Content
Potato Giant is a promising productive variety that can show large, uniform and flavorful tubers. They are versatile and suitable for personal use, for sale or industrial processing. The description and all the characteristics of this variety, its features, advantages and disadvantages, agricultural cultivation and care techniques will be described in this article.
Origin story
The Giant variety was obtained by domestic breeders. It has been in the State Register of the Russian Federation since 2013. The originator is the V.I. AG Lorkha, located in the Moscow region. Giant potatoes are approved for cultivation in 3 Russian regions: Central Black Earth, Central and Volgo-Vyatka. It can be cultivated both in private household plots and on farmers' plots and in large industrial fields. The variety belongs to the mid-season, the tubers are for table purposes.
Description and characteristics
Potato Giant forms tall, semi-erect bushes with well-developed roots. It does not have overly spreading stems and moderate foliage. The leaf is large, dark green in color, matte, with an indistinct wave at the edges. Potatoes bloom with small or medium-sized red-violet flowers, collected in compact inflorescences. Flowering is short.
The tubers of the Velikan variety are oval-rounded, large, uniform in size, reaching a mass of 100-140 g. They have a smooth, glossy, moderately thin skin of a light beige color. The eyes are few, they are small and medium in size, reddish, shallow. The flesh of a cream-colored potato has an excellent taste. The starch concentration in this potato is high and reaches 16-19%.
The Giant variety shows excellent resistance to many dangerous diseases of this culture, for example, to such as cancer, leaf twisting, common scab, wrinkled and banded mosaic, rhizoctonia. Potato Giant is moderately resistant to late blight in leaves and tubers, but can be affected by potato nematode.
Advantages and disadvantages
Many vegetable growers in the Giant potato are attracted 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, but acquire a delicate taste and aroma. You can cook all sorts of dishes from Giant potatoes, which 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 for making starch and for making dry mashed potatoes.
In addition, the undoubted dignity of the Velikan potato variety demonstrates:
- resistance of seed tubers to degeneration;
- good tolerance to drought and high temperatures;
- marketability of the harvested tubers at the level of 87-98%;
- high yield (from 1 square meter of beds allocated 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 Petersburg and Chaika, recognized by the standard).
- excellent keeping quality of the crop (up to the end of storage, 97% of the tubers can last).
No significant deficiencies were found in this domestic potato variety. Its features include the intolerance of 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 harvest of Giant potatoes, the soil must be prepared in advance: dig up and fertilize in autumn or spring. In autumn preparation, the site is dug deeply, brought in for each square. m 1-1.5 buckets of humus and 0.5 kg of ash and leave the earth in the layers until spring, and in the spring they level them. Acidic soil is limed to achieve a neutral reaction. If the preparation of the soil for the Giant potatoes occurs 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.
Potatoes of this variety can be planted in 3 different ways: under a shovel, in ridges or trenches. Which one is best for each particular 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 whichever method is chosen, it is better to use the Velikan variety treated with fungicides, growth stimulants and germinated tubers: this way the potatoes will grow faster, and the harvest can be obtained earlier. Cutting potatoes into pieces is not recommended.
Shovel planting is a traditional method, which is suitable for cultivated areas with fertile land, where vegetables have been grown for a single year. The place under the potatoes should be flat, without stagnant water, well lit and warmed up by the sun. Planting a Giant potato in this way is simple: just dig a hole with a shovel, throw fertilizers, a tuber into it and sprinkle it with earth.
If the soil on the site is loose, poorly moisture-retaining or the climate of the area is hot and dry, then the best way to plant is planting in trenches. Digging into the ground will save the tubers from overheating and drying out. This planting method is not suitable for dense and moist soils that do not have good air exchange and where moisture stagnates.
For such soils, planting in ridges is suitable. Its peculiarity is the preliminary cutting of ridges with a height of about 20 cm. The tubers of the Giant 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 on their farm. With their help, you can perform all work quickly and efficiently, with a minimum of physical effort.
Care
Potato Giant does not need special care. All he needs is rare but abundant watering, loosening, hilling and feeding. Potatoes of this variety are watered 3 times per season:
- before the first hilling;
- before flowering;
- after him.
Under each bush of potatoes of the Giant variety, so much water is poured so that the soil is soaked to the depth at which the entire root system is located. After it dries out a little, it is carefully loosened, being careful not to touch the roots, stems and forming 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 watering, then there is no need to water.
Hilling and feeding
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 soil is shoveled on them manually using a hoe or a walk-behind tractor with a simple or disc hiller is carried out in rows. The ridges are trimmed several times during the growing season of the plants, raising and expanding them as the bushes grow. It is especially important to huddle potatoes of this variety after the start of laying the tubers.
The Giant potatoes are fed with both organic and mineral fertilizers. They are introduced in the form of root and foliar dressings. The first feeding is done after the shoots appear. At this time, potatoes need nitrogen, so they are watered with slurry (1 in 10), herbal infusion or saltpeter.In the second feeding of Giant potatoes (before flowering), nitrogen is excluded, but phosphorus is used as part of superphosphate, in the third (after flowering) - potassium as part of any potassium-containing mixtures, with the exception of those containing chlorine. Dose all mineral fertilizers according to the instructions for them. You can replace phosphorus-potassium fertilizers with an ash solution, which contains all the main nutrients + microelements.
Diseases and pests
The main problem with the Velikan variety is that it can be affected by a nematode. If this happens, there will be no harvest. There are no drugs that would destroy the pest if it has already hit the potatoes, so only preventive measures remain: at least a month before planting, nematicides are introduced into the ground on the potato plot. This period is necessary, since the drugs have a phyto-suppressive effect, therefore, they cannot be used on growing potatoes.
Plantations are also treated from beetles, beetles, potato moths and wireworms. Use fungicides or remedies made according to folk recipes.
Harvesting
Giant potatoes are harvested about 3 months after planting in the beds. At this time, its tops should turn yellow and begin to dry: this indicates that its growing season and the process of forming tubers are over. To speed up this process, 1-2 weeks before the expected date of harvesting, the tops of the bushes are broken or cut off.
Dig the tubers of the Giant variety with a shovel, in damp 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, cut, damaged, small, and stacked separately. The rest is poured into boxes, bags or small plastic nets designed for storing vegetables. The crop is lowered into the cellar for storage.
Conclusion
The Giant potato variety is young but promising. It can be recommended to all gardeners and farmers who want to grow rather early ripening and productive potatoes on their site. He does not require special care for himself, but he will be able to please the grower with a harvest of large, neat and even tubers.
