I harvested the final two of my planters today.

Potato Quarantine

The first one I did (the second one I planted – I think they’re “Red Duke of York”) had lots of potatoes with rather manky looking skin, round “sores” and some white flakes around the “sores”. I dubbed this “Spud Lurgie”. Some of the ones I harvested previously had Lurgie, too, but practically every single of the red ones were affected. They ended up quarantined, as can be seen in the photo. The photo links to to some closeups on Flickr, so you can decide for yourself what it is.

Final Spud Harvest

The third and last planter (which is the third I actually planted), however, yielded a lot of very healthy-looking, very “potato”-looking potatoes. Made me feel like the whole enterprise was worthwhile They’ve all gone into my potato sack, along with the healthy ones from the first planter.

I decided that I wasn’t going to let Lurgie stop me from enjoying my spuds; I gave them a good peel, and all the badness appeared to be on the surface. So they’ve all gone into the freezer for later. Quite frankly, if there’s something that can survive being peeled away, frozen, and then cooked, clearly it’s the superior organism, and it deserves to infect me.