Content
When growing potatoes, one of the main problems that any gardener faces is protecting potato bushes from attacks by various pests and, above all, the Colorado potato beetle. This overseas guest, who has been living in our area not so long ago, only since the 50s of the last century, has already bored everyone with his gluttony and insatiability.
If you don’t fight it, it can destroy all potato plantings in one season, and then switch to other garden plants of the nightshade family: tomatoes, eggplants, sweet peppers, physalis and others. Therefore, gardeners have not come up with any methods to combat this glutton and protect their potato plantings.
Many so-called folk remedies are completely ineffective, and it’s a pity, but you have to turn to chemicals for help. Currently, several dozen different drugs have been registered to combat the Colorado potato beetle, but even among them it is difficult to find a drug that would be 100% effective. One of these drugs is Commander.
At least the reviews about it are mostly very positive.
Description and characteristics of the drug
Commander is a contact-intestinal insecticide that has a systemic effect. That is, when applied to different parts of the plant, it is able to quickly penetrate plant cells and spread throughout all plant organs. Usually their action is not as fast as that of contact preparations, but longer and more reliable.
Commander is considered quite effective against a variety of sucking and gnawing insect pests: Colorado potato beetle, whitefly, mole cricket, aphids, thrips, wireworm, psyllid and many others. Its action is based on the fact that, having penetrated the pest’s body, it completely blocks its nervous system. Because of this, insects cannot feed, move, and soon die. Commander works equally well on both adult insects and larvae.
The main active ingredient of Commander is imidacloprid, vrk 200 g/l.
To destroy insect pests, the following forms of treatment using Commander can be used:
- Spraying;
- Watering the soil;
- Treatment of seeds and tubers.
Commander is a water-soluble concentrate. It is usually packaged in small containers: 1 ml ampoules and 10 ml bottles.
The drug Commander has the following advantages:
- It is a systemic drug that provides long-term protection of planted potato bushes for 20-30 days.
- Economical to use: to treat 10 acres, only 10 ml of the drug is needed.
- Effective against many types of insect pests.
- Does not cause resistance.
- Retains high protective properties even in hot weather, which is important for residents of the southern regions.
- Remains stable even in rainy weather.
Commander refers to substances that pose a moderate danger to humans (hazard class 3).
When working with the drug, it is necessary to follow the usual safety precautions for such substances: protect the skin of the body with protective clothing, shoes, gloves, goggles and a respirator. Under no circumstances should food containers be used to prepare the working solution. At the end of the treatment, you need to wash your hands and face with soap, be sure to rinse your mouth and wash your clothes.
Using Commander to process potato tubers
After reading in detail the instructions for using the Commander, many may no longer want to bother with spraying potato bushes. Moreover, for this you still need to wait for the onset of ideal windless weather. This is where the remarkable property of this drug comes to the aid of gardeners.
You just need to take into account that the protective effect of the drug is not very long, about 20-30 days. According to the manufacturer, the protective effect of Commander lasts from the first shoots to the appearance of 5-6 leaves on a potato bush.
So, the treatment of planting tubers with Komandor is carried out immediately before planting them in the ground. To obtain 10 liters of the finished working solution, proceed as follows: dilute 2 ml of the Komandor drug in one liter of water. Then, with constant stirring, bring the volume of the solution to 10 liters. After this, the germinated potato tubers, prepared for planting, are laid out on a flat surface, preferably covered with film. And they are thoroughly sprayed on one side with the Commander’s working solution. Carefully turning the tubers over to the other side, spray again. After this, after drying the potato tubers a little, they can be planted in the ground.
Interestingly, Commander can be mixed with many growth regulators and fungicides, such as Epin, Zircon, Maxim. Warning! Mixing with drugs that have an alkaline reaction is only contraindicated.
Therefore, before experimenting, you must carefully study the instructions.
Commander plus
To make life even easier for gardeners and summer residents, a modified drug Commander Plus was released several years ago. Its main purpose is precisely processing potatoes before planting. The composition contains two bottles: one with Commander, the other with Energen AQUA. Energen Aqua consists of potassium salts of humic acids and is used to increase potato yields and protect against stressful conditions. It also helps reduce the amount of nitrates in grown potatoes. To prepare a working solution, first dissolve the required amount of Energen AQUA in a small amount of water, then Commander, and the solution is brought to the required volume with constant stirring.The resulting solution is used to process potatoes in the same way as regular Commander.
Feedback on using Commander
Commander is quite popular among both gardeners and summer residents, so reviews about it are mostly positive. But it is used more often for spraying and protecting already mature potato bushes from the Colorado potato beetle. However, there are those who treated potato tubers with the Commander before planting.
Conclusion
It is obvious that the drug Komandor copes well with its responsibilities in protecting potatoes. Of course, you shouldn’t expect miracles from him either. But when choosing suitable protection for potatoes from various pests, and primarily from the Colorado potato beetle, you should pay attention to this drug.
