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Down to 25°F over night, so not our first frost, but the first widespread and killing frost, including doing in the last of our potato plants. Remaining were the last of the Romanz – I had done a second planting and allowed several Romanz plants to grow for a few more weeks after our original harvest. Glad I did, as I harvested another 5 pounds of them this morning.

Romanz, with its purply red skin and yellow flesh, is a favorite of ours. We used to order them from Ronninger’s, but when it merged with another potato grower to form Potato Garden, Romanz was dropped. We’ve kept Romanz going for a dozen years or so by saving our own seed potatoes, but only enough for ourselves, and every year we fear for a failure, but they came through again, thanks to the second planting, and seed potatoes can be saved. They must be very disease resistant, since we’ve never had any problems.

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#122

The Vivaldi potato was developed in the Netherlands and introduced in 1998. Not sure when it crossed the ocean. We admit to acquiring it from Maine Potato Lady two years ago because of the name, and last year, the first year we grew it, we were disappointed. But we persevered, and the results this year were quite different. We dug up an abundant crop of very large potatoes. The creamy skin is matched by flesh that is creamy in both color, taste, and texture. We are glad we can offer it.

We won’t make any claims about it when we sell them at farmers market (we didn’t bring them last year (too small and too few), but, as Bob pointed out, it is marketed in Europe as the “healthy potato” and a “dieter’s potato” because one lab analysis indicated that it was significantly lower in calories and carbohydrates than all of the most commonly grown potatoes. However, the testing was done in Europe, so we don’t know if any popularly grown American potatoes were included for comparison, and I don’t know if the test has been repeated. However, making no claims ourselves, I guess we can indicate how it is being sold in Europe,

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#123

I just placed my 2023 potato order. From the email I got, the cutoff for March shipping is this weekend.

I’ve scaled back my order a bit this year. In the past, I grew so many kinds that I had trouble keeping track of what I was digging and even if I did keep track when harvesting, it sometimes lost track when storing.

This year, I’m just getting 3:

  • Golden Globe
  • Adirondack Red
  • Masquerade

I’ve my doubts on each, but I don’t see Yellow Haze, my standby yellow. I grew Golden Globe last year, but my yields were extremely low across the board due to a dry summer and me not watering enough, so I don’t really have an opinion on GG yet and I wanted an early yellow.

I know I’ve grown at least 2 full-size red varieties and liked both, though I think one tended to rot. We’ll see if Adirondack Red is that one, or the other :slight_smile:

AmaRosa is another good red variety, but I decided to not get any fingerlings this year. They are good, but I find I’m not thrilled to mess with so many small potatoes, an issue compounded by my lack of watering and the resulting poor growth. They are also much more expensive (2X+) per pound. So, even though French Fingerling and Magic Molly are also good, I passed on them as well.

Masquerade is a multi-color potato. I remember really liking one of them in the past and am not sure if it was Pinto Gold or Masquerade. I’m going with Masquerade this year, as it is larger and Pinto Gold is reputed to have post-harvest storage issues if not handled very carefully.

So, this year I’ve got 3 potatoes to plant which should be very visually distinctive from each other. It should help me keep track.

Of course, there will be a few others that come up from past years. In particular, I’ve got a patch of Purple Peruvians which are about 5 years old. Rather than declining, they’ve been gradually taking over more area. Most other varieties are more sporadic.

I’ll also plant any of the remaining harvests from last fall, though I haven’t really had that much success with the small leftovers.

It almost feels like time to start spring planting. The weather for the month of January is very similar to an average Feb/March. Average high here has been 45 (normal is 38, with March at 49). And it’s only been below 30F on 4 days, with the lowest 26F, far above the average low of 22F.

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#124

Ama Rosa are not just my favorite red-skinned, red-fleshed potatoes, but one of my top favorite potato. Excellent flavor and utility, and the red flesh doesn’t fade as much as Adirondack Reds do. Although fingerlings, many grow to a large size. Yield is decent.

I’ve never seen a good explanation of why fingerlings are more expensive. Since we save seed potatoes, we haven’t had to buy any in about four years, so the extra cost doesn’t seem to be a big deterrent.

The only other all red potato I can think of is All Red, aka Cranberry Red. We’ve never grown it.

We first bought Pinto Gold for the novelty, but it is our most asked for potato variety at Farmers Market. I had not heard of Masquerade. Will have to try it sometime.

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#125

This year I am growing Amandine potatoes.

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#126

I have about 200 plantlets grown from true seed. Fiesta Gold, Mira Azul, Igorota, and Cooperation 88 are the parents of the seedlings. All but Fiesta Gold are highly resistant to late blight so the seedlings have a good chance of producing blight tolerant plants.

I will plant some Kennebec and Red Pontiac which can be purchased locally.

One of my recent forays into learning how to grow things was figuring out how to produce mini-tubers from stored potatoes. It was surprisingly easy. I stored small potatoes in a clean dry location spread out so they would not cause each other to rot. When they had shriveled and started producing sprouts (about 2 months, I put them in a couple of 5 gallon containers of seed start mix. There were 30 or 40 per container. They grew for 8 weeks from mid August to mid October. When temperatures dropped below freezing, I set the containers indoors. The plants yellowed and died down at which point I up-ended the containers and picked out the mini-tubers. I have at least 200 of them in a quart ziploc bag. Most are about 1/2 inch diameter up to an inch for a few.

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#127

I had Adirondack Red subbed for a different red variety last year, and I was very pleased by it. We got hot early here in Texas and it was one of my top producers.

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#128

I’ve always thought it was a combination of lower yield and more trouble/labor in digging a lot of smaller potatoes rather than a few big ones.

I really like them as well and they were the one I thought most about adding to the order. But, I think I’ll stick with simplifying things this year.

I went through my notes and the other one I was thinking of was Mountain Rose.

2015 MPL writeup from when I planted it:

Early (main season)- With red skin and red flesh, this new release from Colorado joins Purple Majesty in being very high in antioxidants. Developed from All Red and a white-fleshed chipping variety, Mountain Rose has become a specialty variety for chefs and market gardeners. A moist but not waxy texture makes it suitable for most uses. Early to medium maturity and high yields. Resistant to second growth, hollow heart, shatter bruise, and some viruses. Susceptible to fusarium dry rot. Semi-erect plants with reddish-purple flowers.

Based on that write up (and the one for Adirondack Red saying it has “good storage”, I think it may have been MR which rotted. We’ll see…

I had never heard of that one, but I did a quick search and it looks like a very smooth yellow fingerling.

I think I tried that once, and while I had some germination, I don’t remember getting any real results. I’m guessing they need a much longer season too, as they don’t have the initial boost in growth from the tuber. I’m too used to “plant and forget” for potatoes. That was the problem I had last year- no rain for 1.5 months means I need to supply water…

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#129

Starting potatoes from seed is a different paradigm. I start seed the second week of January in cell trays and generally treat them like tomato or pepper seedlings. They have to be set out in the garden a bit later than when planting tuber pieces. I usually put them in about the first of April which is still 3 weeks before we are clear of frost. Other than that, they should be cultivated the same. It is common for potatoes from seed to produce a small number of tubers the first year and then heavier crops the next year grown from tuber pieces. Why am I growing a couple of hundred potato plants from seed? These seed are from highly late blight resistant varieties grown in close proximity to each other. With a bit of luck a couple of these will be productive, good flavored, and blight resistant. The rest should still be edible.

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#130

Starting some TPS (true potato seed) this year (or trying to). A dozen or so. Planted about a week ago and just seeing the first few come up. I am doing this because my saved Satina potatoes I was planning to plant this spring aren’t in the best shape, and I had let a few fruits form last year and had saved the real seed. So mostly to augment the tuber-grown potatoes, but also to see if I can rejuvenate this line of potatoes.

I have grown potatoes from TPS 7 or 8 years ago. At that time it was mostly an experiment, but IIRC they did well, plants were not as big as tuber grown ones, but the potatoes they produced were just fine, and they were fairly productive.

It will be an interesting experiment, again.

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#131

Did you notice Amy significant difference between these two? If you were to grow one of the two which would it be?

#132

It’s been almost 8 years since that post, so my memory is a bit hazy on the difference between two potatoes (Adirondack Blue and Bora Valley) that I said “Neither stood out, but both were good tasting and visually interesting.” :slight_smile:

Neither is in my regular list of plantings, but I did agree to accept Adirondack Blue as a substitute this spring- the new variety Blackberry had less available than they thought. So, I have at least an OK impression of Adirondack Blue.

In case anyone is interested, the others I am getting this year are two long-time repeats Magic Molly and Natascha, along with trying Baltic Rose for the first time.

#133

Magic Molly is the only blue potato we grow now, although we are trying Blackberry for the first time. It was darker, especially after cooking, and tastier than any other blue potato we’ve grown, including Adirondack Blue. Because it is considered a fingerling, the price is jacked up, but we save our own for seed.

#134

Bob, Hi, Its MrsG, do you have any experience growing potatoes in containers. If so, do they need full sun or just heat. I do not get sun until 2 in the afternoon in the summer. By the way I remember finding the Maine Potato lady and miss ordering from them. I’ve always been so happy to see the pictures of your fabulous multi-colored potatoes!

#135

Pretty pictures. :slight_smile:

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#136

Wow- someone cut up a lot of potatoes. I sometimes eat a meal of just potatoes, but the amount cut up in the 2nd pic would feed a very large family!

I don’t recognize most of the names. The only one I do is “King Harry”, which I don’t recall being all that tasty. I think the selling point was the hairs on the stems which make it pest-resistant, not the taste.

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#137

I cut them up to plant. Azul toro is one of the best potatoes I’ve grown in terms of production.

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#138

Very cool!

Here is the list I’m trying (Zone 10) this year:

Baltic Rose - new to me
Adirondack Blue - have grown it in the past - produces ok to well but good color
Carola - new to me.
French Charlotte - new to me
Elba - new to me
Huckleberry Gold - new to me
Sapro Mira - new to me
Prarie Blush - grown 2 years now, produces very well here and has fun coloring and good taste.

#139

I tried my potatoes (La Ratte) in grow bags on my terrasse last summer and they all rotted. Not enough sun. I would also really like to grow my own sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving, but I have no direct sun until afternoon, but I have tons of heat. It is not a winning combo for potatoes, I’m afraid.

#140

If you get 5 hrs of hot sun, you can grow sweet potatoes. they won’t be large but a good meal sized tuber.

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