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They love potatoes in Our Country, crumbly, with garlic and onions, with meat and cabbage, not a single main dish is complete without potatoes. Many varieties of this root crop were bred by breeders, one is better than the other. The hero of our story is the Gulliver potato variety – one of the best representatives of varieties bred and zoned in different regions of our vast country.
History of origin
In November 2015, the originators of the Gulliver potato variety (the Lorch Research Institute and the Korenevo Agricultural Center in the Moscow Region) applied for the inclusion of a new variety in the State Register catalog, and in 2018 the variety was officially registered and approved for sale, so it can be freely bought from distributors in Our Country and other countries.
Description and characteristics
According to the characteristics declared by the originators, the Gulliver potato variety has the following qualities:
- Gulliver potatoes of early ripening, the first crop is dug up on the 45th day after planting, table variety;
- potato bushes are tall, lodging, leaves are large, saturated green, corolla of flowers is medium with a weak anthocyanin color;
- the average yield varies from 160 to 290 centners per hectare (the yield record was 371 centners per hectare);
- Gulliver’s root crop has the shape of an elongated oval, small eyes, earthy-beige skin, creamy flesh, average weight of one tuber is from 100 to 140 grams;
- the starch content indicator reaches 15%;
- output of marketable root crops up to 98%, storage safety 95%;
- taste qualities are good and excellent;
- variety Gulliver is resistant to cancer and the golden nematode of potatoes, to late blight, low resistance to tubers and medium to tops, quite resistant to potato mosaics: wrinkled and striped.
Advantages and disadvantages
It is too early to talk about the pros and cons of the Gulliver potato variety, it has not yet become widespread enough. According to some reviews of vegetable growers posted on the forums, they note the following advantages of Gulliver potatoes:
- large tubers of excellent presentation;
- unpretentiousness in care;
- resistance to many potato diseases;
- high degree of transportability.
Potato growers are dissatisfied with the low level of storage safety, many Gulliver tubers dry out or rot before the onset of spring.
Landing
Gulliver potatoes are planted in the same way as any other variety of these root crops. Many gardeners who have been growing potatoes for more than one year know how to do this correctly, but for beginner potato growers this process becomes a big problem. Having no experience in planting and growing potatoes, they make many mistakes that can be avoided if the right approach is taken. In the table, we noted quite common mistakes of novice gardeners, indicated their undesirable consequences and answered the question: how to do it right?
You can’t do this | Why | How to |
In a plot with a slope, rows of potatoes are planted along the slope | Natural moisture quickly flows down, plantings do not receive enough water | Rows of potatoes are always planted across the slope |
Tubers planted too deep or not deep enough | New root crops are poorly formed, will be small, with a surface planting, the tops will grow rapidly | The optimal planting depth for potatoes is no more and no less than 15-20 cm |
Too little or too much space between rows and plants | Dense plantings prevent the bushes from ventilating, and rare ones lead to rapid drying of the soil. | The distance between rows should be 50-60 cm, between bushes 35-50 cm. |
Fresh manure introduced before planting | Root crops overfed with nitrogen fertilizers will actively grow green mass, but not tubers | Organic fertilizers should be applied in the fall or rotted manure should be used in the spring, applying it 1 bucket per 2 square meters. m before landing |
Used large tubers when planting | Large root crops, as seed, will produce small new tubers | It is better to plant potatoes of medium or small sizes, large potatoes are cut into several parts, leaving 2-3 eyes on each |
Seed material not germinated | Growth and formation of new tubers is delayed for 2-3 weeks | Potatoes are taken out of the cellars 1-2 months before planting and placed in a warmer and brighter room |
Potatoes were not treated with fungicides before planting | Plantings are at risk of fungal diseases | 2 hours before planting, spray the seed with solutions of copper sulphate or other special agents against diseases and pests |
Care
After planting potatoes until the first shoots appear, no plantation care is required. After 2-3 weeks, the Gulliver variety gives the first friendly sprouts, and after another week it is necessary to carry out the first hilling.
Hilling and top dressing
It will be easy enough to care for Gulliver potato plantings if you have a mechanized tool for hilling, if there is no such device, then an ordinary hoe is used. The earth in the aisles is loosened and raked to the bushes almost to the very top leaves.
Gulliver’s first feeding of potatoes is carried out before the onset of the second hilling, that is, after flowering, at the same time it is necessary to spray the rose bushes from the hated pest – the Colorado potato beetle. There are a huge number of chemicals to combat it, you just have to choose the most effective remedy.
Diseases and pests
The Gulliver variety, as mentioned earlier, has increased immunity to many potato diseases, but may be subject to other fungal and viral diseases such as late blight, scab or formos. The main pests that feed on potato tubers are wireworms, and the leaves and flowers are devoured by the Colorado potato beetle.
Signs of diseases and treatment
- Late blight on potatoes.
Symptoms: appear after the end of flowering, brown spots form on the leaves of the tops, spores of the fungus live on the back of the leaf plate, in rainy weather they enter the soil and infect root crops.
Treatment: planting only healthy seed material, hilling up to 3 times per season, treating bushes with a Bordeaux mixture, preparations containing copper.
- Parsha na kartofele.
Symptoms: tubers are affected, ulcers and growths appear on them, the peel cracks, forming dark brown scales, on the stems of the tops of the fungus spores are combined in the form of a gray oily coating.
Treatment: potato plots must be alternated with other vegetable crops every 3-4 years, uninfected tubers should be planted, hilled 2-3 times during the entire growing season, seed should be treated with copper sulphate before planting, and diseased seeds should be carefully discarded.
- Fomoz on potatoes.
Symptoms: roots and stems are affected, dark elongated spots appear on them, over time, the potato pulp dries and rots in this place, the stems and petioles of the tops are also covered with elongated brown spots, this can be seen during the flowering of potatoes.
Treatment: disinfection of the land before planting with Trichoderm, use healthy planting material, loosening and hilling, mandatory removal of tops before harvesting to prevent infection of tubers.
Wireworm fight:
- digging the soil in a potato plot in late autumn or early spring to destroy beetle larvae;
- regularly reduce the acidity of the soil by adding dolomite or lime;
- treatment of plantings with solutions of chemicals: Klubneshchit, Prestige, Provotoks.
Potato Gulliver is an early variety, already at the end of June the first trial digging of tubers begins, in early and until mid-July the tubers are already ready for the main harvest.
Conclusion
The Gulliver variety has not yet received sufficient popularity among potato growers, since it is super new, it was registered at the beginning of 2018, but according to the reviews of those gardeners who tested it on their plots, it deserves the highest rating. We also recommend that you try Gulliver potatoes, because in the middle of summer you will be with a new crop of your own potatoes.
