Characteristics of Riviera potatoes
The world market offers a huge number of potato varieties. Some vegetables surprise consumers with their taste, others with their ability to grow in different weather conditions, and still others with their yield. One of the varieties that can be called perfect and unique is the Riviera potato. This is a very early potato, which differs from others in large yields and excellent taste. Based on the feedback from experienced potato growers, we can say that this is an elite variety that can grow throughout the country, under any weather conditions.
Characteristics of Riviera potatoes
Characteristics of the Riviera variety
Cultivating potatoes and comparing the main indicators of different varieties, you can make sure that the Riviera potatoes remain out of competition.
From planting tubers in the ground to harvesting potatoes, no more than 60 days pass. A powerful root system is able to provide the plant with moisture even in the driest regions. Therefore, growing potatoes in the south of the country and in the Crimea will not create problems.
Very early collection of products is possible, during the growing season of the variety under film shelters. In the southern regions, it is possible to re-plant tubers, which will have time to give production of technical ripeness at the time when potatoes of late ripening are harvested. So the area of land, treated once with insecticides and mineral fertilizers, will bring a double harvest of vegetables.
Tubers in bushes are formed almost simultaneously, and they grow almost the same size. Their weight is 100-180g. This allows you to get a high-quality marketable product about 95% of the total harvest. Beautiful early potatoes are in great demand in the markets and their prices are high. Therefore, it will not be difficult to put the harvest on sale and get a good income.
The tubers are perfectly preserved without losing their appearance and taste. This will allow transporting crops over long distances, providing potatoes to the regions of the North and Siberia. During transportation, the potatoes are not damaged, they remain starchy and hard, there are no dents and rot spots on them.
Advantages of the Riviera variety
The main positive qualities of this potato, of course, are its taste and yield. But there are other benefits as well.
- The bush is capable of forming up to 12 tubers.
- At the stage of technical ripeness, you can get more than 450c / ha.
- Potatoes are resistant to many nightshade viruses.
- Almost not affected by pests.
- This is an ultra-early ripening variety.
- The plant is suitable for growing in various climatic zones.
- The output of marketable products is more than 90%.
- High yield of potatoes.
- Excellent keeping quality of tubers of technical maturity.
- Good transportability.
Usually there are up to 9 tubers in a fruit nest.But with timely feeding and watering, several more potatoes are tied, which ripen simultaneously with the total mass.
Plants are resistant to many viruses
The average yield, when harvesting young potatoes, after 35 days of growing season, is about 270c / ha. If a site is left for the full collection of ripe products and subsequent storage, then the yield will be almost twice as large.
Plants are immune to leaf mosaic viruses, common scab in fruits and late blight in fruits. Also, they are not affected by the leaf twisting and burning virus.
As for the golden cyst nematode, its galls with eggs do not die in winter, remaining in the soil until spring. It is better to play it safe and not plant these vegetables on an area where nightshade crops, pumpkins, peppers or weeds such as wheatgrass and nightshade grew 3 years earlier.
You can treat the soil with Bazudin or plant cabbage and mustard on the site. They will provoke the release of the larvae from the cysts, which will die without the usual nutrition. Sometimes it helps the use of predatory nematodes Nemabakt, which are sold as part of the preparation - Zashchita soil.
Disadvantages of potatoes
Among the disadvantages of growing the Riviera variety is damage to plants by late blight of stems. It is also possible to attack Colorado beetles and their larvae, wireworm, bear and garden moth. Pests can be dealt with by using pesticides.
Description of the plant
The bushes of the variety grow more than 70cm in height. Stems are erect, ribbed. Sometimes they can bend a little, then the bush turns out to be spreading. There are many leaves on the plant. They are light green in color, potato-shaped and rather large. In the lower part of the plant, the leaves are yellow and smaller.
Flowers are collected in simple inflorescences. Corollas are fused at the base, petals are reddish-violet in color. After pollination, few berries are tied and they partially fall off. But usually the bushes do not have time to bloom, tk. the potatoes are harvested earlier.
In the fruit nest, about 10 tubers of an oval-round shape ripen. The skin color is light yellow. It is slightly rough to the touch. Eyes are barely visible on the surface. The pulp is firm and also light, almost milky in color. The starch content is 19.6% and the sugar content is 0.4%. These indicators determine the taste of the potato and its aroma.
Eating potatoes
You can make many dishes from potatoes
Each housewife has her own favorite recipes. You can cook from potato tubers:
- casseroles;
- mashed potatoes;
- fried potatoes;
- various first courses;
- pancakes and dumplings;
- on an industrial scale - chips and starch.
The high starch content allows for fluffy, airy purees. The potatoes, cooked in their skins, do not crumble due to their peel, which does not crack during cooking.
Preparing a site for potatoes
When growing super-early potatoes, you need to adhere to some rules.
- The soil should be sandy loam and light.
- The site is thoroughly cleared of weeds and fertilized since autumn.
- The next planting of potatoes in these beds is allowed no earlier than 3 years later.
- It is necessary to treat the area with insecticides before planting tubers.
Clay soil can be improved by adding compost, humus, and sand. Since autumn, rotted manure is laid out on the site: 45 buckets per hundred square meters and dug deeply.
Another method of fertilization is sowing winter rye, the seedlings of which are embedded in the soil in spring. Before the autumn digging, you can sow white mustard. When the plant reaches a height of about 10 cm, the site is dug up.
To destroy the wireworm, a weak solution of potassium permanganate is used, which is poured over the holes during planting. They scare away pests with onion peels, add a handful to the pits.
If young potatoes are grown for sale, then rows are prepared, placing them from south to north, at a distance of 50 cm. When grown for storage, for planting tubers, 65 - 70 cm is left between the rows.The distance between the bushes is at least 25 cm.
Seed potato preparation
2 weeks before planting, you need to germinate and plant the tubers. Boxes of potatoes are exposed to light in a room with a temperature of at least 15 ° C. When exposed to light, the tubers form solanine, which is a poison for small insects. Before planting, potatoes are etched in a solution of Prestige in order to protect young plants from Colorado beetles.
Planting is best when soil temperatures are at least 10 ° C. But it is possible to plant the tubers at a lower temperature of 8 ° C, only then the seedlings will have to wait a little.
If tubers weighing about 80g were selected for planting material, then 1 potato is laid in each hole. Smaller potatoes are placed in 2 or 3 pieces.
Planting holes are carefully filled up because the shoots can be broken. They are fragile, so if they break, then new ones will not sprout soon.
Growing potatoes
Plants need to be weeded regularly
The Riviera variety is unpretentious, but proper care will increase yields.
- 2 harrowing of plantings is required before sprouts appear.
- You can huddle 3 or 2 times.
- It is imperative to weed and loosen the soil.
- In dry weather, watered 2 times or more during the growing season, while fertilizing.
- In rainy weather, dry mineral dressings are applied and, when hilling, they are embedded in the near-stem area of the bush.
It is necessary to harrow in order to make it easier for seedlings to pass through the soil.
The first hilling of potatoes is carried out with a stem height of up to 17 cm. The follow-up can be done in 3 weeks. Weeding is carried out constantly, and loosening of the soil is necessary so that there is air access to the fruit nest. When exposed to carbon, tubers grow and gain weight better.
For plant feeding, mineral complex fertilizers are used. Their composition for 1m² should include:
- 20g ammonium nitrate or urea;
- 20g potassium sulfate;
- 30g nitrophoska;
- 1 glass of ash.
A mixture of these mineral preparations can be diluted with an organic solution. It is prepared from cow dung or bird droppings. Take organics and add water 1: 4. Place in a warm place for fermentation for 2 weeks. After that, it is diluted with warm water 1:10, mineral fertilizers are added and watered under the root or between the rows.
Disease and pest control
Riviera potatoes can only get sick with late blight of the stems, if there is waterlogging of the plantings. For prevention, you need not to overdo it with watering and process the bushes with an ash edge or boric acid.
The imago of the Colorado potato beetle, i.e. adults hibernate in the ground. At the first rays of the sun, they leave the hibernation and get out. Then the planting of super-early potatoes may be subjected to a massive attack. You need to fight the beetle mechanically - collecting it by hand.
But, no matter how hard the gardeners try, new Colorado beetles will still arrive from neighboring plots. Each female will lay up to 30 eggs. After 7 - 18 days, under favorable conditions, larvae will emerge from the eggs.
When they appear, Aktara, Antizhuk and other broad-spectrum insecticides are used. The recipe is always on the packaging. Treat bushes by spraying them with a spray bottle, it is extremely important to follow all instructions. Since if the concentration of the drug is too weak, the treatment will not bring, the strong concentrate, on the contrary, can burn the stems and completely destroy the entire crop.
It is important to practice good personal hygiene by wearing rubber gloves, an apron, and a mask. You also need to protect your eyes from the ingress of pesticides. It is advisable to remove pets from the site and protect them from getting poisons orally or in drip form on animal hair and bird feathers.
Sorting crops for storage
Digging out the potatoes, they are immediately dried and divided into three parts. The first part should contain products intended for storage.It consists of full-fledged healthy tubers, not affected by diseases and not injured during harvesting.
The second part includes potatoes, which are left for planting, this is seed. It is desirable that all tubers are medium in size and approximately the same in weight.
The third part consists of injured potatoes and tubers with signs of disease. The description says that such potatoes can cause the spread of putrefactive bacteria throughout the cellar. In order not to expose the entire crop to infection, it is best to immediately separate the diseased specimens and destroy.
You cannot bury them in the ground, with the hope that they will rot, because rotting does not guarantee the death of virus spores. Only under the influence of high temperatures can the destruction of the virus be guaranteed.
Conclusion
An elite early variety of Riviera potatoes, it is a delicious vitamin product. The first tubers of a young potato are all the more pleasant in any dish if you know that they are grown by your own hands. In this case, we will be sure that we are putting on the table an environmentally friendly crop in the form of an ingredient for salads, or ruddy potato pancakes, jacket potatoes or baked in a peel. The main thing is that we will delight ourselves and our loved ones with beautiful, tasty and aromatic potato dishes.