Potato is one of the most important foodstuffs of mankind, therefore its new varieties with improved characteristics are regularly selected. The new table variety Kamensky is a Russian development and is characterized by high productivity, drought tolerance and is not affected by the Colorado potato beetle.

Characterization and description of the variety

This potato with high taste is selected in the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution "Ural Scientific Research Institute of Agriculture" and was entered in the state register of the Russian Federation in 2009. It is allowed for cultivation in three regions of the country:

• Volga-Vyatka;
• West Siberian;
• Ural.

Did you know? Potato belongs to the Solanaceae family, to which many garden crops that look different from each other: tomato, pepper, eggplant and even tobacco.

Appearance of tubers and bushes

Oval tubers have a red peel with roughness, middle eyes with a shallow bedding. Creamy flesh with a high starch content (up to 18.9%) and excellent taste. The mass of one potato is 100–130 g, individual specimens reach 180 g. A straight bush with several stems, compact, well developed. The leaves are saturated green in color, large, stiff, with wavy edges. Corolla straight, large, with red-violet flowers uneven in color.

Ripening time

Depending on climatic conditions, care, soil and the region, this early ripe potato can produce a crop in the period from 50 to 60 days. In light, well-fertilized soil, this can happen earlier, and in heavy soil a little later.

Did you know? Not every type of potato can be bought at the supermarket or in the market. La Bonnotte, grown on the French Mediterranean island of Noirmoutier, has such a delicate taste that the cost of a kilogram of this delicacy is about 500 euros.

Productivity

Kamensky is a high-yielding and large-fruited variety. In a good year, he is able to bring up to 550 centners per hectare. On one bush, 10 to 25 tubers can form.

Disease resistance

Breeders managed to achieve the resistance of the variety to the main pest - the Colorado potato beetle. But the golden nematode is able to harm the plant. Of the diseases, the culture has an average resistance to late blight.

Learn more about how to deal with potato diseases.

Frost resistance

With early planting, possible frosts can damage and even destroy delicate sprouts. The stems become glassy at low temperature and then die. Kamensky has some frost resistance even to Ural frosts, but a prolonged decrease in temperature can be detrimental to young plants.

Advantages and disadvantages of the variety

• The positive qualities are as follows:
• precocity;
• drought tolerance;
• frost resistance;
• productivity;
• high taste;
• resistance to the Colorado potato beetle;
• transportability.

• The variety has practically no negative characteristics. It can only be attributed to
• low stubbornness inherent in table varieties, and susceptibility to attack of nematodes.

Features of planting and care

Kamensky is planted in mid-April, when the soil temperature stabilizes at positive levels.

Important! With the help of preparation for planting in tubers, biological growth processes are launched, which will give strong stems and healthy fruits.

Selection of planting material

The criteria for selecting tubers for planting are as follows:

• many shallow eyes;
• flat surface without damage;
• average size and weight (50–80 g);
• All vegetables must be of the same variety.

Tuber preparation

Potato can be planted in the ground without preparation, which is usually done by summer residents. But you can prepare planting material that will help him in growth and fruiting. Preparation of planting material begins a month before being placed in the ground. For germination, potatoes are laid in 1-2 layers on the floor or in boxes in places with enough light. If the boxes are stacked on top of each other, they need to be swapped regularly.

To awaken the eyes, it is necessary to keep the material at a temperature of +18 ... + 20 ° C for two weeks. In the future, to harden the sprouts and reduce their growth rate, it is necessary to lower the temperature to +10 ... + 14 ° C. In some cases, it is not possible to prepare planting material in advance. Here quick methods of growth initiation come to the rescue - drying and warming. In the first case, the potatoes are kept in a warm room for 1-2 weeks until the sprouts or their primordia appear; in the second, they are artificially warmed up for at least 3-4 days.

Soil preparation

Potatoes give a good harvest in “breathing” soils, which should not be in lowlands prone to waterlogging. The loosest sandy loam lands are ideal for growing this vegetable.

Preparation of soil for planting is done in the following order:

• organic fertilizers are applied in the fall;
• in the spring they cultivate 12-15 cm without turning the earth;
• Before landing, the site is dug up to the depth of the bayonet of a shovel.

You will be interested to know what is best planted after potatoes.

Potato planting scheme

Material is planted in the prepared soil through 35–40 cm. One medium or two small tubers are placed in the dug holes. A variant with cutting in half or four parts of large potatoes is possible. When shoveling or mechanized planting, the aisles are 70–80 cm. Such a gap is made for access to each bush and the opportunity to develop the underground part of the plant.

Watering and fertilizer

Potatoes do not require a large amount of moisture, but during its growth, you can irrigate at the most important points:

• when shoots appear;
• when the first flower buds appear;
• after flowering.

Read also how to water potatoes yourself.

Each watering has its own meaning: the first stimulates the stems in growth, the second activates the splendor of flowering and tuberization, the third does not allow the tops to dry quickly and stop feeding the root system. The usual watering rate is 50 liters per 1 m². The water temperature is not lower than + 23 ° C, and it should be soft. Watering is done in the evening at sunset or in the morning before sunrise. You need to water in the aisles, under the stems, but not on the foliage.

Top dressing, like watering, is also carried out in three stages:

• 20-30 days after planting - a tablespoon of urea (or bird droppings) in a bucket of water of 0.5 l under the bush;
• when the first buds appear - a glass of wood ash in a bucket of water of 0.5 l under the bush;
• after flowering - 2 tbsp. tablespoons of superphosphate in a bucket of water of 0.5 l under the bush.

Important! If the bushes are well developed, you can not do fertilizer after flowering - the plants themselves will "figure it out" and give a good harvest.

Loosening and weeding from weeds

After watering or raining, potatoes need to be spudded so that a crust does not form, trapping water and preventing the soil from breathing. The ground is neatly picked up with a chopper or shovel under the stems to preserve moisture in the root zone.

If this is not done, the plant will not receive its portion of moisture and, in turn, may not get enough of it. Weeding tubers developing under the ground are also a mandatory procedure for growing potatoes. All weeds “excellent” deprive the soil of minerals and moisture, which affects the quality of future potatoes. To prevent this, weeds ruthlessly weed out and removed from the site.

Find out also what is the purpose of hilling potatoes.

Prevention of diseases and pests of the variety

Diseases and pests bypass Kamensky, as he was specially selected to be able to withstand them. Tubers of this variety, like any potato, can rot with excessive watering, stagnant water. This can also occur due to rains, so you need to make sure that water does not accumulate in the aisles. The variety is very resistant to cancer, various types of mosaics, foliage twisting.

But it is susceptible to a golden cyst-forming nematode, which is able to destroy part of the crop - up to 90%. For the prevention and control of this parasite, the Nematorin insecticide is used, which can be added to the holes or beds during planting or sprinkled under the stems when pests appear. It also helps fight wireworms.

Harvesting and Storage

Like any kind of potato, Kamensky must be harvested very carefully so as not to damage the fruits. Given its productivity, you need to use the pitchfork and make a dig in the middle between the bushes, dumping a layer of land with tubers in the aisle. Selected fruits are not placed in wooden or plastic boxes to the very top, so that you can stack them.

We advise you to find out when it is better to dig potatoes for storage.

A table early ripening variety cannot be stored for a long time, but the "life" of tubers can be extended if the boxes are placed in a cool, dry cellar. In this case, the vegetables will remain for 2-3 months, especially if they are sorted weekly. It’s also good to keep potatoes in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator.

Kamensky potato is a representative of a new level of control of the Colorado potato beetle - it is not necessary to create insecticides, but rather to select a variety with properties that interfere with pests. At the same time, the potatoes are perfectly cooked, fried and baked and have a great taste.