Medwyn Williams explains why he has suffered with a potato failure
Not giving a potato a dormant period has caused us to lose a potential new variety
Iwrote in December about a new potato that my son, Alwyn, had been given from Dr David Shaw at Bangor University. This was a new seedling that had been harvested from the field among many others. It immediately struck me that it had the potential to be a good new exhibition variety, it was oval and white with a lovely pink splash in the eyes that were truly shallow.
I was quite excited about regenerating it, with the hope of having a few examples on my display at Chelsea in
May. I cut the single potato into six pieces, making sure there was an eye on each piece. In my excitement I completely forgot the fact that the potato has to have a dormant period before it can reproduce itself once again.
So, having been in the growing media for over a fortnight, nothing materialised and on inspection three of the pieces had totally rotted away. The lesson here is obvious; if you dig a potato from the soil you just can’t plant it back again until it has laid dormant for a while. Speaking to a breeder and grower of seed potatoes, his company always store their seed potatoes for at least two months before they think about selling them on.
I could have placed it in the fridge for a couple of weeks, but time wasn’t on my side. David Shaw has said
I can come and have a look to see if I can find a similar potato among the harvest, but bearing in mind it came from a single seedling among many, many others, it could be like looking for a needle in the haystack!
He did, however, send me an image of another interesting one, possibly not for the keen exhibitor on the show bench but definitely one for my displays. This appears to be a long, oval, pink-skinned variety with white splashes around the eyes, not dissimilar to two varieties that I grew some years ago called ‘Smile’ and ‘Coco the Clown’.
Rest assured this one will have full dormancy and will hopefully be on my display at the Malvern show in late September this year.
■ Why not follow me on Twitter throughout the season as I grow vegetables for my show displays – @medwynsofangles.