Kestrel Potato Harvest & Tomatoes

We’ve both been really busy over the last week, so not a lot of time for the allotment. Val’s been updating the seeds section of the allotment shop as well as the cookware and I’ve been installing some software on the National Vegetable Society website. This should have taken me about a day but, so far, it’s taken 4 days and I’m still not finished. Plus all the other bits I need to do to keep the corporate empire going. Still, that’s the benefit of the allotment, it lets me wind down and re-connect with the world.

Canadian Tomatoes

I’ve popped up a couple of times to water in the large greenhouses and collect ripe tomatoes. My friend Gloria in Canada sent me some seeds this year and regularly tells me how things are going in her garden. In one letter she mentioned using 2×1 stakes for her tomatoes rather than the bamboo stakes we use. Now I know why!

Went in one day to find the stakes had broken on a couple of plants. The sheer weight of plant and fruit was too much for bamboo. One of the varieties she sent, Jaune Flamme, is wonderfully productive. Golf ball sized tasty fruits and lots (I mean lots) of them.

Gloria saves her own seed and has agreed to write some articles on seed saving for the web site. I hope to save some of the Jaune Flamme and Yellow Pear as they’re lovely for myself. Anyway, support system reinforced.

Runner and French Beans

The beans are doing well this year, when I look back to last year where everything was drowning, I can hardly believe it’s the same country, let alone plot. Our freezers are nearly full and the harvesting is hardly near the end.

Our food storage factory is in full swing, Val preparing, me blanching and then to the freezer. The good news? is that my mother is moving and is donating a freezer to us. The bad news is that makes 4 freezers for the two of us.

We were wondering how ‘green’ that makes us but our feeling is that the carbon savings in food miles and so forth are worth the extra electricity costs. Two of our current freezers are A rated – efficient and power misers. The third, the oldest, freezer has a savaplug so reducing power consumption. Mum’s freezer is pretty new and I think A rated as well.

Kestrel Potatoes Harvested

This year seems to have been a really good year for the potatoes, despite some blight striking. The haulm (foliage) was cut off the second early Kestrel and the maincrop Valor but the Sarpo is immune and just carries on.

I’d got 2 rows of Kestrel and dug them up yesterday. They’re fantastic. Larry had been round saying they were good chippers. They’re actually a really good all round potato – see my potato varieties page.

For a start, they’ve produced a huge crop from the space. Six very full carrier bags or a very heaped wheelbarrow full. Not sure in terms of weight, but heavy.

Secondly the quality is brilliant. Large potatoes with very few marbles. I like large potatoes, far less fuss when preparing to peel one large rather than 4 small.

A few, maybe half a dozen, splits from the dry spell back in June and little visible slug damage. A few were showing signs of blight rot, but not many at all.

I also dug up one plant of the Valor. This had two large rotten potatoes, which was a disappointment but the good ones filled a carrier bag. I’ll get these up as soon as I can now.

At least the potatoes don’t need any freezer space!

Kestrel Potatoes in Wheelbarrow

Posted in Allotment Garden Diary
5 comments on “Kestrel Potato Harvest & Tomatoes
  1. cynthialilly says:

    I swear by Kestrel and my daughter loves them roasted. The best part is the lack of slug damage we tend to get from them only wished they were also blight resistent then it would be a perfect spud as we too have had a marvelous harvest.

  2. ANTHONY BURNHAM says:

    DO I UNDERSTAND THEN THAT IF SOME OF MY KESTREL POTATOES ARE ROTTEN IT IS BECAUSE OF BLIGHT, AND REMOVING THE HAULM REDUCES THIS. WHEN SHOULD THE FOLLIAGE HAVE BEEN REMOVED?
    I HAVE NOW LIFTED ALL MY POTATOES (FINISHED LAST NIGHT). NEXT YEAR WHEN I PLANT MY POTATOES SHOULD I LIME THE GROUND FIRST? I HAVE HAD MY TWO ALLOTMENTS 15-20 YEARS AND I DO ROTATE EVERYTHING ROUND. I HAVE FOUR COMPOST BINS IN USE AND SPREAD WHAT I HAVE AROUND. I DO NOT USE HORSE MANURE FROM THE STABLES ANY MORE AS I DONT THINK IT WAS COMPOSTED ENOUGH
    AND THE WEED GROWTH WAS RIDICULOUS AND I THINK THAT THIS HAS NOW REDUCED NOW THAT I HAVE STOPED USING IT. THOUGHT I MIGHT GIVE CHICKEN PELLETS A TRY NEXT YEAR.

  3. John says:

    If you see the haulm going yellow and brown with blight, get it off asap to stop the spores getting into the tubers.

    Don’t lime before potatoes! See my articles in the information section on growing potatoes.

  4. Annie pasteau says:

    I planted potatos this year for the first time in a potato barrel and did everything according to directions.I harvested a few last week and they were lovely but harvested the rest tonight and unearthed an extremely small crop. Why would that be? The barrel was in a sunny /shade position and they were watered and fed constantly. There were a few pea sized potatos and a couple of very large ones among the few others. I am so dissappointed. I want to plant more but if the next crop are the same I will cry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please advise me . Many thanks Annie

  5. Hugh Murray says:

    Dug my Kestrel at the allotment today (26-7-09)as they were showing signs of blight. The allotment was new this year (1st April).
    Crop of medium to large potatoes was very good with very few marbles. This is the first time I have grown Kestrel and was very impressed.

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