If you ask which vegetable is the most favorite and popular, then the potato will rightfully take the first place. A rare dish does without tasty and crumbly potatoes, so the list of varieties is impressive. Breeders are constantly creating new useful species, among which the Blueberry potato should be noted.
The name is unusual, but this does not stop potato growers. They always choose varieties whose main characteristic is productivity, and the second is unpretentiousness. How are these criteria embodied in the variety? This question will be answered by a detailed description of the potato variety Blueberry.
Description of an unusual potato
You need to start with the fact that the Blue potato variety is mid-season. 85-100 days after planting, you can harvest. More popular with gardeners than farmers. Main parameters:
- Bush. Like gardeners for the average height and weak spreading. In the ridges, Blueberry potatoes look very neat and beautiful.
- Leaves. Volumetric, juicy green color, keep a saturated color for a long time.
- Flowers.
Unusual, bright cornflower blue, decorating the site with their flowering. Due to their color, the variety received an extraordinary name.
- Tubers. Medium size, the weight of one potato is about 150 g. The shape of the tubers makes it possible to distinguish Blueberry potatoes from other varieties. They have a blunt tip, although the tuber itself is rounded. The peel is mesh, the flesh is white. Does not darken during processing, crumbly, with a high starch content.
The variety is loved by many summer residents precisely for these qualities. Useful characteristics include its resistance to common potato diseases:
- cancer;
- wet and ring rot;
- scab;
- rhizoctoniosis;
- Alternaria;
- mosaic viruses.
Late blight potato varieties Blueberry sometimes get sick, but to a lesser extent than other varieties. But drought resistance and the ability to tolerate heat is very high. Therefore, those gardeners who have difficulties with watering love these potatoes. Attention! Resistance to prolonged cold snap and the ability to grow in close proximity to groundwater are the advantages of an unusual variety.
High yields especially when grown on loamy and sandy soils. From one hundred square meters you can collect up to 1500 kg of high-quality tubers.
How to plant the Blueberry variety
According to the recommendations of breeders, the variety is planted in the first decade of May. It is necessary to control the temperature of the soil and not rush if it is kept below 7 ° C. The tubers have good adaptive qualities, they perfectly tolerate insufficiently warmed soil. You should not be late with planting, because in this case the keeping quality of the potato will significantly decrease or it will not have time to ripen. With late planting, the starch content will be lower, which will affect the nutritional value of the tubers.
An unusual variety of potatoes is planted on ridges and in ridges. It depends on the region. If you grow it in a dry climate, it is better to use combs, with high humidity – ridges. Most often, planting is used with a row spacing of 70 cm, with high humidity it is increased to 90 cm.
But the depth is calculated depending on the climate, the chosen method of planting and the quality of the preparation of the tubers.
When ridge planting, the tubers are deepened by 7-8 cm. The same parameter is kept on loams. Sandy loam and sandy soil make it possible to plant potatoes of the Blueberry variety in even rows with a depth of 6 cm.
In the intended wells make:
- compost or rotted manure (1 cup);
- wood ash (0,5 cups);
- bird droppings powder (1 tablespoon).
The mixture is mixed with the ground and covered with a 2-centimeter layer of soil on top. Then the tubers are planted with sprouts and tops up, covered with earth and waiting for shoots.
Proper potato care
A feature of the Blueberry variety is the need for fertilizers and top dressings. This affects its growth, so it will be more difficult to get a large crop without food. The first time fertilizer is applied at planting. This is described above. Then, during the growing season, it is fed with organic and mineral components. Among organics, potatoes Blueberry prefers:
- bird droppings;
- mullein;
- infusion of herbs or nettles.
Organic fertilizers are applied in the form of root dressings.
And the mineral components are applied with complex fertilizers. If you are well aware of the needs of the plant in mineral components, then you can use separately nitrogen, phosphate and potassium in a certain phase of potato development.
The second point of care is watering. The variety is undemanding to the regularity of watering. Its advantage lies in good development even with a lack of moisture.
In order to guarantee a good harvest, it is necessary to protect plantings of Blueberry potatoes from diseases and pests.
For this purpose, at least three treatments are carried out from the Colorado potato beetle and phytophthora.
If the disease could not be avoided, urgently treat the potatoes with Bordeaux liquid (1%). You can replace the composition with the drug “Hom”. The last treatment should not be later than three weeks before harvest. The Golubyzna variety shows good resistance to other potato diseases.
The main pests are the Colorado potato beetle, the bear, and the wireworm. The Colorado potato beetle does not tolerate the drugs “Commander”, “Dilor”, “Iskra DE”. Use according to instructions. Medvedok acts on the bear, and the wireworm is destroyed when digging along with wheatgrass (its favorite habitat).
Harvesting begins in the second half of August.
Two weeks before the appointed time, the tops are cut off. This technique allows you to increase the yield of the variety. Store tubers at temperatures of 2-4 °C. Their keeping quality is excellent, they do not deteriorate during storage and retain their taste until the next harvest.
Reviews
We hope you will be helped to opt for Blueberry potatoes, a description of the variety, photos, reviews of summer residents.
