Earth-friendly gardening writer John Walker reports from the recent Sarvari Research Trust open day, on the shape of the ‘footprint’ of spuds to come.
Exceptional resistance to potato blight and virus diseases, high yields, even in poor soils, weed-smothering tops (haulms), drought resistance, and a long storage period. What more could you ask of the humble spud?
The breeding and development of the Sarpo (Sarvari + potato, pronounced ‘sharpo’) varieties is perhaps the best recent example of how research in commercial crops has brought huge benefits for gardeners, allotmenteers and smallholders.
Commercial growers have been slow to appreciate the benefits of the Sarpo’s, but following the recent ‘Food for the Future’ security assessment, launched by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, this looks set to change - and fast.
Bred by the Hungarian Sarvari family, using conventional plant breeding techniques, new Sarpo’s undergo rigorous trials run by the Sarvari Research Trust (SRT), near Bangor, North Wales, with UK-wide testing in the most blight-prone areas. Only after several years of evaluation, and after gaining National Listing, are new varieties launched.
Gardeners who have grown the well established Sarpo varieties ‘Sarpo Mira’ and ‘Axona’, both red-skinned maincrops, have virtually said goodbye to blight problems caused by the airborne fungal pathogen Phytophthora infestans. The spores land on the leaves and stems where they infect the tissues and cause rapid breakdown, typically seen as browning and blackening of the haulms.
In the Sarpo’s, the fungal spores still attack, but their development is arrested and the plants keep growing long after other varieties previously considered as ‘blight resistant’, have been defoliated. The spores can wash into the soil and infect the tubers.
A visit to the SRT’s trials field was proof of the Sarpo’s resilience during another record year for ‘blight pressure’. Blocks of Sarpo were still growing strongly among those which had succumbed to blight earlier in the summer, giving a striking ‘patchwork’ effect.
Currently, the only control for potato blight (which can also affect tomatoes) is to spray repeatedly with synthetic fungicide, or, in the case of organic growers, copper, a highly toxic substance.
With the need to produce food with the smallest ‘carbon footprint’ becoming an ecological necessity, any crops which reduce energy demand will play a key future role in home and field scale food production. The Sarpo’s are far less dependent on fossil fuels, primarily oil, than other potatoes. The manufacture and application of synthetic fungicides, pesticides and herbicides, crop irrigation, and refrigerated cold storage, are all highly energy-intensive processes which the Sarpo’s neatly sidestep.
This gives the Sarpo’s not just a smaller carbon footprint, it also brings a considerable cost saving, and a boon to low carbon organic gardeners everywhere.
Four new Sarpo’s were unveiled (left to right in the image, above):
‘Kifli’ shows good resistance to blight and potato cyst nematode (PCN Ro1). An early maincrop with elongated white-skinned tubers and exceptional ‘new potato’ flavour.
‘Sarpo Una’ has pink skins and is a second early, with good resistance to blight and virus diseases. Used as a salad potato or, if left to mature, as a baker.
‘Blue Danube’ has white flesh beneath its striking blue skin. An early maincrop with high resistance to tuber blight, blackleg and PCN Ro1.
‘Sarpo Shona’ is a short growing, weed-smothering early maincrop with white skin and very good resistance to blight, leafroll virus, and powdery scab.
Gardeners can obtain Sarpo’s, including ‘Sarpo Mira’ and ‘Axona’, from Thompson & Morgan tel 01473 695225, while commercial growers should contact the Sarvari Research Trust tel 01248 689156,
Text and images Copyright John Walker.
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