Violetta Potato

[jayb]

Violetta from the modern breeding of Emma x Highland Burgundy Red. First early Emma, round with light cream skin and flesh, Highland Burgundy Red, a heritage oval maincrop, red skin and flesh with floury taste. Violetta is an early maincrop and has inky blue black skin and deep violet flesh. It is listed as a salad variety with long fingerling tubers. Although looking at the ones I grew this year, they are not what I would describe as long oval or fingerling type potatoes, more medium oval.

First shoots
Violetta by jayb 35, on Flickr

Antho still quite evident on the stems as they grow.
Violetta Potato by jayb 35, on Flickr

First flower buds
Violetta Potato by jayb 35, on Flickr

[jayb]

First pale purple (?) flowers opened, foliage is darker in comparison to Tollocan Fiesta foliage alongside.
Violetta Potato by jayb 35, on Flickr

Surprisingly delicately coloured flowers
Violetta Potato by jayb 35, on Flickr

[Silverleaf]

Purple flesh! Fantastic! I'm so jealous of your interesting potatoes (and all the space you must have for growing stuff).

[jayb]

Love potatoes

Lol, wait till next year, will soon have you growing some beauties!

[Silverleaf]

Me too, there's nothing like a freshly-harvested potato. Yum.

[jayb]

Violetta were susceptible to Late Blight and with the darker foliage it made it harder to spot early on, though as an early maincrop I think in most years they would likely set a usable crop here. They set berries quite easily and also good as a pollen parent. Violetta have produced a good crop of smaller type tubers, colour is amazing, very black looking skins and the flesh has really good dark tones. I've only had them boiled so far and they cook very well, waxy but not overly, good taste and texture, equally good hot or cold.

Violetta potatoes by jayb 35, on Flickr

Violetta potatoes by jayb 35, on Flickr

[Silverleaf]

They look fantastic!!!

[jayb]

They are a funky colour
Though it makes them a bit harder to spot when digging them up particularly if you have dark soil.
I've about 8 seed pods, if they ripen in time I'll add them to the seed circle. I think they should throw lots of interesting types

[Silverleaf]

Brilliant! I absolutely adore that colour, it's as cool as the red ones. I'll have to show them to Him Indoors, I remember him being surprised at the colour of some of mine I dug up, and they were only ordinary Desirees!

[Galina]

How difficult is it to find them in your soil? I think you need good eyesight to spot black potatoes in most soils. Always surprised me that Shetland black is successful in the black peaty soils up there. What colour is your soil?

[jayb]

Brilliant! I absolutely adore that colour, it's as cool as the red ones. I'll have to show them to Him Indoors, I remember him being surprised at the colour of some of mine I dug up, and they were only ordinary Desirees!

Bright colours can be a bit of a shocker sometimes, I hope he loves them
Sometimes I see family and friends shun the different coloured veggies, that is until they try them! Although my mum can still be a little offish with some offerings, mostly purple cauliflower and some of the coloured tomatoes.

[jayb]

How difficult is it to find them in your soil? I think you need good eyesight to spot black potatoes in most soils. Always surprised me that Shetland black is successful in the black peaty soils up there. What colour is your soil?

Not too bad, just they need to be looked for rather than the usual obvious contrast, it's the small little wee ones that are the frustrating to locate. I've got some Inky Squid growing in multi purpose compost, which I think will be fiddly to spot. The area with spuds in this year isn't too dark a colour, other side of the garden has much deeper tones.

Snap, I wondered the same when harvesting Shetland potatoes! I must admit I was disappointed by them, taste and texture just wasn't there for me.

[Silverleaf]

Should be pretty easy for me in my 6' x 4' bed.

Besides the small area, the soil's clay underneath (greyish) with sandy imported topsoil in the middle (light brown) and a load of compost and horse manure on the top (easy to sift through).

[jayb]

Should be pretty easy for me in my 6' x 4' bed.

Besides the small area, the soil's clay underneath (greyish) with sandy imported topsoil in the middle (light brown) and a load of compost and horse manure on the top (easy to sift through).

Sounds ideal growing conditions for them.

I've just been digging the last of the Violetta, ground is horribly wet, but guess it's now or never! One good thing, surprisingly little slug damage.

This picture shows off the colour in a slightly different shade when up against a dark background.

Violetta potatoes by jayb 35, on Flickr

[Galina]

That colour is just psychedelic!