Varieties for salad potato production
There are two main types, round/oval and long oval, but a feature of potatoes for salad production is that they tend to produce large numbers of very uniform tubers. Another essential feature of salad potatoes is that they are capable of producing tubers with a good skin finish.
Breeders are now focussing their efforts on breeding salad varieties and currently around 25 varieties are available for commercial production. The majority of these are round/oval. A key feature of which variety is grown is to have a secure market outlet.
Shortlist of varieties Almost all salad varieties have susceptibility to foliage or tuber late blightFurther information on most varieties can be found at the AHDB potato variety database (http://varieties.ahdb.org.uk/) or on the individual Breeder/Agent website
| Variety | Maturity | Characteristics | Breeder/Agent | |||
| Round/oval varieties | ||||||
| Maris Peer | Second early | White tubers with cream flesh. The market leader for salad production, mainly as the variety is off patent and seed costs are lower. | – | |||
| Gemson | Second early | White tubers with white flesh. Very high tuber numbers and yield. Very good all-round disease resistance | Grampian growers | |||
| Jester | Second early | White skin with creamy white flesh. | Greenvale AP | |||
| Perline | First early | Pale yellow skin and flesh. | KWS | |||
| Picollo Star | Second early | Creamy skin and flesh. Good all round disease resistance except tuber blight | Branston | |||
| Bambino | Maincrop | White skin with creamy white flesh. Good all round disease resistance | Cygnet PB | |||
| Corolle | First early | Pale yellow skin and flesh. Reasonable disease resistance | Germicopa | |||
| Vizelle | Maincrop | Extremely high tuber numbers. Very susceptible to TRV spraing | Cygnet PB | |||
| Long oval | ||||||
| Charlotte | Second early | Yellow tubers with yellow flesh. The most popular long oval variety for salad production, in part because it is off-label but also because it has good flavour | – | |||
| Jazzy | First early | Cream skin and light yellow flesh. Very high yielding | Meijer | |||