How to choose the right potato variety for your site

In spring, almost every gardener dreams of getting a good harvest of potatoes in the fall. For this, everything possible and impossible is being done: the soil is being prepared, weeds are being weeded, a serious struggle is being waged against the Colorado potato beetle, hilling is done and much, much more. It would seem that everything - there will be a harvest. But, starting to dig, summer residents are amazed to see the opposite: small, frail fruits, and there are not so many of them. What's the matter? And the thing turns out to be in the potato variety and in the fact that people do not know how to choose the best potato varieties for their plot.

Content:

• Classification of potato varieties by ripening time
• Choosing early ripening potatoes
• Choosing medium early ripening potatoes
• Choosing medium-ripening potatoes
• Choosing medium-late ripening potatoes
• Choosing late ripening potatoes
• How to choose the right potato variety
• When and how to plant

Classification of potato varieties by ripening time

What kind the best varieties of potatoes planting on your site worries many gardeners. But it is impossible to give an unambiguous answer to this question. It is necessary to proceed from the purpose for which the potatoes will be grown.

All known varieties of potatoes are divided by ripening periods, which include the time from planting seeds to harvesting:

• Early maturing varieties... You can get the harvest in 70-80 days.
• Medium early varieties. The crop is harvested in 80-90 days.
• Mid-season varieties. It takes 90-100 days before harvesting.
• Medium late varieties. Harvesting begins in 100-120 days.
• Late-ripening varieties. I harvest potatoes after 120-140 days.

In addition to this classification, all potato varieties are divided into:

• fodder
• technical
• universal
• dining rooms.

Most often, gardeners are interested in the latter category.

Choosing early ripening potatoes

If you need to get the potato harvest very early, you should pay attention to early maturing best potatoes... There are a lot of them.

• Gardeners distinguish the Zhukovsky variety, which has established itself as the most unpretentious and fruitful. It easily tolerates cold and heat, germinates quickly and develops well. The pink colored tubers have excellent taste.
• It is impossible to ignore the variety under the spectacular name "Luck", which fully corresponds to it. It is characterized by its maximum resistance to various diseases and the invasion of the Colorado potato beetle. Tubers are white, even, as in the selection, very tasty.
• Early Bryansk can give up to 600 kg. harvest from a hundred. The variety is unpretentious, tolerates hot weather without problems. Immune to many diseases. On average, white tubers reach a mass of 100 g and have an excellent taste. The Bryansk variety is very well kept.
• "Fresco" is an early, fruitful variety. It has yellow tubers, the average weight of which is 120 g. The high starch content enhances the palatability. It is resistant to cancer and potato nematode, but it can be affected by viral infections. Poorly tolerates a dry hike and is afraid of night frosts. In extreme cold, the bush develops poorly.

This will be enough to ensure a rich harvest of early potatoes. It is not worth planting more, since such varieties are stored for very little time.

Choosing medium early ripening potatoes

Mid-early best potato varieties will delight with the harvest a little later. The correct choice of variety will allow you to harvest a wonderful harvest.

• The mid-early grade "Odyssey" is especially popular. Like its Greek counterpart, the variety is extremely hardy, sturdy and unpretentious. It grows well in arid regions, as it tolerates a lack of moisture well. At the same time, potatoes are completely immune to any infections, they staunchly resist potato cancer and late blight. It is also famous for its excellent taste and richness.
• The Dutch variety "Condor" is no less famous. Perfectly resists all known potato diseases and pests, grows well and develops on different soils. Its peculiarity is expressed in the color of the tuber: red peel and yellow flesh. Such beautiful food will be waiting on the table. Taste is average.
• "Romano" is a medium early potato with pink tubers. It differs from other varieties in that it practically does not perceive any potato diseases and infection. The exception is scab, which can infect tubers. It is necessary to treat the tops against late blight. Otherwise, there are no comments: it grows in any region, for a long time and tolerates storage well.

Of course, there are much more mid-early varieties and each gardener chooses according to his own criteria.

Choosing medium-ripening potatoes

The harvesting of medium-ripening potatoes is started, usually when 100 days have passed after planting. It is difficult to single out the best potato varieties, but knowledgeable people advise paying attention to only two, the most popular, types.

• The "Lugovoy" variety pleases gardeners for a long time. It has excellent storage properties, is resistant to diseases such as black leg and fungal infection of watery rot. Potato tubers are oval, with light pink skin and white flesh, and have a pleasant taste.
• The Dubrava variety is simply versatile. For good growth, neither climatic conditions nor soil type are important to him. That is, the "Dubrava" potato grows in the most diverse, even very arid regions of our country. Not susceptible to many diseases, which include rhizoctonia and scab. Large round yellow tubers become crumbly during cooking.

Potatoes of medium ripeness delight gardeners with their good harvest, almost every year.

Choosing potatoes during late ripening

If you place several varieties with different ripening periods in the garden, you can eat potatoes throughout the summer. The early varieties are replaced by the mid-late best varieties of potatoes, which can be removed without haste.

• Among this type of potato, gardeners distinguish "Agria" - a variety of medium ripeness, bred by Dutch breeders. Tubers, slightly elongated, oval-shaped, almost all the same, have a yellow color, have excellent taste. This variety is popular not only in private gardens, it is actively used for processing. Delicious chips and fries are made from it.
• Variety "Zhuravinka" is famous for its resistance to all diseases and fungal infections of potatoes. It keeps well for a long time. The tubers are a bit unusual: red rind and yellow flesh. But this does not harm the excellent taste of the potatoes.
• "Sineglazka" is a mid-season variety that attracts at first with its original appearance, and only then for everyone else. Potato tubers are white with bright blue eyes. They contain an increased level of starch, but the taste is aromatic and pleasant. Susceptible to late blight infection. It is difficult to preserve large batches of the crop, as the potatoes quickly rot and become unusable.This was the main reason for not including "Sineglazka" in the State Register of Potato Varieties. But ordinary gardeners plant it and keep it well.

Mid-late potato varieties fit very well into the composition of the garden and grow well in different conditions.

Choosing late ripening potatoes

To get a good harvest of late-ripening potato varieties means to show patience and desire to grow it... But it’s worth it, so choose the best varieties of late ripeness potatoes carefully and carefully.

• Potato "Temp" among all the variety is the most productive and hardy variety. It will grow in any soil, will feel great in any climatic conditions. This ort is bypassed by all diseases, and even the Colorado potato beetle does not really like it. Rounded tubers with a cream-colored peel retain their shape during cooking and have excellent taste.
• "Climber" is a late-ripening potato variety that fully justifies its name. It is not whimsical at all, it grows in different conditions and different soils. It will withstand both cold and intense heat. It is also important that the variety is extremely immune to all types of potato diseases. Lovers of tasty and aromatic potatoes will surely appreciate it.
• Belorussky-3 is a late potato variety that does not tolerate most potato diseases and viruses. The tubers are white, tasty and aromatic. Potatoes are perfectly stored in any conditions.

Late ripening potatoes keep well under various storage conditions. If desired, it can be stored until the next harvest.

How to choose the right potato variety

You should not choose the best potato varieties at random, or according to the principle "it was born out of my neighbors and will grow up with me." This case must be taken seriously and take into account several important rules:

1. More attention should be paid to zoned potato varieties. Even the best and most productive, it will not show its positive properties if grown in inappropriate climatic conditions and in soil compositions.
2. It is necessary to plant several different varieties. In this case, hopes for a good harvest will certainly come true. First of all, it is beneficial to choose varieties of different fruiting times. This will allow you to get an early harvest and keep a late harvest. In addition, all potato varieties behave differently in different natural conditions. For example, the "Odyssey" variety perfectly tolerates drought, but the "Nevsky" variety will not yield a harvest due to lack of moisture. And if you plant one variety on the entire plot, you can generally be left without potatoes in the winter.
3. Plant, harvest and store different varieties of potatoes should be in a separate order. Surely, many gardeners have observed this picture: plants do not develop in the same garden in the same way. It seems that the conditions and care are the same, but the result is different. Most often, it is the mixing of varieties that leads to this. The same can be said for storage.
4. After a few years, the seeds need to be completely renewed. If this is not done, the yield will decline over time, and no amount of effort will help.

When and how to plant

• There is no specific date for planting potatoes. Everything, even the best potato varieties, are planted, focusing on the condition of the soil. Usually, this is early spring, when the land is already amenable to cultivation and warms up to +8 degrees.

There is even a popular omen that indicates that it is time to plant potatoes: a birch leaf should bloom to the size of a penny.

In some regions, due to night frosts, it is not recommended to plant earlier than early May.

• Everyone knows that frost does not greatly affect it and even, in case of damage to the potato, it will recover after a while, but it will shake a lot of nerves to the owner of the site.
• Regardless of the variety, potatoes are planted in rows. One tuber is placed in one hole, of medium size. For one meter, you need to do from 3 to 5 holes. The consumption of planting material per one hundred square meters on average ranges from 25 to 30 kg. The correct direction of the rows is from north to south.
• Despite the wide variety of potato varieties, it will be quite difficult to get a good harvest without care and maintenance. After all, even the best potato varieties need processing, which includes a lot of nuances that you need to know.

More information can be found in the video.