Content
Potato Giant is a promising productive variety that can produce large, uniform and neat tubers. They are universal and suitable for personal use, sale or industrial processing. The description and all characteristics of this variety, its features, advantages and disadvantages, agricultural technology for cultivation and care 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 All-Russian Research Institute of Potato Farming named after. A. G. Lorkha, located in the Moscow region. The Giant potato is approved for cultivation in 3 Russian regions: Central Black Earth, Central and Volga-Vyatka. It can be cultivated both in private household plots and on farmers’ plots and large industrial fields. The variety is mid-season, the tubers are for table use.
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 a faint wave along the edges. Potatoes bloom with small or medium-sized red-violet flowers collected in compact inflorescences.Flowering is short-lived.
Tubers of the Velikan variety are oval-round, large, uniform in size, reaching a weight of 100-140 g. They have smooth, glossy, moderately thin skin of a light beige color. There are few eyes, they are small and medium in size, reddish in color, and located shallowly. The potato flesh is creamy in color and has an excellent taste. The starch concentration in this potato is high and reaches 16-19%.
The Giant variety exhibits excellent resistance to many dangerous diseases of this crop, for example, cancer, leaf curl, common scab, wrinkled and striped mosaic, and rhizoctonia. Potato Giant is moderately resistant to late blight on leaves and tubers, but can be affected by potato nematode.
Advantages and disadvantages
Many vegetable growers are attracted to the Giant potato by its smooth, large tubers of excellent commercial quality and taste. When cleaned, they do not change color, do not darken, and after cooking they do not become overcooked, but acquire a delicate taste and aroma. You can use Giant potatoes to prepare all sorts of dishes that include potatoes: they look great in any of them, decorate them and make 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 to this undoubted advantage, the Giant variety of potatoes demonstrates:
- resistance of seed tubers to degeneration;
- good tolerance to drought and high temperatures;
- marketability of harvested tubers is 87-98%;
- high yield (from 1 sq. m 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 as the standard).
- excellent keeping quality of the crop (97% of tubers can last until the end of storage).
No significant deficiencies were identified in potatoes of this domestic variety. Its features include intolerance to stagnation of moisture in the ground and some demands on 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: dug up and fertilized in the fall or spring. During autumn preparation, the site is dug up deeply and applied to each square meter. m, 1-1.5 buckets of humus and 0.5 kg of ash and leave the soil in the layers until spring, and level them in the spring. Acidic soil is limed to achieve a neutral reaction. If soil preparation for Giant potatoes occurs in the spring, then it is dug up and fertilized at least 2 weeks before planting the tubers. Mixtures of mineral origin are used as fertilizers.
This variety of potatoes can be planted in 3 different ways: under a shovel, in ridges or trenches. Which one is best suited in each specific 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 what method is chosen, it is better to use the Velikan variety treated with fungicides, growth stimulants and germinated tubers: 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 soil, where vegetables have been grown for many years. The place for potatoes should be level, 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 and a tuber into it and cover it with soil.
If the soil on the site is loose, does not retain moisture well, or the climate of the area is hot and dry, then the best planting method is planting in trenches. Burying 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 approximately 20 cm high. Tubers of the Velikan variety are placed in them, and then covered with soil.
It must be said that this method is often chosen by those gardeners who have a walk-behind tractor or a walk-behind cultivator on their farm. With their help, you can complete all work quickly and efficiently, with a minimum of physical effort.
Care
Potato Giant does not require special care. All it needs is rare but abundant watering, loosening, hilling and fertilizing. Water potatoes of this variety 3 times per season:
- before the first hilling;
- before flowering;
- after him.
So much water is poured under each Giant potato bush so that the soil is wet to the depth at which the entire root system is located. After it dries a little, it is carefully loosened, trying not to touch the roots, stems and developing 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 planned watering, then there is no need to water.
Hilling and feeding
The first hilling of the Giant potatoes is carried out when the height of the tops of young bushes reaches a height of 20 cm. The soil is raked on them manually using a hoe or a walk-behind tractor with a simple or disk hiller is passed along the 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 hill up potatoes of this variety after the tubers have begun to lay.
Giant potatoes are fed with both organic matter and mineral fertilizers. They are applied in the form of root and foliar fertilizers. The first fertilizing is done after the 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 is used in any potassium-containing mixtures, with the exception of those that contain chlorine. All mineral fertilizers are dosed according to their instructions. You can replace phosphorus-potassium fertilizers with a solution of ash, which contains all the basic nutrients + microelements.
Diseases and pests
The main problem of the Giant variety is that it can be affected by nematodes. If this happens, there will be no harvest. There are no drugs that would destroy the pest if it has already infected the potatoes, so only preventive measures remain: nematicides are applied to the soil of the potato plot at least a month before planting. This period is necessary, since the preparations have a phytosuppressive effect, so they cannot be used on growing potatoes.
Plantings are also treated against beetles, mole crickets, potato moths and wireworms. Use fungicides or products made according to folk recipes.
Harvesting
Giant potatoes are harvested approximately 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 tuber formation are completed. To speed up this process, 1-2 weeks before the expected harvest date, the tops of the bushes are broken or cut off.
They dig up tubers of the Giant variety with a shovel, or 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, cut ones, damaged ones, and small ones are selected and stored separately. The rest is poured into boxes, bags or small plastic nets designed for storing vegetables. The harvest is placed in 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 fairly early-ripening and productive potatoes on their plot. It will not require special care, but will be able to please the vegetable grower with a harvest of large, neat and even tubers.
