Hillingdon Allotment News 14: A few musings on potatoes, peas and pests

It has in general been a good year for potatoes more especially I suspect for the earlier types rather than main crop although this depends upon the extent of the blight in your area. This year I tried two varieties to add to my list and I was pleased with both of them. Lady Chrysl is a first early which produced some very good looking and tasting potatoes although there were a few holes the slugs and other beasties seem to have left them fairly well alone. I shall certainly try this one again next year. The other new one for me was a second early, Harlequin, a cross between Charlotte and Pink Fir apple both of which are ideal salad potatoes and it produced a good crop although in a variety of sizes. Both varieties appear to be quite waxy do not fall apart when cooked, and are ideal for summer salads, if only we had a summer!, again one to try next year for further evaluation under different conditions.
We are all familiar with seed potatoes, the ones that we buy in spring to plant in the ground to produce the crops that we eat. ‘Seed’ in this instance is something of a misnomer as they are not seed but small potatoes of a sufficient size to produce decent sized cropping plants. Some newcomers however may not be too familiar with potato seed which is a totally different matter
(see photo).

Often after flowering, the fruit of the fertilized flowers hang on the plants just like bunches of small green tomatoes to which they are closely related, and which contain seeds which will grow if saved, but will take about three years to produce a plant that will produce suitable sized tubers. In this instance the fruit are totally inedible and extremely poisonous as are any potatoes that turn green. The green colour is chlorophyll, and is not poisonous but gives a warning of the presence of a toxic alkaloid solanine, which is present in the leaves, fruits and tubers and can if eaten in quantity cause an upset stomach or worse. Potatoes that are extensively green should not be eaten but recycled. Solanine is concentrated in the potato skin so slightly green potatoes should be peeled to remove as much of the toxin as possible, which runs counter to the old adage ‘the skin is the best part’.

Those of you who are avid readers of this newsletter will recall the comparison I made last year between peas, Rondo and Lincoln. Well this year I thought I would try Greenshaft and Onward. The results so far favour Greenshaft but are not complete so I shall report the fully in the winter issue. I also tried some of the variety Waverex; a small podded ‘petit pois’ type. While the crop was excellent with up to eight and even nine peas in each pod opening them was an exercise in madness due to their small size, I wish someone would invent a pea with zips in!!

A new pest has struck our allotment site. Mysteriously, the tips of the runner bean plants have been decimated once they reach the tops of the canes and netting has been employed to keep the intruders away. The answer lies in a colourful immigrant that has made itself at home over the years and has now spread to the outer suburbs and beyond. I speak of course about the Ringnecked Parakeet which is distinctive with its bright green plumage and squawking call. Flocks of these have increased quickly in recent years due in part to mild winters and their use of garden bird feeders, and are now another pest to add to the allotmenteers list.

“The soil is rather like a bran-tub-you only get out of it what you put in it.”
From R.H.S. Encyclopedia of Gardening.

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