Spud Off 2013… the results

Earlier this year we proudly launched the nations premier potato growing competition – The Great British Spud Off 2013. Each contestant was tasked with planting up to five potatoes (pink fir apple, for consistency) in their container of choice and the grower with the best harvest would be crowned champion.

And now, throughout the land, garden forks are nibbling at layers of potted earth to turf out bundles of knobbly spuds. The pink fir is notoriously a late bloomer so we expect a steady trickle of results over the coming weeks… and whenever a bounty is revealed we’ll trumpet the results on this page.

So, in order of declaration, here are the harvests…

Penny Freeman
First to announce her haul was Penny. These beauties grew in bags originally used to hold heavy duty lifting chains. In her excitement to serve them up with a hefty wedge of salmon Penny forgot to weigh them but reckons she got 25 tatties from her four starter spuds.
Container: Industrial bags
Seeds planted: 4
Potatoes harvested: 25
Harvest weight: N/A

Gill Woodward
This tray of shimmering delights was dug from a lined wooden having been fed with water from the duck pond. Thanks to this duck-muck liquid Gill claims a mightily impressive 50 tubers from her four seeds.
Container: Wooden box
Seeds planted: 4
Potatoes harvested: 50
Harvest weight: 3lb

Thirsty Rich
Rich’s pink firs, grown in a pilfered fermenting bin, tipped the scales at a miserly 1.5lb. The 35 tubers “ranged from the size of a small mouse to the size of a pea”. But despite his meagre haul Rich did find solace in discovering that one spud was exactly the same shape as a (CUT! This is a family competition. Spudoff ed.)
Container: Plastic fermenting bin
Seeds planted: 3
Potatoes harvested: 35
Harvest weight: 1lb 8oz

Thirsty Nick
Restoring a bit of pride for the Thirsty Gardeners reputation is Nick’s hefty haul, comprising “53 proper spuds and a handful of tiddlers”. If IKEA get a run of purchases on their large blue bags, we’ll all know why…
Container: IKEA bag
Seeds planted: 4
Potatoes harvested: 53
Harvest weight: 6lb 7oz

Rich Clarke
Two potato bags. The one on the left using home made compost, the one on the right shop bought stuff. The homemade compost were the cleanest, but the dirty ones performed best.
Container: Potato bag (with commercial compost)
Seeds planted: 5
Potatoes harvested: 60
Harvest weight: 2lb 4oz

Rusty Ricker
Five sacks each contained a pink fir in Rusty Ricker’s garden. Six months later he harvested “a mighty 1.6kg of knobbly goodness, about 12 of which are a decent size.”
Container: Individual sacks
Seeds planted: 5
Potatoes harvested: 1/4 of a bucket
Harvest weight: 3lb 8oz

Gordon Stewardson
Gordon’s seed tatties went straight in the bin, but there’s nothing rubbish about his harvest – a barrow busting 62 spuds “ranging from tiddlers to monsters”. THE WINNER!
Container: Bin
Seeds planted: 5
Potatoes harvested: 62
Harvest weight: 8lb 13oz

Sarah Coomer
A ‘spudfort’ crafted from Devon mud and rock by Sarah’s own hands provided her with a fair yield of nobbly tatties. The fort needed its own protection of galvanised girdles to keep marauding sheep at bay and was destroyed in the act of harvest.
Container: Fort
Seeds planted: 3
Potatoes harvested: N/A
Harvest weight: 1lb 15oz

Solly
There were no pink firs on the Christmas table for laid back Solly… he waited until MARCH before digging. And the wait was worth it – a mighty 6.8lb of tatties tumbled from his tub.
Container: Commercially available hexagonal thing
Seeds planted: 5
Potatoes harvested: N/A
Harvest weight: 6lb 8oz

If you’ve taken part in this year’s spud off then send your results through when you harvest them. And don’t forget to weigh them!

You can read a full list of contenders here.