The benefits and harms of potato tops

Gardeners do not always succeed in obtaining a good potato crop in a personal plot. Most often the cause of this is pests and plant diseases. However, the cause of a decrease in the number of potato crops may be too high potato tops.

By Use and harm of potato tops

Reasons for the appearance of high tops

Too high greens negatively affects the potato yield. If potato tops grow to a height of 1 m, in autumn small root crops can be expected from the bushes.The reason for such a fading of tubers is the plant’s spent energy on growing greenery.

A number of factors influence the height and activity of growth, why the tops of potatoes begin to outstrip the development of root crops.

Oversupply of fertilizer

Oversupply leads to excessive growth of potato greenery to the ground in the soil nitrogen fertilizers. This causes the top of the potato to grow 1 m high.In this situation, the tubers do not develop properly, the root system grows with a noticeable delay. As a result, gardeners harvest small potatoes.

Particularly dangerous for the active growth of potato greenery is the use of fertilizers such as manure and humus, which are characterized by a high nitrogen content.

Large planting material

Too large potato tubers can also cause the growth of the potato green top. This happens because a large root crop contains a deliberately greater amount of nutrients than a small one. Due to such a massive source of useful elements, the tops go on growing, preventing the root system from developing properly. New root crops begin to form after the final depletion of the planting tuber, but this happens already at the end of the growing season. As a result, the crop is small.

For planting, it is recommended to choose potatoes no larger than a chicken egg.

Low light

One of the reasons why potatoes have high tops is the lack of light. In shady places, plants stretch out, striving for light.

The quality of illumination is affected by too frequent planting of bushes.

Climatic conditions

Potato tops grow in the warm and rainy season.If it is impossible to influence the weather, the gardeners adapted to trample the tops after flowering the potatoes so that they lay down on the bed and did not pick up nutrients from the root system.

Fertilizers for controlling the tops

If the tops have grown, you should adjust the top dressing of the vegetable crop.

Superphosphate

Most often, they use superphosphate to combat potato tops. The application of this fertilizer will not relieve the grown greens, but it activates the development of potato root crops and preserves the quantitative indicators of the crop.

Application of superphosphate during the period of active growth of potato tops starts the process of tuberization, ensures the outflow of nutrients from foliage to tubers.

To prepare a superphosphate working solution, 100 g of the main ingredient dissolved in a 10-liter bucket of water is required. The resulting nutrient liquid is watered with potato bushes. This amount is enough for 1 hundred square meters of planting area.

As a measure to combat a decrease in potato yield due to excessive growth of potato tops, foliar foliar application is often used. Leaf dressing is characterized by higher absorption rates of nutrients, which leads to an acceleration of the tuberization process.

Soil fertilizer restriction

An excess of fertilizers will cause the tops to grow

Nitrogen fertilizers are not applied if the planting areas were fertilized with manure or humus during the harvest or in the spring before planting.

To prevent the growth of potato greens restrict nutrition with nutrients. Among them:

• potassium,
• iron,
• phosphorus,
• magnesium.

Limiting the amount of plant nutrition during potato cultivation is also important because even in the case of large tubers grown with a rich and high potato green part, such a crop, oversaturated with fertilizers, is poorly stored.

Removing tops

If it is not possible to determine what exactly is the reason for the active growth of potato greenery, the tops are bent. This makes it possible to suspend its growth for a period of about 2 weeks and start the tuberization process.

The removal of greenery is carried out in one of two ways:

• Mechanical. As a result, the green part of the potato bush remains at least 25 cm high. This is enough to fully absorb chemicals during processing. The mechanical method of tearing off the green part is done by means of a topper and is not used for low bushes.
• Chemical.Often it is used as an addition to the mechanical one day after the last one. For greater efficiency, chemical treatment is carried out twice. In the first case, the upper part of the stem is destroyed, in the second, the effect of chemicals is fixed.

Both methods of removing potato greens are carried out 7 days before mowing.

Mowing tops

To increase the yield of a vegetable crop, if the potato top has gone into active growth, it allows mowing. The event is carried out at the end of the stage of development of flowers. Mowing greens has many advantages:

• stimulating the development of tubers,
• improving the quality of the crop,
• drying the furrows,
• lowering barriers to plant infection with diseases whose pathogens prefer to settle on potatoes,
• increase the shelf life of the crop,
• simplify the collection of potatoes.

Mowing potato greens is recommended 2 weeks before the expected harvest of potatoes. In other cases, it is mowed earlier, but it is necessary after the potato has sprouted and the flowers have gone, at the end of the flowering stage.

Using tops

Mowed potato greens many gardeners used for agricultural purposes.

Pest control agent

Extracts from potato greens become an effective means of combating many pests: spider mites, leaf-eating caterpillars, aphids, cabbage whites, moths.

To prepare the working fluid against pests in the form of infusion, you can break off fresh shoots or using dried greens. The proportion of greens is 0.3-0.4 kg per 10-liter bucket of water. The infusion is kept in a warm place for 4 hours, then dissolved in it up to 50 g of any soap. Planting solution in the garden is irrigated with a working solution in the evening.

Fertilizer

The green part is the most valuable source of nutrients from which compost fertilizer is obtained. potato greens in a compost pile are recommended with pretreatment of the place with copper sulfate, which creates a protective It’s possible to use the fertilizer obtained after 3 years. This period is enough to eliminate pathogens of fungal diseases, including late blight.

Potato greens are often used to mulch raspberry, currant and gooseberry bushes and other berry bushes.

Food

Gardeners do not use the potato green part when feeding domestic animals. Containing a large concentration of corned beef and other toxic components of the tops, it causes digestive upsets in pigs, rabbits, cows and horses. An exception to this list of domestic animals is sheep: the potato top improves the quality of their coat.