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Potato Giant is a promising productive variety that can show large, uniform and neat tubers. They are versatile and suitable for personal use, for sale or industrial processing. Description and all the characteristics of this variety, its features, advantages and disadvantages, agricultural cultivation and care will be described in this article.
History of origin
Variety Velikan obtained by domestic breeders. It has been in the State Register of the Federation since 2013. The originator is the V.I. A. G. Lorkha, located in the Moscow region. Velikan potatoes are approved for cultivation in 3 regions: Central Black Earth, Central and Volga-Vyatka. It can be cultivated both in household plots and on farmers’ plots and large industrial fields. The variety belongs to mid-season, tubers – for table purposes.
Description and characteristics
Potato Giant forms tall semi-erect bushes with well-developed roots. It has not overly sprawling stems and moderate foliage. The leaf is large, dark green in color, matte, with an unexpressed wave along the edges. Potato blooms with small or medium-sized red-violet flowers, collected in compact inflorescences. Flowering is short.
The tubers of the Velikan variety are oval-round, large, uniform in size, reaching a mass of 100-140 g. They have a smooth, glossy, moderately thin skin of a light beige color. There are few eyes, they are small and medium in size, reddish in color, located shallowly. The flesh of the potato is creamy in color, excellent taste. The concentration of starch in this potato is high and reaches 16-19%.
Variety Velikan shows excellent resistance to many dangerous diseases of this crop, such as cancer, leaf curl, common scab, wrinkled and striped mosaic, rhizoctoniosis. Potato Velikan is moderately resistant to late blight on leaves and tubers, but can be affected by the potato nematode.
Advantages and disadvantages
Many vegetable growers are attracted to the Giant potato by its even large tubers of excellent commercial quality and taste. When cleaning, they do not change color, do not darken, and after cooking they do not boil soft, but acquire a delicate taste and aroma. From Velikan potatoes you can cook all kinds of dishes that include potatoes: in any of them it looks great, decorates them and makes the taste more harmonious. Due to the high concentration of starch, these potatoes are used to make starch and to make dry mashed potatoes.
In addition, the undoubted dignity of the Velikan potato demonstrates:
- resistance of seed tubers to degeneration;
- good tolerance to drought and high temperatures;
- marketability of harvested tubers at the level of 87-98%;
- high yield (from 1 sq. m. of beds allotted for this potato, you can collect 2,9-4,2 kg of tubers, which is 0,6-1 kg higher than the yield of varieties such as Peterburgsky and Chaika, recognized as the standard).
- excellent keeping quality of the crop (until the end of storage, 97% of tubers can lie).
There were no significant shortcomings in potatoes of this domestic variety. Its features include intolerance to stagnant moisture in the ground and some exactingness to the type of soil: it grows poorly on heavy loams.
Landing
In order to harvest a good crop of Velikan potatoes, the soil must be prepared in advance: dig up and fertilize in autumn or spring. During the autumn preparation, the site is deeply dug up, brought in for each square. m 1-1,5 buckets of humus and 0,5 kg of ash and leave the earth in layers until spring, and in the spring they level them. Acidic soil is limed to achieve a neutral reaction. If soil preparation for the Giant potato takes place in the spring, then it is dug up and fertilized at least 2 weeks before the tubers are planted. Mixtures of mineral origin are used as fertilizers.
You can plant potatoes of this variety in 3 different ways: under a shovel, in ridges or trenches. Which one is best suited in each case depends on the type of soil on the site. On light sands and sandy loams, it is preferable to plant in trenches, on loams – in ridges. But no matter which method is chosen, it is better to use treated with fungicides, growth stimulants and germinated tubers of the Velikan variety: this way the potatoes will sprout faster, and the harvest can be obtained earlier. Cutting potatoes into pieces is not recommended.
Planting under a shovel is a traditional method that is suitable for cultivated areas with fertile land, where vegetables are grown for a single year. The place for potatoes should be flat, without stagnant water, well lit and warmed by the sun. Planting Giant potatoes in this way is simple: just dig a hole with a shovel, throw fertilizer, a tuber into it and sprinkle it with earth.
If the soil in the area is loose, poorly retaining moisture, or the climate of the area is hot and dry, then the best way to plant is to plant in trenches. Burying in the ground will save the tubers from overheating and drying out. This method of planting is not suitable for dense and moist soils that do not have good air exchange and in which moisture stagnates.
For such soils, planting in ridges is suitable. Its feature is the preliminary cutting of ridges about 20 cm high. The tubers of the Velikan variety are placed in them, and then they are covered with earth.
I must say that this method is often chosen by those gardeners who have a walk-behind tractor or a motor-cultivator in their household. With their help, you can perform all the work quickly and efficiently, while applying a minimum of physical effort.
Care
Potato Giant does not need special care. All he needs is rare but plentiful watering, loosening, hilling and top dressing. Water potatoes of this variety 3 times per season:
- before the first hilling;
- before flowering;
- after that.
So much water is poured under each bush of the Giant potato variety so that the soil gets wet to the depth at which the entire root system is located. After it dries out a little, it is carefully loosened, trying not to touch the roots, stems and emerging tubers. If the weather is hot during the period of increased tuber growth, then the potatoes will have to be watered more often, but if it rains at the time of the planned irrigation, then watering is not necessary.
Hilling and top dressing
The first hilling of the Giant potato is carried out when the height of the tops of young bushes reaches a height of 20 cm. The earth is raked on them manually with a chopper or a walk-behind tractor with a simple or disk hiller is carried along the rows. The ridges are trimmed several times during the growing season of the plants, lifting and expanding them as the bushes grow. It is especially important to spud potatoes of this variety after the start of laying tubers.
Giant potatoes are fed with both organic and mineral fertilizers. They are applied in the form of root and foliar dressings. The first top dressing is carried out after shoots appear. At this time, potatoes need nitrogen, so they are watered with slurry (1 to 10), herbal infusion or saltpeter. In the second feeding of the Giant potato (before flowering), nitrogen is excluded, but phosphorus is used as part of superphosphate, in the third (after flowering) – potassium in any potassium-containing mixtures, with the exception of those containing chlorine. All mineral fertilizers are dosed according to the instructions for them. You can replace phosphorus-potassium fertilizers with a solution of ash, which contains all the main nutrients + trace elements.
Diseases and pests
The main problem of the Velikan variety is that it can be affected by a nematode. If this happens, there will be no harvest. There are no preparations that would destroy the pest if it has already hit the potato, so only preventive measures remain: at least a month before planting, nematicides are introduced into the ground on the potato plot. Such a period is necessary, since the preparations have a phyto-suppressive effect, therefore, they cannot be used on growing potatoes.
Plantations from beetles, bears, potato moths and wireworms are also treated. Use fungicides or products made according to folk recipes.
Harvesting
The giant potatoes are harvested approximately 3 months after planting on the beds. At this time, its tops should turn yellow and begin to dry: this indicates that its vegetation and the process of tuber formation are over. To speed up this process, 1-2 weeks before the expected date of harvesting, the bushes break or cut off the tops.
They dig up the tubers of the Giant variety with a shovel, in wet weather – with a pitchfork. Then they are laid out to dry directly on the beds (in good weather) or transferred to a dry room. After drying, which takes several days, the potatoes are sorted, chopped, damaged, small are selected and folded separately. The rest is poured into boxes, bags or small plastic nets designed for storing vegetables. The harvest is lowered into the cellar for storage.
Conclusion
Potato variety Giant – young, but promising. It can be recommended to all gardeners and farmers who want to grow quite early and productive potatoes on their plot. He will not require special personal care, but he will be able to please the vegetable grower with a crop of large, neat and even tubers.