blue potatos

[Waiting]

It's been 15 years since I last grew potatoes. That year I grew reds, russets, and blues. Even at the time I didn't know the variety names. All were good but I especially liked the blues, not only for the novelty, but also because they made a tasty, rather dry, mashed potato.

This year I decided to grow another little patch of blue potatoes. Alas, the nursery where I bought the last ones is long gone, so rather than drive 15 miles to the now nearest nursery, I picked up some Adirondack Blues at Lowes.

Tonight I cut some of the larger ones and discovered, to my dismay, that these are not the same potatoes I grew the last time. These are solid purple whereas the others were mottled purple and white. I'm sure these will make dark purple mashed potatoes, the others made a light blue-ish grey mashed potato.

Can someone please suggest what that other variety might have been?

Thanks,

gary

[peppero]

Thanks to your post I will be checking Lowes in my area for blue poatoes.

jon

[Marcus1]

I grew Adirondack blue and red last year. The blue, though deeper color than what you grew last, still makes light blue mashed potatoes. I like them fried with onion and garlic. You might have had All Blue last time, they aren't quite as deep color. Theres also Purple Viking but I think they are white fleshed.

Good luck
Marcus

[Urbanheirlooms]

I dug up a few hills mid way through the season to have some new potatoes for dinner. They too were not solid purple. At the end of the season, most were dark purple. I would guess some that you got never reached maturity.

[NathanP]

It is hard to predict the exact amount of flesh color. Some of that is environmental, and lots of factors including available nutrients, ph, and amount of water can impact that.

Here is a picture as an illustration. The variety is Papa Chonca, and I have tubers (all clones of the same potato) grown in 3 locations. On the left is grown in a bin that high has compost, in the middle was grown in a field that is very sandy, and on the right is from a plant grown in soil with high clay content. The ones grown in the sandy soil had all the protruding growths all over them.
https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...19&oe=57653F2E


However, if you bought Adirondack Blue, that is probably not the same as what you purchased many years ago. Adirondack Blue is a 2003 release.

A few others it might have been are All Blue (aka Congo, Black Russian, Russian Blue, Davis Purple, Eureka Purple, Fenton Blue, Purple Marker, Purple Mountain, Shaw #7, and Blue of Sweden (PSR: KA-67)), or if it was a fingerling, possibly Purple Peruvian. I would put my money on All Blue just based on what was commercially available at that time.

For pictures of quite a few unusual ones or heirlooms, this site has quite a few.
http://www.curzio.com/N/PotatoCatalog.htm

[kath]

My guess also would be All Blue. They fit the description of the one you were hoping to find and were the first all blue one that I saw was widely available that many years ago, via catalogs and local sources- here on the East coast anyway.