Crop type: Potatoes
Solanum tuberosum ‘Pink Fir Apple’
Common name: Salad potato ‘Pink Fir Apple’
Crop slug: potatoes
This Allotment Pro editorial draft summarises the cited RHS cultivar profile and its linked crop guidance. Check the sources and adjust cultivation decisions for local conditions.RHS cultivar profile
1 - Overview
‘Pink Fir Apple’ is an AGM old-fashioned late-cropping salad potato. It produces unmistakable long, narrow and knobbly tubers with thin pinkish-yellow skin, waxy flesh and a creamy, nutty flavour. The crop is normally ready in early to mid-October.
Its waxy texture and distinctive fingerling form make it especially valuable for salads and boiling, although the RHS also recommends it for chipping. Tubers are less uniform than modern oval potatoes; their bends, lobes and knobs are defining cultivar features rather than faults.
2 - Size
- Ultimate height
- 0.5–1 metre
- Ultimate spread
- 0.5–1 metre
- Time to ultimate size
- two to five years as recorded by the profile; grown as an annual crop
- Crop class
- late-cropping salad maincrop
- Tuber form
- long, narrow and knobbly, with thin pinkish-yellow skin and waxy flesh
Allow maincrop spacing of about 37cm between plants and 75cm between rows. Its stated spread is broader than many potatoes, so avoid crowding and give the mature canopy room.
3 - Growing conditions
- Suitable soils
- Clay, loam or sand
- Moisture
- Moist but well drained
- Preferred pH
- Acid, neutral or alkaline
Choose deep, fertile, crumbly soil that retains moisture without becoming waterlogged. Add well-rotted manure or garden compost in autumn. The RHS profile records an optional general fertiliser rate of 1kg per 10m of row, reduced by half where the soil is already fertile.
4 - Position and hardiness
- Light
- Full sun or partial shade
- Aspect
- South- or west-facing
- Exposure
- Sheltered
- Hardiness
- H2
Plant in an open site after severe frost risk. The crop's late maturity makes a sunny, sheltered position helpful, while emerging shoots still require protection from spring frost.
5 - Colour and seasonal interest
Clump-forming green foliage is deciduous to semi-evergreen during its active season. The harvested tubers provide the cultivar's strongest identity: slender finger-like forms, irregular knobs and warm pink-blushed yellow skin. A cut tuber should show the pale waxy interior without making the skin appear uniformly red or the shape conventionally oval.
6 - Botanical details
- Family
- Solanaceae
- Native to Great Britain and Ireland
- No
- Foliage
- Deciduous or semi-evergreen
- Habit
- Clump forming
- Name status
- Accepted
Genus
Solanum includes annuals, perennials, shrubs and climbers with simple or divided leaves, five-lobed flowers and fleshy fruits. Potato cultivars are grown for their underground stem tubers.
Safety
Eat only sound, non-green tubers. Potato foliage, stems, flowers, berries, sprouts and green tuber tissue are harmful if eaten. Keep unwanted top growth away from pets and observe handling directions on treated seed stock.
7 - How to grow
Cultivation
Chit certified seed potatoes from January if desired, standing them rose-end uppermost in a cool, bright, frost-free place. Plant between March and May once local conditions permit, using the later maincrop window where appropriate. Set tubers sprouts upwards in 15cm-deep trenches and cover carefully.
Earth up emerging stems several times, beginning when shoots are about 23cm high. Build a final ridge 20–30cm tall to protect new growth, suppress weeds and prevent the developing fingerling tubers from turning green. Water well through dry periods, particularly while tubers are forming.
Lift in early to mid-October. Place the fork well away from the stems and work gently, because the long knobbly tubers can be damaged more easily than compact round potatoes. Use freshly lifted tubers for salads, boiling or chips, or store only sound and dry examples in dark, cool, frost-free conditions.
Propagation
Propagate vegetatively from certified seed potatoes, chitted before planting where desired.
Suggested locations
- Allotment or vegetable plot
- Cottage garden vegetable bed
- City or courtyard raised bed
- Large patio container
- Potato grow bag
Pruning
No pruning is required. Remove diseased foliage promptly. Cut healthy yellowing tops before lifting a crop intended for storage.
Pests
May be susceptible to cutworms, slugs, wireworms, leaf and bud eelworm and potato cyst eelworm. Long rotations and careful lifting reduce avoidable damage.
Diseases
May be susceptible to potato blight, scab, tuber rots, blackleg, stem canker and, rarely, honey fungus. Use certified seed, rotate the crop and avoid damaging tubers at harvest.