Carlingford potatoes
Carlingford potatoesI know it is too late for this year but Carlingfords are well worth some space in the veg. plot. At one time Ocado used to have them. I discovered them in my local Notcutts Garden centre. Just dug the first plant and cooked a couple of the smaller ones and they are to die for.
Re: Carlingford potatoesThat's worth knowing, I assume it's a 1st/2nd early? We used to grow Charlotte & then someone recommended Annabelle & we've not looked back! I shall be making a note of Carlingford.
Re: Carlingford potatoesI've never grown Carlingford as I did have my favourites (these tended to be the ones with a high yield regardless of weather, and low slug damage!)
Carlingford are often used as "Christmas" potatoes in case you didn't know (you can grow other early variety seed potatoes as well - the trick is that the crop must be in storage for a length of time in order to break dormancy when they are planted) The seed potatoes will be available from garden centres and seed suppliers at the end of August for planting, and supposedly ready to lift as new potatoes for Christmas dinner. However - yes, there is a big but! - not suitable to grow where there are early frosts in autumn. You can grow them in a greenhouse / polytunnel for added protection and will probably do better than outdoors, but just remember that if they do catch the frost, the foliage will die and they stop growing, and if it is a penetrating frost, even the immature tubers in the ground will be damaged. If late summer / autumn is dull or cool, then the plants will struggle and the yield may be very disappointing. I don't know if it is a gimmick but there are always some people who have to give it a try - I have yet to hear from someone who thought it was a brilliant idea.
Re: Carlingford potatoesWe've grown Charlotte in a couple of tubs in the greenhouse before now, using tubers we had lifted that same year. We had potatoes for Christmas dinner & they were lovely but we've not bothered to do it again. I believe the secret to getting them in time for Christmas is to plant them no later than the 3rd week of August. We are trying this year a variety called Sarpo Kifli which is a "salad" type potato but harvested at main crop time so we'll see how they do, thought it might be nice to have some salad potatoes in winter rather than just the run of the mill old ones!!
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