Potato Varieties - Which To Choose?
There are several thousand varieties worldwide and about 450+ occasionally grown in the UK. Of these, about 80 are widely grown as commercial crops.
A bewildering surfeit of choice you may think, but don’t be intimidated. If you are an old hand at potato growing you will, no doubt, have your favourites and numerous varieties are available from both specialist suppliers and from general garden suppliers alike. If you're a novice at potato growing - don't worry - there is a lot of fun to be had experimenting and learning.
Why all this choice of potatoes?
One good reason, apart from growing habits and disease resistance is, of course, taste. Different potatoes taste differently. The supermarkets may offer you a choice beyond the simple ‘White or Red’ nowadays but the home grower has a range of flavours far beyond that available in the shops.
The taste of the potato is not just a product of the variety; the type of soil and growing conditions will have an effect. I may enjoy one variety but it can taste quite different when grown in your soil.
Because of the water content and flesh structure, different potatoes cook differently. Some fry well, making great chips (or crisps – Golden Wonder is a potato variety) some boil well and some mash well. Waxy potatoes are better for salads than floury potatoes. However to help and to make things a bit easier we have selected nine of our favourites and easiest to grow varieties which all crop excellently in our climatic conditions.
Our Selection
The table below details our selection of seed potatoes and should give you some help on what to grow for what purpose. And remember, we only supply top-quality certified disease free seed potatoes!
| Product | Maturity | Boil | New | Jacket | Roast | Chip | Mash | Salad | Dauphinoise | Wedges | Cropping |
| Pentland Javelin | First Early | x | x | x | |||||||
| Rocket | First Early | x | x | x | |||||||
| Estima | Second Early | x | x | x | x | ||||||
| Charlotte | Second Early | x | x | x | x | ||||||
| Wilja | Second Early | x | x | x | x | x | |||||
| Desiree | Maincrop | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||||
| King Edward | Maincrop | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||||
| Maris Piper | Maincrop | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||||
| Pentland Crown | Maincrop | x | x | x | x | X |
Pentland Javelin
Flesh white, slightly waxy. Good boiling and salad, good disease resistance
Rocket
Flesh white flesh, skin white. Earliest, cropping in 70 days, Good disease resistance
Charlotte
Popular, High yielding, long, yellow, good waxy salad.
Wilja
Flesh pale yellow. Good general purpose, high yields of large tubers
King Edward
White with red eye. Flesh cream, slightly floury. Excellent flavour, versatile
Maris Piper
Very popular, Flesh cream, slightly floury. Good chips
Pentland Crown
White flesh. Drought and disease resistant, Huge yields of versatile flavoursome potatoes
Desiree
Red skin, light yellow flesh, firm and drought resistant. Excellent flavour, Versatile.
Estima
Firm, good texture, light yellow flesh. Mild complimentary flavour.