Taxon: family Solanaceae (Solanaceae)
Other names: tuberous nightshade, European potatoes, Chilean potatoes
English: potato, potatoes
The Russian word "potato" comes from the German Kartoffel, which, in turn, comes from the Italian tartufo, tartufolo - truffle.
Description of potatoes
- perennial (annual in culture) herbaceous, bushy plant up to 60 cm high with a taproot, strongly developed root. Underground roots are white, forming fleshy edible tubers at the ends. Stems are numerous, erect or ascending, faceted.The leaves are intermittently pinnate, with several ovoid leaflets. The flowers of the potato are large, white, purple, 2-4 cm in diameter, with a spike-shaped stellate corolla, collected in an inflorescence, consisting of 2-3 curls. The fruit is a poisonous, spherical polyspermous black-purple berry. Seeds are yellow, very small. The color of potato tubers is different - white, yellow, red, purple.
Growing places
as a garden culture grows throughout Russia.Collection and procurement
For medicinal purposes, flowers, potato shoots, its peel and underground tubers are used, which are harvested during their ripening period, on the waning moon from noon to sunset. One feature of potato tubers should be remembered: they must be kept in a dark place. Otherwise (if the tubers lie in the light, especially in the sun), they take on a green color and become poisonous, unsuitable for food, much less for medicinal use.The chemical composition of potatoes
According to some studies potatoes contains a small amount of protein, which is extremely valuable, with a rich set of essential amino acids. Potato tubers on average contain about 76% water and 24% dry matter, including about 17.5% starch, 0.5% sugars (sugar-fructose and sucrose), 2% proteins, about 1% mineral salts, microelements: potassium - 426 mg /%, calcium - 8 mg /%, magnesium - 17 mg /%, phosphorus - 38 mg /%, iron - 0.9 mg /%; vitamins: thiamine - 0.01 mg /%, riboflavin - 0.07 mg /%, nicotinic acid - 0.67 mg /%, ascorbic acid - 7.5 mg /%. Amino acids were also found here: arginine, lysine, leucine, tyrosine, tryptophan, histidine, choline, acetylcholine, allantoin, xanthine, etc. The potato protein is called tuberin. It belongs to the group of globulins. All organs of the plant contain the steroid alkaloid solanine. Most of all it is contained in sprouts formed by lighting potatoes, flowers and skins.Nutritional value and chemical composition of potatoes.
Pharmacological properties of potatoes
Fresh juice of potato tubers and starch obtained from potatoes are used as an enveloping anti-inflammatory agent for gastrointestinal diseases. Starch has a pronounced antiulcer effect, the basis of the mechanism of which is blocking the action of pepsin on the gastric mucosa.Potato application
Because potatoes are alkaline, they make a great addition to all vegetables, milk and cheese.Potatoes are included in the diet of kidney and heart patients: high potassium content determines its good diuretic properties, which means the prevention of edema. Red and pink potatoes are considered particularly effective.
Potato juice helps to reduce the secretion of acid by the gastric glands, slightly "dulls" pain, accelerates the scarring of ulcers on the mucous membrane of the digestive tract. In addition, it weakens somewhat, which is extremely important for gastritis and ulcerative patients, usually suffering from constipation. It relieves belching well and helps with various dyspeptic disorders.
Potato starch is used in chronic diseases of the gastrointestinal tract as an enveloping, emollient and anti-inflammatory agent.
Potato starch is also used as a base for dusting and filler for powders and tablets.
In folk medicine, potato juice is drunk to lower high blood pressure.
Potato juice lowers blood sugar levels, therefore it is useful in the early stages of diabetes.
Raw potato juice is used for gastric ulcer and duodenal ulcer. It inhibits gastric secretion and has an anti-inflammatory effect.
In the potato peel, substances have been found that have a positive effect on the human body in case of allergies, tachycardia, hypertension and painful shock.
Potato medicines
Potato juice helps with headaches due to the acetylcholine contained in it, which has a hypotensive effect. For a headache, dip both hands up to the elbows in hot water and hold them until the pain stops, adding hot water. Tie thin slices of raw potatoes to the forehead. Juice of potatoes squeezed from tubers ripe in September-October, take within 2-3 weeks 2-3 times a day, 100 ml (if tolerated - up to 200 ml) with uterine myoma.Fresh potato juice mixed with skim milk and sour cream is used to get rid of freckles and cracks from open skin parts.
Raw potato juice cleanses the entire body well. Mixed with carrot juice and celery juice, it is good for digestive disorders, nervous disorders - for example, sciatica and goiter. In these cases, daily consumption of 500 ml of carrot, cucumber, beetroot and potato juice very often gives a positive result in a short time, provided that all meat and fish products are excluded
The juice squeezed from fresh raw tubers is taken 2-3 times a day, half a glass half an hour before meals for gastritis with high acidity, gastric ulcer and duodenal ulcer.
Raw potato tubers, chopped on a grater, are considered a good healing agent for burns, eczema and other various skin lesions. The rubbed mass is simply applied to the affected areas of the skin.
For heartburn, peel a medium-sized potato, cut into small pieces and chew slowly one by one.
Potatoes are an effective means of cleansing joints from toxins and is considered a good remedy for polyarthritis. To do this, within 3 days, you need to eat 2-3 kg of potatoes, boiled with the peel in plenty of water. Potatoes are kneaded in a broth and eaten with the peel. Do not take any other food at this time. To eat potatoes with skins, you need to cook them for a long time.
Mashed potatoes or raw potato gruel relieve swelling if applied to them 3 times a day in the form of compresses.
Steam from boiled unpeeled (in uniform) potatoes as inhalation treats colds of the respiratory tract, accompanied by coughs, runny nose and headaches.
To lengthen the session, i.e. do not allow the pan to cool down quickly, the patient throws some kind of cloth cover over his head, which also covers the pan. The effect of treatment is quite high, because here the volatile secretions of potatoes and the heat of water vapor act as therapeutic factors. It is only important not to go out into the cold after an inhalation session.
Warming up with potato steam is very useful for sciatica and radiculitis.
Pour 1 liter of water over one medium potato, one medium onion and an apple, cook until the water is half boiled away. Drink 3 times a day for 1 tsp. with chronic cough.
Potatoes with a greenish thick layer are peeled and finely chopped. The crushed, fresh, mushy mass is applied in the form of a compress to the damaged ligaments, muscles, tendons.
Cut long potato shoots into small 0.5 cm slices and dry in a dark, well-ventilated area. Put 200 g of these sprouts in a glass mortar, pour 200 ml of 70% alcohol, close tightly, insist in a dark place for 8 days, periodically shaking the contents, strain, squeeze. Store in a cool, dark place. For various oncological diseases, take 3 times a day 30 minutes before meals (drip the tincture in 1/2 glass of warm water, starting with 1 drop, bring the intake to 25 drops and continue to take them in this amount).
Dry the potato flowers in the shade. Brew 1 tbsp in 0.5 liters of boiling water. l. flowers, insist in a thermos for 3-4 hours. Drink 1/2 cup 3 times a day 30 minutes before meals for various malignant neoplasms. The course of treatment is 4 liters of infusion.
A decoction of flowers is used to lower blood pressure and stimulate respiration.
Contraindications
In the light, glycoalkaloids accumulate under the skin of tubers, which can cause poisoning of humans and animals; during cooking, these compounds partially pass into water.Potato berries containing solanine are also poisonous. This alkaloid is formed in leaves, young shoots, fruits and skins, especially during long-term storage. Children who have eaten potato berries experience severe poisoning, scratching in the throat, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, hand tremors. When providing first aid, it is necessary to flush the stomach, give them sour or fresh milk or egg white before the doctor arrives.
It is very dangerous to juice green tubers containing sprouted eyes.
In cases where livestock are grazed in potato fields and animals feed on green tops and fruits, they may experience diarrhea, vomiting, severe poisoning, convulsions and disturbances in the work of the cardiac and respiratory systems.
Poisonous substances are formed only in this greened surface part of the tuber, not at all penetrating into the depths. Therefore, you should not throw away the green potatoes, it is enough to cut off only the green parts (they usually take up a small fraction of the total mass).
White shoots of potatoes are also poisonous, so when cooking potatoes "in their uniforms" the shoots must be broken off.
Potato information
There are about 200 wild and cultivated potato species, mostly found in South and Central America. There are two main cultivated species: Indian (since ancient times grown in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia) and Chilean (homeland - Middle Chile), which are widespread in countries with a temperate climate. The Indians of South America began to cultivate potatoes about 14 thousand years ago, and they were introduced to Europe around 1565. Potatoes came to Russia thanks to Peter I, who sent a bag of tubers from Holland in 1698. As a result of the violent tsarist measures to introduce potato crops in 1834-1844, riots took place among the peasants of the Vyatka and Vladimir provinces, the regions of the Urals, the Lower and Middle Volga regions.Conspiracy of faces
The potato is used for the rye plot. Take a knife and drive them clockwise around the face, saying: “Face, face, you are not good-looking here. An aspen, a mug is waiting for you in the forest at the edge of the forest, you will be very beautiful on the aspen, you will sing, have fun and burn. And leave the servant of God (name) alone. Amen. Amen. Amen". You can't touch your face with your hands!Saying the last three words, baptize the face three times, then take two potatoes, grate them. The patient should put this mass on his leg or other sore spot, bandage it and go to bed.
This vegetable is likely to come in second in terms of prevalence. Africa or America, Europe or Asia - regardless of the continent, people all over the world enjoy it. We are so used to it that we no longer consider it to be something new, and even more so we do not classify it as a delicacy. We are talking about potatoes that have long been known to us. Let's remember the time when it was not yet so widespread, learn about some of the tragedies associated with its loss, and find out why it is still so valued in Russia. However, let's start from where it spread throughout the world. What became the birthplace of potatoes? Is it Europe or elsewhere?
It has long been believed that potatoes came to us from the homeland of potatoes - these are Chile, Peru and Bolivia. Even today, in our time, in the Andes, you can see how potatoes grow in the wild. There, at an altitude of more than a kilometer, you can find tubers of almost all currently known varieties. According to scientists, in ancient times, the Indians in that area could breed and cross varieties of various plants, including potatoes. The very first information about potatoes came from a Spaniard, a participant in the military campaign of Julian de Castellanos in 1535. According to him, even the Spaniards liked the mealy root vegetable of this plant. True, few people paid attention to his words. So you can briefly describe how the history of the origin of the potato (its distribution) began.
How culture got to Europe
The following description of the potato can be found in the Chronicle of Peru by Pedro Cieza de Leone. He described this plant in great detail and clearly. The story of the emergence of potatoes interested the king of Spain, who gave the order to bring a huge amount of this overseas product. Thus, thanks to Spain, the homeland of the potato - South America - supplied the whole of Europe with this vegetable. First he went to Italy, and later to Belgium. Then the mayor of Mons (Belgium) handed over several tubers for research to his arc and a friend in Vienna. And only his friend, also a botanist, described the potatoes in detail in his work "On Plants". Thanks to him, the potato got its own scientific name - Solyanum tuberosum esculentum (tuberous nightshade). Over time, his description of the potato and the very name of the vegetable garden became generally accepted.
In Ireland
It was time for Ireland, and in the 1590s, potatoes got there. There he gained universal recognition due to the fact that he took root well even in relatively unfavorable conditions. Regardless of the climate, wet or dry, mild or changeable, regardless of whether the tubers were planted in fertile or non-fertile soil, potatoes bore fruit. Therefore, it became so widespread that in the 1950s, at least one third of the entire area suitable for agriculture was planted with potatoes. More than half of the harvested crop was used for human consumption. Thus, potatoes were eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Everything would be fine, but suddenly there would be a crop failure? What would the Irish eat then? They didn't want to think about it.
The consequences of crop failures
If earlier it happened that the potatoes did not bring the expected harvest, then certain efforts were made to provide the necessary assistance to the victims. And if in the next year it was again possible to collect the required amount of root crops, this covered up the shortcomings of the previous period. So, in 1845 another crop failure occurred. However, no one was worried about the reasons for the incident. I must say that at that time they still did not know much about late blight - because of which it was not possible to collect the required amount of vegetable. The fungus that infects the tubers causes potatoes to rot both in the ground and even after being harvested from the fields. In addition, fungal spores of the disease are easily spread by airborne droplets. And due to the fact that only one variety of potatoes was planted in Ireland at that time, the entire crop quickly died. The same thing happened in the next few years, which led first to unemployment and then to hunger in the country. Indirectly, this influenced the outbreak of cholera, which in 1849 killed more than 36 thousand people. The history of the potato with such an unfavorable turn of events resulted in the state losing more than a quarter of its population.
Potatoes: the history of their appearance in Russia
Gradually, culture spread to European countries, as we saw in the example of Ireland, and at the very beginning of the eighteenth century it first appeared in Russia. In those years, Peter I was in transit in Holland. There he had the opportunity to taste dishes made from potatoes (at that time, as today, they did not suspect that the homeland of potatoes is South America). Having tasted the innovation of cooking, the Russian sovereign noted the original taste of potato fruits. Since this delicacy was not yet available in Russia, he decided to send a bag of potatoes to his homeland. This is how the history of potatoes in Russia began.
In chernozem, as well as in soils of medium acidity, the new culture has taken root well. However, ordinary people still looked with apprehension at this miracle vegetable, since due to ignorance of the correct methods of its preparation, there were numerous cases of poisoning. How do you make the spread of potatoes on a grand scale? Peter I was an intelligent man and figured out what could be done for this. Tubers were planted in several fields, and guards were posted nearby, which served during the day, but left the fields at night. This aroused great curiosity among ordinary peasants, and at night, while no one was seeing, they began to steal a new vegetable and plant in their fields. However, it did not become widespread at that time. There were a lot of those who "managed" to poison themselves with its berries. Therefore, the "damn apple" mostly common people refused to grow. For 50-60 years, the miracle vegetable was forgotten in Russia.
How potatoes became famous
Later, Catherine II played a major role in making the potato generally accepted. However, the main impetus for the spread of root crops was the famine that occurred in the 1860s. It was then that they remembered everything that they had previously neglected, and were surprised to find that potatoes have an excellent taste and are very nutritious. As the saying goes, "there would be no happiness, but misfortune helped."
Here is such an interesting history of potatoes in Russia. So, over time, they began to plant throughout the country. People soon realized how useful the supply of this vegetable is, especially during times of poor grain crops. Until now, potatoes are considered the second bread, because, having sufficient reserves in the cellar, you can live even in difficult times. Thanks to their calorie content and benefits, to this day, the first thing that is planted in the garden is potato tubers.
Why potatoes are so popular in Russia
Since the time of Peter I, people did not immediately learn about the chemical and nutritional value of this root crop for the human body. However, the history of the potato shows that it contains the substances necessary to survive in times of hunger, disease and misfortune. What is so valuable and useful in this common root vegetable? It turns out that its proteins contain almost all the amino acids that we could find in plant foods. Three hundred grams of this vegetable is enough to meet the daily requirement of potassium, phosphorus and carbohydrates. Potatoes, especially fresh ones, are rich in vitamin C and fiber. Moreover, it also contains other elements necessary for life, such as iron, zinc, manganese, iodine, sodium and even calcium. Moreover, most of the useful substances are contained in the potato peel, which today is very often not eaten. However, in times of famine, ordinary people did not neglect it and ate whole potatoes, baked or boiled.
Cultivation of the only one and the consequences of it
As we have already learned, the homeland of potatoes is South America. There, the farmers acted wisely, breeding root crops of various varieties. So, only some of them were susceptible to the disease - fungal late blight. Therefore, even if such varieties died, it would not entail such terrible disasters as in Ireland. The fact that there are varieties of the same culture in nature protects people from this kind of misfortune. However, if you grow the fruits of only one variety, then this can lead to what happened in Ireland at one time. As well as the use of various chemical fertilizers and pesticides, which especially adversely affect the natural cycle and the environment in general.
Why is it profitable to grow only one potato variety
What, in this case, including in Russia, prompts farmers to grow only one particular variety of potatoes? This is mainly influenced by marketability and economic factors. Thus, farmers can bet on a beautiful looking fruit, which means more demand from buyers. Also, the emergence of a standard crop can be explained by the fact that a certain variety of potatoes brings in a particular area a larger yield than others. However, as we have learned, this approach can have far-reaching adverse consequences.
Colorado potato beetle is the main enemy of Russian gardeners
Insect pests can cause great damage to crops. One species of leaf beetle is very familiar to every gardener or farmer - this is for the first time in 1859 it was discovered how many difficulties this insect can bring to potato cultivation. And in the 1900s, the beetle reached Europe. When it was brought here by chance, it quickly covered the entire continent, including Russia. Due to its resistance to chemicals that are used to combat it, this beetle is almost the main enemy of every gardener. Therefore, to end this pest, in addition to chemicals, they began to use agricultural methods. And now in Russia, every summer resident who wants to feast on homemade potatoes fried or baked in the coals of a fire, first has to get acquainted with simple methods of dealing with this pest.
Potatoes, or nightshade tuberous, is a perennial tuberous plant from the flowering department, dicotyledonous class, of the order Solanaceae, Solanaceae family, genus Solanum.
The name "potato" (lat. Solanum tuberosum), by which this plant (vegetable) is known to today's man in the street, was proposed by Kaspar Baugin in 1596. The Italians, due to the external similarity of the fruit bodies with potato tubers, began to call them "tartuffolli" or "tartatoes". From this word the German version of the name of the underground fruits "Kartoffel" was formed, which gave the Russian name.
Potatoes - description and appearance. Plant and vegetable structure.
The number of stems in one plant ranges from 4 to 8-10. Their height, depending on the variety of potatoes, may not exceed 30 cm or reach 1.5 meters. On the erect fleshy stems of green (sometimes with a brown tint), peculiar ribs are clearly distinguished. Dark green potato leaves on short petioles rise in a spiral from the base to the top.
Shoots (stolons) radiate in different directions from the part of the potato stalk immersed in the ground, the length of which can reach 0.5 m. At their ends are potato tubers, the thin outer shell of which is formed by cork tissue. There are depressions on their surface, called eyes. They contain several buds, from which a new plant develops. The flowers of the plant, collected at the top of the stems, are usually white in color. However, there are varieties with pink, blue or purple flowers. Below you can see what the potato stalk looks like, as well as the detailed structure of the potato.
The aboveground potato fruit is a green, poisonous berry that resembles a miniature tomato. As it matures, it acquires a whitish hue.
The appearance, weight, color of the top layer of potato tuber and its pulp differ depending on the variety. The tuber rind can be colored in various shades of brown, yellow, pink or purple. Therefore, it will not be possible to give a definite answer to the question of what color the potatoes are.
The flesh of a potato cut is usually white, but there are varieties with a dark yellow, cream or even purple, blue and pink color.
The shape of potato tubers is round, oblong, spherical or abstract, with protrusions and irregularities, and the weight of individual specimens can reach 1 kg or more.
Potato varieties - photo and description.
Today there are approximately 5,000 potato varieties known. Of these, 260 are recommended for breeding in large farms and for private use in Russia.
For practical application, all varieties are divided into the following groups:
- "Felox" is a variety of table potatoes with elongated tubers weighing up to 110 g. The flesh is light yellow, the skin is darker.
- "Red Scarlett" - a variety of potatoes with oval tubers weighing up to 85 g. One bush contains up to 23 potatoes with smooth red skin and yellow flesh.
- "Nevsky" - potatoes with oval tubers with pink eyes and weighing up to 130 g. The top layer and pulp are white.
- "Vitalot" - a variety of purple potatoes, has oblong tubers up to 10 cm long. High starchy, highly boiled, retains its violet-blue color during cooking. It ripens late and has a low yield, therefore it is not grown on an industrial scale.
Technical potato varieties - are used as raw materials in the industrial production of alcohol and starch. The starch content in tubers exceeds 18%. The following varieties are most often grown:
- "Accent" - with large potatoes with a smooth yellow surface and light creamy flesh.
- "Climber" - medium-sized potatoes. The peel is yellow, covered with a fine mesh with numerous small eyes. The tuber on the cut is creamy.
- "Outflow" - under one bush can be up to 10 potatoes weighing about 135 g. The surface of the yellow peel is covered with a rare mesh. The pulp is cream colored.
Fodder varieties of potatoes - used as livestock feed. A characteristic feature of fodder potatoes is an increased protein content, reaching 3%. Among them, the following varieties can be distinguished:
- Voltman is a fodder potato variety with red tubers with numerous light eyes and white flesh. They have an irregular angular shape.
- "Lorkh" - oblong tubers, covered with a smooth beige skin, have white flesh with a protein content of up to 2.2% and vitamin C up to 18%. Numerous shallow eyes are located over the entire surface of the tuber.
Universal potato varieties occupy an intermediate position between table varieties and potatoes for technical use.
- "Berlichingen" is a potato variety with red oval tubers. The peel is firm and thick with superficial eyes. The white pulp darkens during cooking.
- "Arosa" - a variety with oval reddish tubers and yellow pulp. Spreading stems with corollas of red-violet color.
- "Sante" - has oval tubers with light yellow skin and flesh.
- "Lasunok" - its tubers are medium-sized, oval in shape with a light yellow mesh skin and creamy flesh.
Potato ripening period.
There is a classification of potatoes according to the timing of their ripening:
- Early potato varieties... The maturity of early potatoes occurs after 50-60 days, so it is practically not intended for long-term storage. The following varieties are popular:
- Minerva;
- Ariel;
- Felox;
- Red Scarlett et al.
- Medium early potato varieties... To obtain a good harvest of medium early potatoes, the planting material is germinated in advance. The ripening period for this species is up to 80 days. The most popular varieties are:
- Carat;
- Santa;
- Adretta, etc.
- Mid-season potato varieties... The duration of the growing season of mid-season potatoes reaches 100 days. The following varieties are in great demand:
- Nevsky;
- Altair;
- Betina;
- Rosinka and others.
- Medium and late potato varieties... The ripening period is from 100 to 120 days. It is designed for long-term storage. You can plant such planting material without prior germination. Good results are obtained by planting such popular varieties as:
- Bernadette;
- Berlinger;
- Folva;
- Accent;
- Slavyanka, etc.
As a rule, tubers or eyes are used to grow potatoes. This plant loves fertile, garden lands, feels good in sunny, sufficiently drained areas.
Description of potatoes with photos of tubers, stems, leaves and flowers
Potatoes (lat. - Solanum tuberosum) Is a member of the nightshade family, which includes wild and cultivated species. The most common potato for cultivation is the Chilean or tuberous potato.
The history of potatoes in Russia dates back to the reign of Peter I. Having become acquainted with this crop in the Netherlands, the tsar ordered to send a sack of potatoes to Russia. At first, the plant was rare and expensive, and dishes from it were served only at court feasts and in the houses of nobles as a dessert - the tubers were sprinkled with sugar.
Peter I ordered the planting of potatoes everywhere, but this provoked resistance from the common people. The overseas plant was called the devil's apple and they refused to breed. The peasants did not know that only tubers are suitable for food, but not the green berries that grow on the bushes. In the villages, there were many severe poisoning with poisonous berries. Potato cultivation in Russia began under pain of harsh punishments, potato riots broke out everywhere (for example, AI Herzen mentions them in his Past and Thoughts).
In 1841, a government order was issued in Russia "On measures to promote potato cultivation." Free instructions on how to plant and grow potatoes were sent nationwide, with a circulation of 30,000.
Gradually, the potato took root in Russia. The yield of this crop increased every year, new ways of using potatoes were found. The active spread of this culture led to the fact that at the end of the 19th century. the total area of \u200b\u200bhis crops was 1.5 million hectares. At first, potatoes were used only for food, then they began to be planted for pet food. Later, they learned to get starch, molasses and alcohol from this culture.
Nowadays, potatoes are a valuable food crop that plays an important role in our diet.
Potatoes are a perennial herb, but they are used as annuals for growing.
Potatoes have a lobular root system that penetrates the soil to a shallow depth. Most of the roots are in the topsoil, and only individual roots penetrate to a depth of 1.5 m.
There is no person who is not familiar with the description of potatoes: plant tubers are modified and shortened stems. There are eyes on its surface. If you look closely, their arrangement is not chaotic, but organized in a spiral. Each eye has 3 buds. The bud has a complex structure: it contains a short stem with an upper sprout layer and rudiments of leaves, axillary buds and roots.
As you can see in the photo, mature potato tubers consist of several layers:
Above there is a peel made of cork fabric, which protects the tubers from environmental influences and drying out. Under the skin is the parenchyma - cells with a high content of starch. The inner layer is cambium (educational tissue). The tubers also have fibrous vascular bundles. They connect to the eyes. In the inner part of the tubers, the starch content is lower. Depending on the variety of potatoes, it can have tubers of different shape and color.
The stem of the potato is erect, 30 - 150 cm high. Sometimes the stem deviates to the side. In its underground part there are axillary buds, from which stolons (underground shoots) develop. At the tops of the stolons there are thickenings from which new tubers grow.
Look at the photo - the leaves of the potato are unpaired pinnately dissected, simple:
The structure of the leaves is one of the main features of the potato variety. The flowers of this plant consist of 5 - 6 petals, which are partially welded together. They can be of different colors - white, blue, red or blue-violet.
Pay attention to the photo - there is one pistil and five stamens in potato flowers:
The upper ovary contains two carpels and many ovules. Flower sepals are fused at the base. Potatoes bloom 30 - 35 days after germination. Potatoes are self-pollinated plants. Its fruit is a green, multi-seeded, two-celled berry. The berries are round or oblong. Potato tubers are dug up from August.
A potato bush grown from a tuber consists of two to seven stems, each of which has its own leaves, roots, stolons and tubers and grows independently of other stems, that is, the bush is a nest of independent plants - stems.
Tubers begin to germinate at a temperature of 7-10 ° C, the most favorable temperature for tuberization is 16-18 ° C. Potatoes do not tolerate freezing temperatures, even with slight frosts (-1 ° C), their tops die.
The potato is a temperate plant and produces the highest yields at 17–20 ° C heat. Potatoes tolerate lower temperatures more easily than higher temperatures.
According to the ripening period, potato varieties are subdivided into early-maturing, mid-maturing, mid-late, late-maturing.
The best precursors for potatoes are various root vegetables. You can not cultivate it after tomatoes, which have common pests and pathogens with it. Potatoes should be grown in the same place no earlier than 2-3 years later.
Seed material should be periodically renewed, since the tubers degenerate very quickly. Therefore, at least in 2-3 years, use tubers grown in other areas for planting.
Potato growing conditions and planting dates
Shine. Potato is a fairly light-loving plant. With a strong thickening of crops or when they are darkened by weeds, its plants become underdeveloped, pale green and elongated, sometimes even die.
The soil. All soils are suitable for growing potatoes, with the exception of clean sands, clays, swampy and highly saline areas. However, the most suitable for potatoes are slightly acidic soils (pH 5.5–5.8), loose, rich in nutrients, alluvial, as well as sandy loam and loamy chernozems.
Moisture. One of the features of growing potatoes is increased moisture requirements. Especially a lot of moisture is consumed by potatoes during the period of intensive growth and development of tops, as well as during budding and flowering, that is, during the period of increased tying and growth of tubers. It is necessary that at least 300 mm of precipitation falls during the tuberization period. With a lack of moisture in the soil, the tubers stop further growth and "stand idle", which greatly decreases the yield, and with further precipitation or watering, the tubers grow, often acquiring an ugly shape. With an excess of moisture, the tubers also stop growing, suffocate and rot.
One of the important conditions for growing potatoes is saturation of the soil with potassium, nitrogen and, to a lesser extent, phosphorus.
In the first period of life, the potato plant requires few nutrients. It largely satisfies the nutritional needs of the mother tuber. Potatoes consume the largest amount of nutrients during the period of intensive growth of the aboveground mass and during the period of tuberization. By the end of the growing season, the supply of nutrients decreases and stops at the beginning of drying of the leaves.
With a lack of nitrogen in the soil, a weak development of the aboveground organs of the potato is noted, the leafiness of plants, the productivity of the work of the leaf apparatus and the yield of tubers decrease. With excess nitrogen nutrition, excessive growth of tops is observed, the formation of tubers is delayed and the growing season is lengthened; plant resistance to various diseases decreases and nitrates accumulate. With a normal nitrogen diet, the potato plant assimilates potassium and phosphorus better.
When growing and caring for potatoes in the open field, a good supply of potatoes with phosphorus accelerates the development of plants, starting from germination. The rate of formation of the root system increases, the period of tuberization begins earlier, the yield and starchiness of tubers increase, their keeping quality and seed quality improve. With a lack of phosphorus, the normal development of the plant is disrupted: the branching of the bush decreases, budding, flowering and tuberization are delayed. Brown spots appear on the tubers, their starchiness decreases, and the palatability deteriorates.
Potassium significantly affects the size of the potato yield and its quality (especially starch content), increases the resistance of plants to diseases. Potassium plays an exceptional role in the water regime of plants. With potassium starvation of potatoes, disturbances in the growth and development of the plant occur. Mechanical tissues and the root system are less developed. Tubers with a lack of potassium are small, acquire a somewhat elongated shape and are poorly stored in winter. Potash fertilizers, which contain a lot of chlorine, reduce the size of the starch grain.
Potato tubers contain from 15 to 30% dry matter, mainly starch, mineral salts of calcium, iron, iodine, potassium, sulfur, etc. The value of potato proteins is determined by the presence in them of significant amounts of essential amino acids - valine, lysine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, leucine , isoleucine, methionine and threonine, which the human body does not synthesize. In addition, potatoes are a source of anti-scurvy vitamin C, vitamins B, A, PP and K.
Growing potatoes: planting dates
The question of the timing of planting potatoes must be decided especially deliberately. You cannot specify the landing date exactly at such and such a time. First, the planting time for growing potatoes depends on whether the spring is early or late. Secondly, on light sandy soils, potatoes can always be planted earlier than on heavy clay soils, because sandy soils dry out faster in spring and heat up better.
You should not rush to plant potatoes, because potatoes planted too early can rot in moist, moist soil. But you should not be too late with planting, since such a delay can greatly reduce the yield.
Therefore, it is usual to start planting potatoes as soon as the tillage is finished and the soil warms up a little. In the north, the average time for planting potatoes is half of May, and in the middle provinces - early May, and even earlier in the south.
Soil preparation: what kind of soil does potatoes like and how to fertilize it
It is best to start cooking the plot of land allocated for potatoes in the fall, that is, it needs to be plowed before winter. During the main (autumn) plowing of the soil, weeds and plant residues from the previous harvest are plowed. When preparing the soil for potatoes, the plowing depth depends on the thickness of the arable horizon. If fertilizers were not applied to the soil in the fall, then they are applied in the spring when digging the site. Nitrogen fertilizers are applied only in spring (15–20 g of ammonium nitrate or 10–15 g of urea per 1 m2).
In the spring, before the sowing soil, it should be overburdened so that the soil is soft before planting and the area is leveled. It is important that the topsoil is deep enough for good root development. The site for potatoes must be prepared as soon as possible. For each natural and climatic zone its optimal timing. Almost every villager or owner of a summer cottage in Russia knows when it is best to plant potatoes. Do not force the planting time, you should wait until the soil is sufficiently warmed up by the sun (at a depth of 10 cm to 6-7 ° C). Many people, according to popular belief, are waiting for the first leaves of the birch to appear.
What kind of soil does potatoes like and how to fertilize it? Potatoes give the highest yields on floodplains, as well as sod-podzolic, medium, light loamy and sandy loamy soils with a neutral or slightly alkaline reaction.
In order to grow environmentally friendly potatoes, when planting, only organic fertilizers are applied along with the tubers - manure or compost, which must be prepared in advance. They should be rotten and free of lumps. To do this, they must defend undercover for at least two, and preferably three years. It is absolutely impossible to use the introduction of fresh manure into the soil, as well as compost. Organic fertilizers (manure, humus, composts, etc.) are of particular value for obtaining a high yield, since they contain all the necessary nutrients - nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and trace elements. The effect of manure lasts for several years: on light soils - 2-3 years, on heavy - up to 5 years. Manure decomposed to humus contains 2–3 times more nitrogen than fresh manure.
As for ash, it is better to feed potato seedlings with it before their flowering, and it is best to add ash before the beginning of the rain. At the same time, it is advisable to apply organic fertilizers in the fall, but if you have a sandy soil, then experts advise to apply organic fertilizers during the spring digging of the soil. Often, amateur gardeners apply fertilizer in large quantities in order not to perform this time-consuming agronomic operation more often than once every two to three years. But when introducing them, it should be borne in mind that excessively high doses of organic fertilizers lengthen the growing season in potatoes, that is, increase the ripening period of tubers. Before fertilizing the soil before planting potatoes, correctly calculate the required amount: if you apply fertilizers "with a margin", there is a possibility that early or medium early varieties will have to be harvested simultaneously with medium late ones, planted without excess organic matter. In addition, the content of nitrates in such tubers increases.
Preparing potatoes for planting: processing and germination of tubers
For planting, you need to take healthy large tubers weighing from 60 to 100 g. You can get a harvest earlier and more from such tubers than from small ones.
To prepare potato tubers for planting in spring, 10-18 days before planting, they are sorted out, diseased, wilted and germinated. There are many ways to harden the planting material and speed up germination. For example, treat it with hormonal preparations that stimulate root formation. Only vernalization, or light wilting, of potato tubers before planting contributes to an increase in yield by at least 15%.
The best lighting conditions are obtained when the tubers are placed in no more than 3 layers. Light helps to increase the density of nodes, on which stolons are then formed. If the air is dry, then when processing potatoes before planting, the tubers are sprayed 2-3 times with water. Tubers with threadlike sprouts or sprouted by children are discarded. The sprouts should not be more than 3 cm in length so that they do not break off during planting. After prolonged light germination of potatoes 2–3 days before planting, it is advisable to shade the tubers in order to stimulate the development of sprouts. Before planting, powder the tubers well with ash. Ash contains potassium in carbonate form, that is, without chlorine, which not only increases yield, but also improves quality.
You can plant potatoes with whole tubers, parts (even "eyes") and seeds.
Cutting the seed tubers is still undesirable. It leads to significant morbidity and is justified only with the accelerated reproduction of scarce planting material. For planting potatoes, tubers weighing 80-100 g are cut in half (across), larger by 3-4 parts weighing 30-40 g with 2-3 eyes. Cut the tubers 4–5 days before planting so that the slices dry out and become covered with a cork crust. By the way, in each eye there are 3-5 dormant buds, and at the top they are more viable than at the base of the tuber. Deep eyes are considered a minus of the variety.
Planting tubers in moist and unheated soil delays their germination and increases the risk of disease. Delaying planting for 10–20 days also sharply reduces yields and leads to degeneration of tubers. Potatoes are planted when the soil at a depth of 10–12 cm warms up to 6–8 ° C. The folk calendar advises to plant mid-ripening and late-ripening varieties after the birch leaves bloom.
Depth and distance between rows when planting potatoes (with video)
The planting depth of potatoes depends on several factors. In the early stages, in moist and clayey, poorly heated soil, the tubers are planted shallowly by 4–5 cm, in optimal periods - by 6–8 cm, and in later periods in dried, deeply heated, well-aerated soil - by 8-10 cm In arid regions and on sandy soils, the planting depth is increased to 10–12 cm. Larger tubers are used for deep planting.
Planting density greatly affects the growing season and yield. Optimum density depends on variety, seed size, growing conditions and growing purpose. If the aisles are wide and the distance between the bushes is large, the weight of the stems increases, the tubers grow better, and the weight of one tuber increases. The recommended row spacing for planting potatoes is 70 cm.
For ridge planting, the ridges are cut manually with a walk-behind tractor or a tractor cultivator. The height of the ridge in which the tuber is planted is not more than 12 cm, the width at the bottom is 65 cm. Tubers on loamy soils are sealed by 6–8 cm, and on sandy loam soils - by 8–10 cm, counting from the top of the ridge to the tuber.
In the video of planting potatoes, you can clearly see how much distance you need to maintain between the rows and to what depth to plant the tubers:
Growing and caring for potatoes in the open field
The first shoots appear approximately 15–20 days after planting. Before germination, they are harrowed 2 times with an iron rake, and after the formation of 2-3 leaves on the plants, the soil is cultivated with a hoe between bushes in a row on both sides to a depth of 8-10 cm, making sure not to turn the wet layer onto the surface. Loosening the soil, especially in dry and sunny weather, in the daytime leads to the destruction of up to 80% of weeds.
Experienced gardeners know that after the shoots of potatoes reach 10–12 cm, they must be spilled so that additional stolons appear, on which tubers begin to form after a certain time. This simple and affordable technique will increase yields by 25-30 percent. Hilling should be done after rain or watering to keep the ground moist and fluffy.
Many people ignore this method, hoping that "the potato will grow anyway." But if you want to get the maximum yield, then remember one immutable rule: potatoes love nutritious and necessarily loose, breathable soil.
The looseness and air permeability of the soil for potatoes is often more important than moisture. The lack of air in the soil cannot be compensated for.
The depth of hilling on light soils is 13–15 cm, on heavy soils - 10–12 cm. Potatoes are usually hilled, raking up the soil to the plants, which moves the stems all together. In this case, the stolons only grow outward. If you huddle potatoes into collapse, that is, pushing the stems apart, then the stolons grow not only outward, but also inward, which gives 2-4 additional tubers in each bush.
As you can see in the photo, when growing potatoes, the hilling must be completed before the tops close:
In no case should you mow down the tops or break off the leaves on the potatoes. We must always remember that the more leaves on the potato, and the more stems, the more tubers there will be. And from that day, as soon as we mow or cut the tops, or tear off the leaves on the stems of potatoes, the growth of tubers will stop, and the harvest will be small.
Only if the tops of the potatoes are severely affected by the disease - potato rot - is it useful to mow the tops a week before harvesting the potatoes, cleanly rake them into heaps and take them from the field to the farmstead in a compost heap. But the compost made from rotten potato tops must be used for fertilization or grain bread, or cabbage, or such compost can be taken out to the meadows. But potato fields cannot be fertilized with such compost, because the infection from the rotted tops will pass to healthy potatoes.
If the farm does not have a compost heap, you can put the harvested rotten potato tops in a heap somewhere in the field, tamp it well and cover it with earth. The next year will be an excellent fertilizer.
Do I need to water potatoes and how to do proper watering
The answer to the question "do I need to water the potatoes?" unambiguous - of course, yes.
Proper watering of potatoes plays an important role in obtaining high yields of potatoes. With a lack of moisture in the soil, the growth of potatoes is delayed, the leaf apparatus and the root system develop poorly, the formation of tubers slows down, which leads to a decrease in yield and its quality indicators. Therefore, an uninterrupted supply of water to plants is so important, especially after germination, during budding and after flowering. After each watering or rain, it is necessary to loosen the soil (if the soil sticks to the hoe, the moment has not yet come; if it starts to dust, you are late with loosening).
There is a general rule: on light soils, potatoes should be watered more often, but in smaller doses, on heavy soils, less often, but abundantly, and so that the water is gradually absorbed into the soil without the formation of puddles. The watering can should be kept closer to the ground and quickly walk with it 2-3 times until the soil is completely wetted. The irrigation water temperature should not be lower than the soil temperature.
Top dressing and fertilization of potatoes
If the plants are poorly developed, they can be fed with mineral or organic fertilizers.
The lack of certain nutrients in the soil can be judged by the state of the tops. So, with a lack of nitrogen, the general development of the bush is weak, the stems are thin, the leaves are small, light green. With a lack of potassium, the tips of the middle and lower leaves become dark brown; later, the entire surface of the leaf acquires a bronze color. Lack of phosphorus affects especially strongly young plants. The color of the leaves is dull, dark green; the lower leaves turn yellow and brown.
Of organic fertilizers for feeding potatoes, humus is ideal - 2 handfuls for each bush. Mineral fertilizers are scattered in the aisles at a distance of 5–6 cm from the stems, then covered with a hoe. Top dressing can be carried out with slurry diluted with water in a ratio of 1: 4; if the soil has a small phosphorus content, then a tablespoon of superphosphate is added to 10 liters of solution.
In non-irrigated areas, feed the plants after rain or apply fertilizer in 10 cm deep grooves cut 10–12 cm from the row.
Accelerated reproduction of potatoes
Sometimes the question arises of how, having acquired several tubers of elite potatoes, to accelerate its propagation.
1.5–2 months before the optimal time for planting potatoes, place them in a warm place. For faster potato propagation, keep the potatoes warm, but without light, for a week. During this time, the eyes will wake up and sprouts will appear. Carefully inspect each tuber, if you find thin sprouts, scab spots or other diseases, the diseased tubers must be removed. When the selected tubers sprout and the sprouts reach 5 cm, break them out and plant in boxes with light soil, like cut seedlings. Care is the same as for seedlings. Before planting, a potato stalk can be dipped for better rooting in a root or a mixture of aloe and talcum powder, or in any other root former. Thus, from one tuber "harvest" of cuttings can be removed 2-3 times, and then cut the tuber, treat the cut with ash or other stimulant and plant in time for summer planting. By the time the seedlings are planted in the ground, these will already be well-rooted, healthy plants. Potatoes give an early harvest of quality leveled
tubers that can be left for another 1 year for seeds.
Growing seed potatoes
In order to always have good seed potatoes, you need to select the best tubers for the first potato planting. The best tubers does not mean that you have to take the largest tubers. No, you can take the largest and medium-sized tubers. Do not take only small tubers.
But the size of the tubers is not important. It is important to select the tubers most suitable for the correct tubers for the variety you choose to breed. For example, if you decide to breed a variety with oblong white tubers, then only such tubers should be selected for seeds. And round tubers or with reddish skin should no longer be taken. It is very easy to select seed potatoes for growing: the eye will quickly learn to distinguish real tubers.
When such tubers are selected, they must be planted separately, on a site with sandy loam soil. If there is no such land on the farm, you can do it, you can get good seed potatoes on loamy and on any other land. Sandy soil is good because it produces especially clean, medium-sized potatoes. And in those years when a disease develops on potatoes - potato rot - on sandy soils, healthy potatoes or very little affected by the disease are obtained.
Summer care for seed potatoes is the same as for the rest. But the harvesting of seed potatoes is done in a completely different way. Seed potatoes must be harvested before all other potatoes. It is necessary to remove it or simply by hand, if the tops of the seed potatoes are strong, and you can take the stems of the tops in your hand and pull out the entire bush. If the tops are rotten or completely dried up and breaks off easily, you will have to dig it out with a shovel.
Digging out each bush, you need to take a good look at whether the bush is good. A good bush should have a lot of tubers. The tubers should be large and the tubers should be clustered, not scattered. Such bushes will be the most productive, and it is necessary to select them for seeds.
Therefore, it is necessary to select seed potatoes not in spring or autumn, when all the potatoes are harvested in the basement or in the pits, but in autumn, during the harvest itself. At this time, each bush can be seen and appreciated. With such a selection of seed potatoes, you can be sure that there will be no degeneration.
Withering potatoes
To get a large crop of potatoes, you cannot plant fresh ones, just taken out of a pit or from a basement. It is necessary to take out the potatoes two weeks before planting and sprinkle them in the thinnest layer no more than 2 or 3 rows of thickness. It must be scattered in a non-frosty, bright room. In villages, the attic can be used for this purpose, if only windows can be made so that there is enough light in the attic.
Light is needed so that strong, thick, short shoots develop on the potato. In a thick heap, it would sprout with white, long shoots, which, when transporting potatoes to the field, would all break.
Potatoes scattered in a thin layer in a bright place not only germinate, but also wilt, and this is precisely what is necessary to obtain the highest yield. The fact is that the shoots developing from the potato tuber in the first time of life feed on the substances contained in the tuber. And only after a while, when a sufficient number of roots develop on the plants, they begin to draw juices from the soil.
But in an unheated tuber, nutrients are in such a form that plants cannot use them. Only after some time, when the tubers, after lying in the soil, wilt, substances are formed in them that the plant can eat.
And the plant is especially important for nutrition in the first time of life. That is why it is necessary to wither the potato tubers before planting.
This withering is also useful and here's why. When the potatoes, taken from the pit or from the basement, lie in the air for two weeks, the spoiled tubers will have time to rot, and they can be sorted. And without wilting such tubers, you may not even notice, and they will rot after planting.
If, for drying, potato tubers are scattered in a shed or in an attic and in general in such a place where frost can penetrate, it is necessary to prepare more matting, bags, rugs so that they can cover the potatoes in case of frost.
Potato tops training
Potato tops training is called stalk rolling. This is done in order to stop the growth of the potato tops and direct all the juices to feed the already set tubers. Training is especially useful if you can see that the potatoes are fattening, that is, growing too much in the tops. But experiments have proven that this technique deserves attention in general if you want to get a higher potato yield.
The time for production training is two or three weeks after flowering. They set up a light skating rink and drive them through an area planted with potatoes to break the stems and crush them to the ground. After such pressing of the tops, the growth of the stems stops and the intensified development of the tubers begins. We can say that from this time on, the tubers begin to grow by leaps and bounds.
To test this method, such an experiment was performed. We took two completely identical plots of potatoes, 150 square fathoms (675 m2) each. Two weeks after the beginning of flowering, a light wooden roller was launched in the first section to break and put the tops of the potatoes on the ground, and in the other section the potatoes were left unpacked.
When the crops were harvested from both sites in the fall, it turned out that 106 poods (1.7 tons) of potatoes were harvested from the trained (rolled) site. Of these, 84 pounds (1344 kg) were received for large potatoes and 22 pounds (352 kg) for small ones. And from the site that remained untouched, they received a total of 83 pounds (1328 kg), of which 49 pounds (784 kg) were large and 34 pounds (544 kg) were small.
Such experiments have been performed several times. Sometimes the yield increase from rolling the tops was less, but still rolling always increased the yield. And most importantly, more large potatoes were always obtained on rolled potatoes.
But only in the northern provinces, on clay soils, if there is a prolonged rainy weather, such rolling can severely damage the potatoes. Rolled on damp clay soil, and even in wet weather, the tops can easily rot.
On strong soils, very often potatoes drive the strongest tops, but at the same time, the tubers develop very strongly. Therefore, to make sure that the potatoes are fattening, you need to pull out 2-3 bushes. And if, with very strong tops, there are no tuber embryos on the flowering potatoes, you need to wait a week and roll the tops.
Planting and growing early potatoes
So that when growing early potatoes in a short growing season, the same crop accumulates as in the late one, appropriate agricultural technology is needed. Here are some guidelines.
Early potatoes are placed in a fertile, well-warmed and quickly drying area. Dig up the site for it in the fall, if possible at an earlier date - in late August - early September. In autumn, cut ridges on this plot, which contributes to better moisture absorption, melt water drainage, quick drying and warming of the soil. The combs can be made with a manual hiller. They need to be tweaked in the spring. If the ridges have seriously collapsed during the winter period, the soil has swollen or the ridges have not been cut since autumn, then plow or dig up to the full depth of the main mass of the roots, at least 22 cm as early as possible, then cut the ridges with a hiller on the treated soil.
Apply organic fertilizers for planting early potatoes in the fall with their obligatory incorporation. In exceptional cases, organic fertilizers can be applied in the spring, but in the form of semi-rotted manure or compost. If you add fresh manure or compost in spring, then they will not have a beneficial effect on the development and productivity of early potatoes, since they will have an effect only in the second half of summer. Organic fertilizers are applied up to 10 kg per 1 m2, or 1 ton per hundred square meters. Mineral fertilizers (urea, superphosphate, potassium salt) are applied randomly: before digging, cultivation and harrowing. Better yet, apply locally, directly under the tubers, or next to them, complex fertilizers - nitrophoska, ammophos, vegetable mixture, etc. They are taken at the rate of 10 g per 1 m2. Early potatoes are very responsive to magnesium fertilizers, especially on light sandy and sandy soils. Therefore, we recommend adding 40-50 g per 1 m2 of dolomite flour.
Of course, getting early potatoes predetermines early planting, it begins when the soil warms up to a temperature of 5-10 ° C. Do not try to plant tubers in cold, waterlogged soil under any circumstances. The tuber will lie there, showing no signs of growth. Planting depth is small - 8-10 cm.
To get an earlier production, cover the potato planting with foil. This will create a favorable microclimate under the shelter, accelerate the emergence of seedlings for a week or two. Punch holes in the foil in a checkerboard pattern, each 10 mm in diameter at a distance of 10-15 cm from one another. Precipitation can freely penetrate through the holes, and the landings will be aired. Sprinkle earth on the edges of the film.
Early varieties of potatoes especially need hilling, since the period of tuberization is very fast and intense. Therefore, do not forget, do not miss this important agricultural technique.
If there is a lack of moisture in dry weather, reduce the number of treatments and their depth - carry out only to destroy the soil crust and control weeds (as they appear).
If there is too much moisture, apply deep tillage to increase the evaporating soil surface and reduce the accumulation of moisture in the furrows.
If the potato field is small, then it is necessary, because it is not so difficult, but gives 2-3 more tubers from the bush. By picking off the buds, you prevent the potato from propagating by seed, and it enhances vegetative propagation of the tubers. Without spending energy on the formation of buds, flowering and growing seeds, the potato directs all the nutritious juices to the stolons.
Characteristics of potato varieties with photos and descriptions
Now check out the photos and descriptions of potato varieties most popular with vegetable growers.
When choosing a variety of potatoes, one must also know that not all varieties of potatoes can work on all soils, in all climates. One variety is good for light sandy loam soils, but fails at all on heavy clay soils. The other, on the contrary, is more fond of loamy soils. One variety grows well in arid provinces, the other succeeds better in northern, more humid provinces.
Therefore, we must try to get a little of all the recommended varieties and test them on our farm. It is only on the basis of our own experience that one can finally decide which potato variety is especially good for local conditions.
Given the characteristics of potato varieties, it must be remembered that they are divided into early, middle and late. Early varieties have time to produce ripe tubers in 70 to 90 days. Therefore, these varieties are especially suitable for the northern provinces, where frosts end in spring only in mid-May, and in mid-August, autumn frosts are often already there.
Medium potato varieties ripen much later - they need about 100-120 days. And the later ones ripen even later from 120 to 150 days and even more. Therefore, everyone must conform to the climate conditions in which his economy is located. You cannot take late varieties for the northern provinces, because they can give a decent harvest in the north only in a particularly favorable, warm summer. And in the south, of course, it is unprofitable to take early varieties. There you should take only medium and late varieties, and you can take very little of an early variety to get ready-made potatoes early.
Of the early varieties, a very good, productive, starch variety "Early Pink". This variety is found everywhere among peasants, but it is rare to find a real "Early Pink" with oblong tubers. It is often called "Skorospelka", "Red" or "American". The only bad thing is that this variety is highly susceptible to potato disease. Therefore, one should try to leave only bushes for seeds, in which there is not a single diseased tuber.
"July" -yellow potatoes, also with oblong tubers. It is also very productive and very hardy against potato disease.
"Early May Queen" - with reddish tubers. The variety is very productive, starchy, resistant to potato rot disease. For dense soils - "Epicurean", for light "Novo-Mikado".
Of the medium varieties, it should be indicated: "Emperor Richter" - with very large, rounded tubers, with white flesh and yellowish skin. The variety is quite starchy, very productive. It does well in the north, but it is especially productive in the middle provinces. It is preserved quite well, but the largest tubers often rot from the middle until spring, and therefore these tubers should be eaten or fed to livestock in the first half of winter.
"Merker" with round tubers of medium size. The skin is gray, the flesh is white. The variety is very productive, starchy and well preserved. I, in the Leningrad province, this variety annually, without refusal, gave good yields. Harvests were worse only in rainy, cold summers ...
Very good grade "Before the front"... The tubers are slightly oblong, the skin is gray, streaked, the flesh is white. This variety gives good yields both on dense clay soils and under unfavorable weather conditions, but in a favorable summer it gives very good yields. The tubers are starchy, crumbly. The variety is quite resistant against potato rot, and keeps well in winter.
Late varieties deserve recommendation for light soils "Silesia", "Voltman" with a red mesh skin. The tubers are large, round. The variety is very productive, starchy, well preserved. For medium soils - "Nestor", "Aza"; for the dense - "Znych".
"Blue Giant" - with very large tubers. The skin is blue, the flesh is white. The variety is very fruitful, but inferior to other varieties in starchiness and taste, it is not very well preserved in winter. "Roller" - with a bluish-red skin, as if covered with a net. The pulp is yellowish, very tasty, mealy, easily boiled. Keeps well enough, resistant against potato disease.
"Magnum-Bonum" - medium rather than late variety. In a favorable summer, it gives a good harvest even in the northern provinces. The tubers are very large and round. The peel is reddish-yellow, the flesh is white, starchy. The variety is very productive and stays well during the winter.
It is imperative to test several varieties on your site, little by little, and choose the variety that gives the best yields under local soil and climate conditions.
If you annually dump the entire crop in one pile, and select the largest tubers for seeds only in spring, there will be little sense. Potatoes will deteriorate every year, yields will decrease, and, in the end, seed potatoes will have to be prescribed again.
Harvesting and storage of potatoes
Dug up early potatoes for summer use on the green tops during the beginning of their flowering. For seeds and for winter consumption, potatoes are harvested later, in mid-September, after the tops have dried up massively. During this period, the tubers are easily separated from the stem shoots and have a strong skin. When harvested earlier, immature tubers with a thin, flaky skin do not store well. Being late from harvesting leads to excessive heating of tubers and their instability to diseases.
To avoid fungal diseases of tubers during storage, potato tops are cut 15–18 days before harvesting so that 10–12 cm high stems remain without leaves. The cut tops must be burned.
In mid-September, on a sunny, clear day, they begin to harvest potatoes. The dug tubers are not placed on the soil, but carefully laid out on a dry cloth, paper, on scattered dry sawdust, or immediately brought into the room and scattered on the floor (this is better). Dried potatoes are sorted into seed and food, diseased, cut, very small tubers are selected.
Seed tubers weighing 50-100 g can be rinsed with water immediately after digging and dried in a bright, ventilated room, and then planted in an open place in warm weather for 2-3 days so that they are better stored and not damaged by mice.
If at the site the tops were not affected by late blight, the tubers were clean, they are only dried and greened, in this case it is not necessary to wash the tubers.
Tubers selected for food purposes are thoroughly dried, but not greened. If there is a suspicion of late blight, then it is better to rinse the tubers with water and dry, and then put them in boxes, paper bags or other containers of 30-35 kg.
Potatoes will be better stored if the tubers during harvesting did not receive sunburn, mechanical damage and did not come into contact with the tops affected by late blight. The dug tubers should not remain in the sun or in the wind for more than 30–40 minutes, otherwise this may lead to their rotting during storage.
After harvesting, potatoes are stored in cellars, basements, garage pits, etc. They keep well at temperatures of 2–5 ° C.
For storage on the balcony, potatoes must be folded into a double cloth bag and placed in a wooden box, which, in turn, put in another, more spacious one. The space between the boxes should be about 10 cm. It should be covered with an old blanket or rags. From above, the potatoes are also covered with something. With this protection, it can withstand frost down to –15 ° C.
Botanical name - potatoes or tuberous nightshade (Solanum tuberosum), belongs to the genus Solanum (Solanum) of the family Solanaceae (Solanaceae).
Origin - South America.
Lighting - photophilous.
The soil - air and water permeable, slightly acidic.
Watering - moderate, does not tolerate waterlogging.
Predecessors - cabbage, cucumber, lettuce, table vegetables.
Landing - tubers, parts of tubers, rarely seeds.
Description of potatoes
Perennial herbaceous tuberous plant cultivated as an annual crop. It is a bush up to 1 m high, with 4-6, sometimes 6-8 stems, the number of which depends on the variety and size of the planting tuber.
The stems are bare, ribbed, part of them submerged in the soil produces long lateral processes called stolons. At the ends of the stolons, modified thickened shoots develop, tubers, which are the productive organ of the plant used for food.
Potato tubers
A potato tuber is an overgrown bud, consisting of cells filled with starch, covered with a thin layer of cork tissue on the outside. On the surface of the tuber there are axillary buds, the so-called eyes, from which young shoots develop. On one tuber, depending on the variety, there are from 3 to 15 eyes, each of which contains several buds. One of them is called the main one and sprouts first, the rest remain dormant. If the potato sprouts formed by the main bud are damaged, dormant buds wake up, but weaker shoots form from them.
To absorb air and evaporate moisture on the surface of the tubers, there are special organs called lenticels.
Tubers, depending on the variety, can be round, oblong, oval, with a skin of white, pink, red-violet, white, cream or yellow flesh.
The root system of the plant is fibrous, located 20-40 cm from the soil surface, reaches its maximum development at the time of budding, dies off when the tubers ripen.
Ground parts of potatoes: leaves (tops), flowers and seeds
Potato leaves intermittently pinnate, dissected, depending on the variety, can be from light green to dark green. They consist of a petiole, several pairs of lateral lobes and a terminal lobe, located on the stem in a spiral.
Flowers white, pink or purple, with a spike-shaped corolla, collected from five petals, fused together, form a corymbose inflorescence located at the top of the stem. The plant is self-pollinating, but there are also varieties with cross-pollination.
Fetus is formed by autumn and is a dark green, mature greenish-white fleshy berry 2 cm in diameter. The berry has a strawberry aroma, but is poisonous because it contains the alkaloid solanine.
Seeds very small, 1000 pcs. weigh about 0.5 g. They are rarely used for reproduction, mainly for breeding purposes, although techniques have been developed for growing potatoes from seeds in order to obtain healthier seed.
All potato tops, like berries, contain the poisonous alkaloid solanine, which protects the plant from bacteria and certain types of insects. Tubers exposed to light turn green, accumulating chlorophyll, and solanine is also formed in them. Such tubers should not be eaten.
The history of the appearance and use of potatoes
Potatoes - a South American plant that is still found in its homeland in the wild. Its history goes back over 14 thousand years. At first, the tubers of species growing in nature were collected, later the vegetable was introduced into cultivation and became one of the main food products of the indigenous people of South America. The Indians revered the plant as a deity, and even made sacrifices to it.
The first description of potatoes available to Europeans was given by the Spanish conquistador and historian Cieza de Leon, who, in his Chronicles of Peru, published in 1553, gave information not only about the appearance, but also about the methods of preparing and storing the vegetable. He also brought the first specimens of tubers to Spain, after which the plant spread to other European countries.
The Latin name Solanum tuberosum (tuberous nightshade) was first given in 1596 by the Swiss botanist Kaspar Baugin, later borrowed by Karl Linnaeus. This is the scientific name of the vegetable, in everyday life in different countries it was called differently: in Spain - dad, in Italy - "tartuffolly", for the similarity to truffles, in England - Irish sweet potato, in France - "pom de terre", an earthy apple ... The name "potato" probably comes from the German words "craft" and "teuffel", that is, the fruit of devilish power.
Like many people from the American continent, the plant has long been bred in botanical gardens as an ornamental plant. Until the middle of the 18th century, the vegetable was considered poisonous, at best it was used for livestock feed. In 1748, the French parliament, by its decision, banned the use of tubers for food on the grounds that they allegedly cause various diseases, including leprosy.
The merit of the discovery of potatoes as a food product belongs to the French agronomist Antoine-Auguste Parmentier. Having fallen into Prussian captivity during the Seven Years' War, he was forced to eat tubers for several years, and thus found that they are not only harmless, but also have high taste and nutritional qualities.
Returning to his homeland, the scientist began to promote the vegetable as a food crop. Thanks to his efforts, in 1772, the potato was recognized by the Paris Medical School as an edible plant. The date of the beginning of its widespread use as a food product can be considered 1795, when in the last months of the Paris Commune, tubers were even grown in the Tuileries garden in the besieged, starving Paris.
In Russia, the potato first appeared under Peter I, but became widespread during the reign of Catherine II. It was at this time that much was done to spread the culture, then called "earth apples", in peasant farms. There was a persistent prejudice among the people against the vegetable, caused both by its foreign origin, and by cases of its poisoning with poisonous berries.
To promote the new food plant in 1765, a special decree of the Senate "On the cultivation of earth apples" was issued, then scientific articles of the outstanding Russian agronomist and naturalist A.T. Bolotov appeared on the agricultural technology of crop cultivation.
Despite all the efforts of the government, until the middle of the 19th century, tubers were grown mainly on noble estates. The massive introduction of culture into agriculture began after the famine of 1839-1840, when the highest order was issued on the widespread cultivation of potatoes, the allocation of land for it, the appointment of monetary rewards to peasants to encourage its introduction.
And although the new vegetable still met with fierce resistance, expressed even in such extreme forms as the potato riots of 1834, 1840-1844, by the end of the 19th century, the area under the crop increased 6 times, amounting to more than 1.5 million hectares. The plant becomes one of the main food products in Russia, the “second bread”, and at the beginning of the 20th century the country takes the first place in the world in its production.
Currently, potatoes are an important agricultural crop, grown in temperate regions around the world and are an important part of the diet of the population of many countries, including Russia. The vegetable is used as a food, fodder and industrial plant; starch and alcohol are made from it. Due to its high yield and a unique set of compounds vital for the human body, a number of experts consider culture to be the “food of the future”.
The composition and useful properties of potatoes
The chemical composition of potatoes varies greatly depending on the variety and growing conditions, but in general the tubers contain about 75% water and 25% dry matter. Potato dry matter is carbohydrates, mostly starch (16% on average) and sugars (2%), proteins (2%), fats (0.2%), fiber and pectins (1%), as well as vitamins and minerals ...
Starch - the main nutrient of tubers, a complex carbohydrate that breaks down in the human intestine and converts into glucose, which in turn undergoes oxidation, while releasing energy. The amount of starch is one of the important characteristics of potatoes, in different varieties it contains from 14 to 22%. It is not only an easily digestible food product, but also a valuable raw material for the pharmaceutical industry.
Although there is not much protein in tubers, it is close to animals in its biological value, since it includes essential amino acids in the same amount and ratio as milk protein. Another advantage of potato protein is the ability to improve the digestibility of animal proteins, which makes the vegetable very useful as a side dish for meat dishes.
Potatoes contain a small amount of fiber, moreover, it does not irritate the gastric mucosa, so the vegetable can be used not only in baby food, but also in dietary food for gastritis, ulcers and colitis. Fiber and pectins contained in potatoes contribute to the elimination of harmful cholesterol from the body, improve the intestinal microflora
Among the vitamins included in the tubers, vitamin C should be especially noted (up to 20 mg per 100 g of product). The benefits of potatoes as a source of ascorbic acid in winter and spring are obvious. No wonder it was with the introduction of this vegetable into the diet that scurvy epidemics in European countries stopped. Dishes from it are consumed by the population in large quantities, therefore, despite a decrease in the content of vitamin C during storage by about a third, potatoes largely cover the body's needs for ascorbic acid in the autumn-winter period.
The plant has a high biological value as a source of mineral elements: potassium, sodium, iron, magnesium; as well as trace elements: copper, zinc, manganese, iodine, etc.
The role of tubers is important as a source of iron, which is responsible for blood composition, hemoglobin level, copper, which helps to lower sugar levels, improves blood counts, has an anti-cancer effect, manganese, which promotes fat utilization.
The plant is a highly nutritious product, in terms of calories (73 kcal), exceeding most vegetables. Simple growing technology, good yield, nutritional value, a wide range of vitamins, minerals and biologically active substances determine the important place of potatoes in the diet of the population of many countries of the world.