PARENTAGE

The parents of Valor are Cara and another unnamed variety.

APPEARANCE, TASTE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF VALOR

The Valor potato

This maincrop variety produces tall plants so may not be suitable for areas exposed to high winds. The purple flowers are freely produced. The potatoes have smooth, white skin with a light cream coloured flesh and only a few shallow eyes.

POSITIVE POINTS FOR VALOR
They have high resistance to splitting, remaining very solid potatoes. An excellent all rounder for cooking. Good resistance to blight especially of the tubers. Drought and heat resistant. Keeps well for a very long time.

NEGATIVE POINTS FOR VALOR
We can find no significant drawbacks to growing this variety of potato.

BUYING VALOR SEED POTATOES

Valor are not available in many garden centres or discount shops but they are available from several online suppliers.

We recommend buying your seed potatoes from certified suppliers because those sold in supermarkets for consumption can be a source of disease and pest. We would avoid buying them from online general retailers such as as Amazon or E-bay unless you know exactly who is supplying the seed potatoes.

Buying seed potatoes from the discount store can be a good deal but it can also result in a sub-standard crop. The discount stores take the second quality seed potatoes whereas the more specialist suppliers take the best quality. Unfortunately you will only find this out after you have carefully tended your crop for several months.

Suttons Seeds (a GardenFocused approved supplier) sell Valor seed potatoes (and many other varieties) which are not only correctly certified but they are graded by size to avoid unduly small seed potatoes being sold. Click here for more information and to buy Valor online. A 1kg bag will contain about 11 good sized seed potatoes.

ALTERNATIVES TO VALOR POTATOES

The key qualities of this variety are good resistance to blight of tubers, very versatile as far as cooking is concerned, tolerant of a wide variety of growing conditions including drought and heat. If those are your criteria for choosing this variety then there are no real alternatives. MaybeArran Victory comes closest, so is worth investigating.

For other potato varieties which we have fully reviewed, click the drop down box below, select a variety and then click the More Information Button.

Choose a potato varietyAccent 1st earlyAmour MaincropAnya 2nd earlyArran Pilot 1st earlyArran Victory MaincropCara MaincropCharlotte 2nd earlyDesiree MaincropEstima 2nd earlyInternational Kidney 2nd earlyJazzy 2nd earlyKerrs Pink MaincropKestrel 2nd earlyKing Edward MaincropLady Christl 1st earlyMajestic MaincropMaris Peer 2nd earlyMaris Piper MaincropMaxine MaincropNicola 2nd EarlyOrla 1st EarlyPentland Javelin 1st EarlyPink Fir Apple MaincropRed Duke of York 1st EarlyRocket 1st EarlySarpo Axona MaincropSetanta MaincropSharpes Express 1st earlySwift 1st earlyValor MaincropVitabella 1st / 2nd earlyVivaldi 2nd earlyWilja 2nd earlyWinston 1st early

The planting and harvest dates used below are correct for the UK average. If you want them to be even more accurate and adjusted for your area of the UK click here. It only takes a minute and the adjustment affects every date in this site and lasts for six months.

WHEN TO CHIT / SPROUT VALOR POTATOES

In all the tests we have conducted and those we have researched, there is no detectable difference between maincrop potatoes which are chitted and those which are planted directly in the ground. However if you want to stick with tradition and chit your Valor potatoes, we recommend that you start chitting / sprouting this variety in the third week of February.

This will give them four to five weeks to develop healthy sprouts just at the time when they are ready
to be planted out. Keep the potatoes in cool but light conditions to ensure they grow short, green sprouts. Click here for our page dedicated to chitting / sprouting potatoes in the UK and Ireland.

WHEN TO PLANT VALOR POTATOES

Valor potatoes are maincrop and they are ready for harvest, if conditions are correct, 18 to 20 weeks after the seed potatoes are planted. The key factor governing the time for planting all potatoes is the date of the last frost in your area. Even a touch of frost can damage potato plants if their foliage is above ground, an unexpected severe frost can kill them completely.

The date for planting Valor seed potatoes can be calculated on the basis that seed potatoes will take four weeks before they appear above ground. Given also that you want them to appear above ground only when the danger of frost has passed is (the last week of April is the UK average ) the last week of March about right time to plant them.

WHEN TO HARVEST VALOR POTATOES

The harvest date for all potatoes is not only dependent on when you plant your seed potatoes, it also depends on the weather conditions throughout the growing season. But on average you can expect your potatoes to be ready for harvest some time between the first and third weeks of August 2017 in your area of the UK.

PEST AND DISEASE RESISTANCE OF VALOR POTATO

The table below sets out how good or bad Valor potato plants are at resisting common pests and diseases in the UK. The 0 point is average with minus (red) values showing lower than average resistance and plus values (green) showing higher than average resistance.

SUMMARY CHARACTERISTICS OF VALOR

TYPE: Maincrop

USE: A good all round variety except as salad potatoes

SKIN COLOUR / TEXTURE: White with smooth skin and few eyes

FLESH COLOUR: White

TASTE AND TEXTURE: Good flavour with a solid texture

STORAGE: Keeps very well, until April or May is a real possibility with this variety in the correct conditions.

POTATO SIZE: Average.

REGULARITY OF CROPPING: Regularly produces a good crop.

AWARDS: None

SPECIAL FEATURES: Tuber blight resistance and good in dry and warm conditions.