Kerr's Pink
The floury maincrop older Irish cooks swear by, if you can forgive it for falling apart in the pot.
Kerr's Pink has been grown in Ireland for around a century and is still the potato a lot of people mean when they talk about a proper floury spud. The pink skin and white flesh cook to something light and dry that mashes beautifully and makes exceptional chips. It is not an easy variety by modern standards, being both blight prone and scab prone, but nothing else quite replaces it on the plate.
Quick facts
- Botanical name
- Solanum tuberosum
- Type
- Certified seed tuber
- Category
- Maincrop
- Difficulty
- Easy, good first crop
- Hardiness
- Half hardy, protect from frost
- In Ireland
- Grows outdoors unprotected
- Sowing depth
- 10cm
- Spacing
- 40cm apart, 75cm between rows
- Position
- Full sun
- Containers
- Grows well in pots
- Sowing to harvest
- 10 to 22 weeks
- Harvest
- September to October
Sowing and harvest calendar for Kerr's Pink
Months shaded below are the reliable windows for Irish conditions.
Where to buy Kerr's Pink seed potatoes in Ireland
Irish suppliers that stock this, so postage stays domestic and seed arrives in time to sow. These are plain links, not paid placements.
- Fruit Hill Farm Irish Organic seed potatoes split by earlies, maincrop and blight resistant Bantry based supplier to Ireland's commercial organic growers. Certified organic and biodynamic seed, mail order only. Visit Fruit Hill Farm , Co. Cork
- Quickcrop Irish Sorted by first early, second early and maincrop Ballymote based, lists sowing and harvest months per product and ships across Ireland. Visit Quickcrop , Co. Sligo
Why it suits Ireland
Kerr’s Pink is Scottish in origin, introduced in 1917, but it took root in Ireland to the point of being thought of as an Irish potato, particularly in the north west. It suits our long cool growing season and yields well without much fuss on ordinary ground.
What it does not suit is a wet blight year, and Ireland gets those regularly. Treat this variety as a crop you are actively defending rather than one you plant and forget. Growers who lift it in mid September rather than pushing on into October generally do far better with it.
Growing notes
Plant from mid April to early May, 40cm apart in rows 75cm apart. It makes a big sprawling haulm, so give it more space than you think, both for yield and for airflow.
Earth up generously and more than once. Tubers sit near the surface and green quickly, and a good deep ridge is also the best defence you have against blight spores washing down onto the crop.
Do not lime the bed before planting, and avoid ground that has just been limed for brassicas, because that is where the worst scab comes from. A mulch of compost helps hold soil moisture through the tuber bulking period, which is the other half of the scab answer.
Cut the haulm in early to mid September, or at the first sign of blight, leave the crop two to three weeks in the ground for the skins to set, and lift on a dry day. Stored in paper sacks somewhere cool and dark it keeps through the winter, but check the sacks regularly because a blight-infected tuber will spoil everything around it.
Common questions
Why do my Kerr's Pink fall apart when I boil them?
Because they are meant to. Kerr's Pink is one of the flouriest common varieties and it will disintegrate in a rolling boil. Cook them in their skins, start them in cold water, bring them barely to a simmer and then drain them early and let them finish in their own steam with the lid on. That is the traditional Irish way of cooking a floury potato and it exists precisely because of varieties like this one.
Is Kerr's Pink prone to blight?
Yes, noticeably so, in both the foliage and the tubers. It is an old variety with none of the resistance breeding that went into Setanta or the Sarpo types. If you grow it, space it widely, earth it up well, watch the Met Eireann blight warnings from late June, and be ready to cut the haulm at the first brown patch. In a bad August you may be lifting in early September whether you planned to or not.
Why is the skin rough and scabby on mine?
Kerr's Pink is susceptible to common scab, which shows as raised corky patches on the skin. It is cosmetic and the potato underneath is fine. Scab is worst on limy, light or stony ground in a dry spring, so avoid liming before potatoes, dig in plenty of compost, and water through the four or five weeks after flowering begins when the skins are forming.
More potatoes to consider
Rooster
AGM/ Maincrop
The default Irish maincrop for good reason: heavy crops, keeps well, and floury without collapsing in the pot.
Growing notes and stockistsHome Guard
/ First early
The old reliable first early, out of the ground and eaten before blight has a chance to find it.
Growing notes and stockistsBritish Queen
AGM/ Second early
Grown here for flavour rather than convenience, and worth the trouble in a decent summer.
Growing notes and stockistsOrla
AGM/ First early
The early to grow if blight has beaten you before, and the obvious first choice for organic Irish plots.
Growing notes and stockists