Purple Potato is the Next Big Thing

From the Financial times, Farmers Weekly and Fresh Produce Journal.



A blight resistant potato aimed at the retail market has performed extremely well in field trials in Northumberland this year. The trails were inoculated with active blight and more susceptible cultivars were rapidly defoliated. The strain ,bred by Hungarian scientists, proved extremely resistant with only a few superficial leaf lesions observed.



Just one problem. The skins of this super resistor are purple! Whilst a proportion of consumers might have a taste for the unconventional, blue and food are not obvious traits which go together. We instinctively regard blue colouration in food as a warning - maybe as many microbiological organisms which degrade food and render it harmful produce blue moulds and colonies?



In our crisp and prepack variety trials this year we have included several of these Hungarian varieties and await our results with interest. Our trials receive a full disease programme so were not tested in the same way as the Northumberland trial, but will still give good data on yield and market suitability. From my observations so far I would say they are very late maturing - at least as late as Cara with vigorous haulm late in the season.