Potatoes....all those varieties...

[Beekissed]

...but do they really taste that much different that one would get all these different varieties? Or do they just get those varieties so they can say they are growing all these varieties?

Was visiting a UK garden site and they have more names for tater varieties over there than you can shake a stick at! They've got taters called:

International Kidney
Red Duke of York
Sharpe's Express
Casablanca
Osprey
Charlotte
Pink Fir Apple
Ambo
Vivaldi
Isle of Jura
Arran Pilots
Anyas
Sarpo Mira
Kestrel
Dunluce
Sante
Rooster
PFA
Fabula
Rocket
Red Emmalie
Lady Christl


....and those were just the varieties I read on a little three page thread!

I like red taters more than white and don't mind gold ones, but if I had a favorite it would be the red ones. That's about as deep as I get into potato varieties. What different varieties do you all collect...uh, um...I mean...plant?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Kennebec and Red Pontiac

 

[Beekissed]

That's about as exotic as I get too, Ridge.

 

[so lucky]

Red Pontiac, Kennebec and Yukon Gold.

 

[Beekissed]

Here's a table I found...shows some of these varieties.

But I really hit the jackpot with this site....HUGE database on different tater varieties...

http://varieties.ahdb.org.uk/varieties

 

[digitS']

I don't recognize 1 of those varieties on your first list, only a few on the secon. Seed potatoes produce clones and there is a higher risk for disease. Transportation is restricted. Varieties become unique to the country of origin, I suppose.

If you would like to consider choices within the possibility of growing, take a look at:

Irish Eyes
Potato Garden
Wood Prairie
Fedco

I have tended to buy whatever the garden center has. Although, they have a dozen or so varieties, if I find one I like, invariably, they won't have it next year.

Saving seed from the early varieties I like to grow hasn't worked well. My potatoes have all been in inadequate storage conditions since August. I'll toss the final few.

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

I like growing potatoes! They are my favorite produce to harvest, and I absolutely delight in all the different varieties available. It's like a jewel box to me.

I have found a difference in taste and texture in the small sampling that I have grown. And a big difference in their storage lengths. Bintje for instance is a tremendously good storage potato. It looked as good after 5 months in my store box as it did when I harvested it. I like Maris Piper for the excellent productivity I get from it, although they are never big potatoes from my garden. They are also good in storage.
The fingerlings I grew were a lot of fun and were great looking and great tasting quartered and roasted.
Magic Molly is worth growing to me just for it's visual beauty, beautiful deep purple from skin to flesh.
I'm leaving a lot of favorites out, but I'm sure you get the idea. Some of us are fascinated with bean varieties, or tomatoes. For me it's spuds.

I love trying new selections in my garden, I look forward to planting day as much (almost) as harvest day.

If I have to wear holey socks and repatch my jeans so I can afford my potato splurge I will.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm learning that there are adventurous gardeners, collectors and fanciers out there. I'm none of those, though I don't see that as anything lacking...I'm utilitarian in most areas of my life, though I love things that are both utilitarian AND beautiful.

I'm also frugal...to the degree that it's a sport for me, a competition of one against the rest of the world. What can I get for free or super cheap that others are paying for? I ask myself, and then I begin to play.

Hence my potato choices for last year and this year~whatever I could get for free or really cheap, no matter the variety. This year's taters came to me by my brother, who brought them to us for eating from his own garden, but I chose the biggest of those and planted them this fall...I checked on them just a few days ago and they are rooting out nicely and sprouting as well.

I do believe his chosen varieties were Kennebec, Yukon Gold and Red Pontiac. I'm perfectly fine with those and have no desire to experiment further...unless someone were to give me another variety for free that I could stuff in my garden.

 

[Smart Red]

Red Pontiac, Kennebec and Yukon Gold.

Those are my standards as well. Yukon Gold is an early spud for me. I'm eating them while the others are setting roots, @Beekissed. My goal is to have fresh spuds throughout the summer, fall, and winter. Spring usually finds the stored spuds to be pretty raunchy and good mostly for planting anyway. (Knock on the desk) I've not had any disease problems -- no problems at all in fact -- with my potatoes. (yet)

For fun, I have tried several fingerling potato varieties, a red-fleshed and a blue-fleshed spud, but the first three always find room in the garden.

 

[Smart Red]

I was watching a PBS UW-Madison lecture one day where the professor told of his adventures finding, identifying, classifying, describing, and naming potato varieties throughout the world. He had already spent 12 years on the project and figured he was about half way through.

His research money, however, was about to run out. Evidently the US Government figured 12 years to find and identify potatoes was plenty of time so -- with the help of a new grant -- he was turning his focus to collecting carrot varieties world-wide. (He still hoped to be able to work on and finish a definitive research on the potato as he sought carrot heirlooms).