Where did I go wrong with my potatoes?

[fibeee]

I am a novice gardener and grew pink fur potatoes for the first time this year in a 40cm tub. Filled them to the top with vegetable compost with the tubers close to the bottom. I harvested them recently and got 60 potatoes in my first tub. I was so chuffed! Stored them in a cupboard in a cloth bag for a week or so.

Just roasted them in oil, garlic and herbs. Tasted a tiny one out of the oven and the skin was horrible and bitter and gave me a burning sensation in my throat.

After Googling I have officially scared the shit out of myself and am going to throw them away rather than risk poisoning myself and my family. None of them were even green!

I feel so deflated. Where could I have gone wrong?!

Mystified. You seem to have done everything right.

Pink fir not fur. Gives quite a different image

Some people on this thread are commenting on the naturally stronger taste of new potatoes

Pink fir! Yes any potatoes with pink fur will be going straight in the bin😆

They are a late main so they need a heck of a long growing period. Perhaps they didn't have long enough? Or not enough nutrients? Did you feed them through the growing season?

I've had that experience with Jersey royals (from a shop). I am speculating that the plants produce more of the alkaloids in the skin as a response to stressful growing conditions like excess heat or drought. It probably gets much hotter in a tub than in the ground.

Could it be your compost or soil? I think the French call it terroir. I love jersey potatoes and we grew some International Kidney on our allotment so I thought I'd be in spud heaven for a few weeks. God they were foul - powdery and tasteless. I realised why all the shop bought ones are grown on Jersey and not an inner city allotment...