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In many regions of Russia, potato plantings are suffering from invasion Colorado potato beetle. Adult beetles are less harmless than their larvae. They stick around potato bushes like “red berries” and completely devour all the tops, leaving only the petioles.
Naturally, damaged plants are not able to recover quickly, and the yield is reduced several times. Gardeners are trying to find ways to combat pest. Processing potatoes before planting against the Colorado potato beetle is an effective method. Today you can select the appropriate preparations to protect tubers from the pest.
The influence of the Colorado potato beetle on yield
At the end of the 19th century, unknown beetles damaged potato plantings in the fields of Nebraska. After 4 years, the number of beetles increased significantly; they were able to reach the state of Colorado. Here the damage was significant. After this, the beetle began to be called the Colorado potato beetle.
Beetles and their offspring are voracious. Adult beetles also damage the tubers themselves. The food item is not only potatoes, but also eggplants, tomatoes, sweet peppers, physalis, wolfberry, and henbane. They do not refuse some flowers, which also belong to the nightshade family.The most voracious in the family are the larvae.
Throughout the growing season, pests must be controlled using various means. But you can protect the seedlings at the very beginning of the growing season if you specially treat the tubers with preparations against the Colorado potato beetle.
Adults overwinter in the soil at a depth of 30 to 50 cm. They do not disdain tubers. There have been cases when an insect was discovered while peeling potatoes.
Methods of protection
The task of vegetable growers is to protect potato plantings from the invasion of the Colorado potato beetle. Tubers must be processed before planting. There are professional (use of chemicals) and folk methods of protection. Let's try to figure them out.
Professional protection
Treatment of potatoes before planting against the Colorado potato beetle involves the use of pesticides. There are foreign-made drugs, they were used until recently. Today, the Russian chemical industry has produced many high-quality drugs that are not inferior in their properties to foreign analogues. Their quality can be judged by numerous reviews from vegetable growers.
What Russian means of protecting potatoes from the Colorado potato beetle can be used:
- Prestige – reliable protection of landings. To prepare a solution for processing potatoes, dilute 50 ml of the product in three liters of water.
Gardeners, as a rule, prepare approximately 50 kg of potatoes for planting. The resulting solution is quite sufficient. Plants will receive reliable protection. - Maksim most often used in conjunction with Prestige. Maxim is used not only to treat tubers, but also to treat the soil where insects can overwinter.
- Cruiser works effectively. Not only protects tubers from the Colorado potato beetle, but also prevents the spread of viral diseases. Plantings are protected for one and a half months.
- Taboo saves not only from the Colorado potato beetle, but also from all pests (especially click beetle larvae) living in the soil. Treated tubers are under reliable protection for at least one and a half months. Precipitation does not reduce the effect of the drug.
Video about treating tubers with chemicals before planting:
Safety precautions
Any means for treating soil and potato tubers is toxic. Therefore, compliance with safety precautions when working with any chemicals must be observed unquestioningly:
- You need to protect all exposed parts of your body: wear a jacket, gloves, cover your face with a scarf or mask. If etching needs to be carried out before leaving for the site, this is done in a ventilated room, for example, on a balcony if you live in the city. It’s easier for villagers: they take the planting material outside. Work is carried out in calm weather.
- Before working with preparations for spring treatment of potato tubers, you should carefully study the instructions. Prepare the solution, taking into account the dosage.
Processing rules
Potato tubers are processed immediately before planting.A tarpaulin or a large piece of cellophane is spread on the ground. To prevent it from flying away, the edges are pressed down.
- Potatoes with green sprouts, ready for planting, are laid out slowly, so as not to damage the planting material, by variety in one layer on the litter. To correctly calculate the amount of pesticide, the tubers must be hung before germination. If you don’t have a lot of potatoes, you can use plastic fruit boxes, first lined with cellophane.
- The drug cannot be stored, so it is prepared for one-time dressing of tubers. It needs to be diluted taking into account the dosage.
- Before starting to process the tubers, all assistants must be removed at a distance. The person who will perform the etching pours the prepared solution into the sprayer. The work is carried out slowly so as not to miss a single tuber, otherwise part of the potato will be defenseless against the Colorado potato beetle and its larvae. When the tubers are dry, you can begin planting.
If you don’t have a sprayer, you can simply dip the tubers into the solution. Nets are used for “bathing” potatoes. They are dipped into the pesticide for no more than 2-3 seconds (no more!). To dry the tubers, they can be laid out on a tarpaulin. This method of etching is suitable only for a small amount of planting material.
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Drying usually takes up to three hours. If the treatment was carried out outside the garden, then the planting material should be packed in two layers of film or tarpaulin so that the pesticides do not have time to evaporate.
Methods proven over centuries
The Colorado potato beetle was introduced to Russia with potatoes at the beginning of the 19th century.Among Russian birds there are no fans of eating poisonous red larvae and striped beetles. It is for this reason that the insect feels safe. People had to come up with means to protect potatoes from the voracious Colorado potato beetle and save the potato harvest.
Although traditional methods are not as effective as chemicals, they are harmless. Yes, and there were no pesticides in ancient times.
So, let's begin:
- Every house had stove ash. It was collected and used as fertilizer in gardens. Inquisitive gardeners have found that the solution helps save potatoes. The composition was diluted in the following proportion: 1 part ash and 10 parts water. Before planting, the tubers were dipped in ash liquid.
- Potassium permanganate is used by all gardeners and vegetable growers. Fill a ten-liter bucket with water to the top and add 1 gram of potassium permanganate. The result is a rich pink solution. Seed potatoes are “bathed” in it.
- For a 10-liter bucket of water take 15 grams of boric acid. Dip the tubers into the solution.
- You can also treat tubers against the Colorado potato beetle using copper sulfate. Per liter jar - 1 gram of substance.
Processed, what next...
The protection of potatoes from the Colorado potato beetle in various ways saves the plants at first, for about a month and a half. No pest eats the pickled tuber; poison also remains in the leaves at first.
But what to do when the protection ends and the Colorado potato beetle is in full swing? Plantings can be treated with the same preparations.
How to scare away the Colorado potato beetle from planting potatoes using birch tar in a video from a gardener:
