potato plant frost recovery

Due in part to my own negligence some of my spuds got nipped by the frost earlier this year. The Charlottes seemed to take it badly and produced rather spindly haulms and slow growth and pretty poor yields. Today I tipped out two buckets of Charlottes and two of Nicola and the difference in yield was amazing. Charlotte gave 220g per seed but Nicola gave 670g. Both are second earlies, both planted at the same time in the same compost so could it be that some varieties show poor resistance to frost damage?

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Permalink Reply by Mr Sparkles on June 26, 2012 at 13:48

That really is an amazing difference Colin but i guess we can never tell when frost hits something!

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Permalink Reply by Malagrowther on June 26, 2012 at 14:01

Epicure are reputedly the most frost resilient early potato. I grow them for taste, but that is a bonus.

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Permalink Reply by Colin Robinson on June 26, 2012 at 16:14

I've grown epicure in the past and agree about the taste. Trouble is I like to try new varieties each year and you never quite know how they're going to perform.

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Permalink Reply by Darren Blick on June 27, 2012 at 20:40

I had the same Colin, mine too got nipped early on
I tipped out one bag last weekend and got a good yield and had some nice spuds at 6oz
I am leaving them another week to get them up to 8oz each

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Permalink Reply by Colin Robinson on June 27, 2012 at 22:48

Haven't tipped out any of my polypots yet, Darren. I'm hoping for much better yields than from the flower buckets due to the extra space/compost. If I don't get three pounds per seed I'll be disappointed.

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Permalink Reply by John Martin on June 28, 2012 at 18:24

Theres not doubt that the frost can cause poorer yeilds. I've not had a look at my poly pots yet but I'd guess I'm still a good 2 weeks away. Got flowers on my Sherine so need to keep an eye on them.