Potato harvesting continued on the plot. Next in line to be lifted was a row of Kestrel. It's the first time we've grown this variety so I was interested to see how it had performed. Back in April at planting time I posted this description of Kestrel.
Another new variety to us this year which is said to be a gardeners' favourite second early variety, producing tubers of consistent size and shape, with attractive, smooth skins and violet eyes. Potato 'Kestrel' shows good slug resistance, Golden eelworm and partial white eelworm resistance.
Well it certainly lived up to its description. It has produced the heaviest crop of potatoes grown in this bed so far. None of the potatoes had slug or wireworm damage unlike the crop of Winston grown alongside them and lifted earlier in the week.
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| Kestrel |
Each row in this bed consisted of 10 potato tubers of each variety and the row of Kestrel produced 12kg (26 lbs) of good sized potatoes. What impressed me the most is that these weren't planted in good soil.
As you can see from the two photos above the soil was well compacted and dry. I'm hoping that the process of digging out the potatoes and turning over the soil to at least a fork's depth will improve the soil condition.
I also lifted a row of Nadine potatoes which I consider to be a good reliable cropper on our plot and the crop amounted to a rather disappointing 8kg (18 lbs) in comparison with Kestrel. Like Kestrel, Nadine had virtually no slug or wireworm damage.
Once the potatoes were lifted the weed control fabric was put back in place. I'll dig over the whole bed once all the potatoes are cleared and we've had enough rain to soften up the ground.
And finally a couple of Kestrels cleaned up and ready for cooking.
They tasted fine so I think I'll be finding space for a row of these next year.
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