Potato varieties for the cold and raw season - agronomist review and reviews
OVERVIEW OF POTATO VARIETIES IN UNFAVORABLE WEATHER CONDITIONS
The 2020 season was very bad for potatoes.
But many of the new varieties, despite the extreme weather conditions, made them happy with a good harvest.
A cold spring with prolonged rains (especially May) forced the planting dates to be postponed, and we planted potatoes only in the 20th. The situation was complicated by the fact that the soil on the site is heavy loam. Potatoes love loose, fluffy soil.
Potatoes with the beautiful name Krasa Meshchera became the leaders of the season. At last year's exhibition of potatoes in Cheboksary, he received the largest number of votes from visitors to the exhibition who appreciated his taste. The variety is medium early, the bushes are compact but powerful. The tops are relatively resistant to viruses and diseases, and even the beetle visited these potatoes much less frequently than others. During flowering, the rows are decorated with reddish-purple flowers.
The nest contained an average of 15 to 22 oval tubers with small eyes. The peel is yellow, the flesh is light yellow. Despite the dry summer, the variety pleased with a good harvest of large and beautiful tubers. Evaluating the taste, we can say that the pulp is starchy, dense in texture, with excellent taste. I cannot draw any conclusions on resistance to late blight for one season (the summer was hot, the disease manifested itself weakly), but we were harvesting at the end of August.
Another novelty in 2020 is the potato Ivan da Shura, created in the Kaluga Region by breeder A. Glukhov. Surely many have heard of the Kiwi variety - this is another of its varieties, which has received recognition from many gardeners in Russia. But the potatoes Ivan da Shura attracted me with their "pedigree": it was obtained from the parental forms of Sineglazka x Effect and absorbed their best qualities: a yield of over 750 kg / ha, resistance to diseases, unpretentiousness to soils and white crumbly pulp with starchiness up to 17 %. According to the author, the variety is not subject to degeneration (but this must be checked.). Our plants have developed well, the bushes are compact, with purple flowers.
The crop was harvested in the 20th of August (and the tubers were planted, I remind you, in the 20th of May), and the growing season was 3 months. By the time of harvesting, the tops remained strong and green, the tubers tightly adhered to the stolons, and, accordingly, could still gain weight.
There were no large potatoes, as well as little things, and on average we removed more than 30 neat, lengthened-oval tubers of equal weight and size from the bush. Their skin is white, thin and smooth, with "brow ridges" of a bluish tint. The eyes are superficial, small, the flesh is also white.
After digging, tubers, even damaged ones, are well stored, which means that the variety is resistant to mechanical damage and suitable for mechanical harvesting. When tasting boiled tubers, we appreciated the rich, delicate pleasant taste of crumbly potatoes. The variety has not yet been included in the State Register of the Russian Federation.
Of the varieties that we have been growing for 10 years, the leaders emerged last year - Sorcerer, Galaktika, Estrella. They give a relatively stable harvest every year. And some of the time-tested crop varieties, on the contrary, are Adretta, Skarb, Tuleevsky, Zhuravinka, Aurora and even Sineglazka - in a year with a cold spring and dry summer, they brought a meager harvest, although all varieties received the same care.
Several new varieties of the FGBNU Federal Research Center named after A.G. Lorkha - Navigator, Comet, Cornet, Typhoon, Commander - did not noticeably show themselves. Obviously, our heavy land and dry summer did not allow them to form a good harvest. They are noticeably inferior in yield to the varieties Krasa Meshchera and Ivan da Shura. But the variety Dream could overtake the variety Ivan da Shura in yield: there were also a lot of tubers under the bush, but the size let us down. I think that in a favorable year, Dream would become one of the leaders.
In recent years, varieties created in Germany, such as Donata, Gelli, Granada, Fidelia, Damaris, Queen Anne, have recommended myself to bury myself. They are highly resistant to diseases of the tops and tubers, consistently give a good harvest, regardless of weather conditions.
In particular, Queen Anne grew up next to the Adretta variety. The Queen's crop looked, one might say, royal. During the growing season, the variety stood out for its powerful tall tops with large caps of white flowers, and during digging, with leveled, elongated, oval, flat tubers.
Under the bush there were from 12 to 18 pieces of medium size and absolutely no fines. The peel is smooth, yellow, with small superficial eyes, the flesh is yellow. When boiling, the tubers are poorly boiled, and the taste is not inferior to the taste of Kras Meshchera's potatoes. True, Queen Anne's flesh is less dense, which is obviously due to the low starch content, at the level of 13-14%. It is advisable to grow this variety on loose soil: in my loamy area, individual tubers rotted due to lack of air.
In many respects, the German mid-season variety Florence (Florenc), which is similar to Queen Anna, has significantly surpassed it this season. It is less sensitive to soil type and weather conditions, and even on our heavy loam made it happy with a good harvest. The plants did not hurt, we removed 6-10 large tubers from the bush, there were no trifles at all. The pulp is yellow and seems oily, the taste is good, starch is 11-13%. For soups and side dishes, it's better not!
See also: What kind of potato is the most delicious
The varieties are bred by the Irish Seed Company, in particular Burren, Galaktika, Electra. The druid, Eagle and Slaney, have done well. We have been planting the galaxy for several years, constantly receiving an excellent harvest of leveled tubers. Plants are resistant to diseases, including late blight. And we have been growing the mid-late Druid for 2 years. It is also consistently harvested. The tubers are oval, with red skin and creamy white flesh. It is relatively resistant to late blight in leaves and tubers, as well as to black leg, dry rot, nematodes and viruses.
The novelty of the selection of the Omsk Research Institute of Agriculture, potatoes of the Letniy variety, were also able to prove themselves last year. Round-oval tubers of light pink color with tasty yellow pulp were to everyone's taste. This new variety has been little studied so far, but it has prospects.
And finally, I'll tell you about new products with purple and pink pulp. Such varieties are gaining popularity every year. They contain a small amount of starch, but a lot of anthocyanins and carotenoids. Potatoes for a healthy diet! I have tested several dozen varieties of "colored" potatoes - purple, pink and even almost black as coal.
The main problem when growing purple varieties (and in most cases their peel has a dark purple color) is harvesting. This is especially difficult on chernozem soils. Dark tubers on dark soil are almost invisible. And now breeders are creating varieties with purple flesh and lighter skin tones. This is how the Smile of the Night variety appeared: white spots, similar to a smile, are located around the eyes. True, the pulp also turned out to be two-colored, white-purple.
Varieties with pink flesh in our area are not particularly productive, the heavy soil affects. But a stable yield every year (albeit not large tubers) is given by the varieties All Red and Scarlet Flower. But their flesh is deep pink in color. But the new, still unnamed hybrid with pink veins gave an excellent harvest!
What can you say at the end of the year? Sometimes good potato varieties give a meager harvest. This does not mean that they are bad, perhaps they react this way to weather conditions. And since we are now unpredictable every year, it is better to plant several varieties of different ripening periods to guarantee the harvest.
See also: Potatoes - the most productive and sustainable as well as delicious varieties - agronomist reviews
THE MOST DELICIOUS POTATO VARIETIES - VIDEO
© Author: A. LUKSHIN, agronomist
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