It would seem that not much water has passed in the Vistula since the time when potato agrotechnics was limited to fertilizing with manure after harvesting the forecrop, planting, harrowing and sprinkling, and possibly collecting the beetle. Meanwhile, today, even in organic farming, the use of certain plant protection products is allowed, and in conventional farming, when describing the agrotechnics of this species, we must devote a few lines of text to listing the active substances used in a given field. And is there any other way?
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Chamomile, broom and couch grass in wheat just before harvest. Why is this a problem?
Potato after sunflower
In order to conduct an amateur experiment, we prepared a small plantation of Denar potatoes on an area of approximately 2 ares. This variety was bred at the Zamarte Potato Breeding and is characterized by resistance to cyst nematodes, high resistance to scab, Y virus and mechanical damage, medium resistance to late blight, and low fertilizer needs. The potatoes were fertilized with compost, the forecrop was sunflower, and even earlier, corn fertilized with cattle manure was grown here.
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Used Kuhn VKR 305 mulcher. A spontaneous purchase worked well for a service company
Lack of protection and the condition of the plantation
The multitude of plant protection treatments on today's conventional potato plantations would indicate that such an experiment is doomed to failure. Meanwhile, it's already July and there has been no tragedy yet. The seeding treatment was performed three times, and frequent rains contributed to the intensive growth of plants, which at this stage almost completely cover the inter-rows, thus solving the weed infestation problem. Yes, white quinoa, black nightshade and self-seeding sunflowers are visible, but the intensity is not great. A sunflower blooming here and there will be a certain improvement in aesthetic value rather than a significant problem.
Sunflower in a potato, photo: Maciej Sacha
When it comes to diseases and pests, the problem may be a bit bigger. There are surprisingly few symptoms of diseases, and the situation in this respect, despite the weather favoring the development of fungi, seems to be quite good. However, the situation with pests is worse. The Colorado potato beetle is starting to become a problem, as it was already collected from plants using the traditional method, and apart from it, there is also a greater incidence of the Colorado potato beetle, which will not be easy to remove without plant protection products.
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Quinoa and weedweed are a serious problem in corn
We will come back to this in the next report about the future of the experimental plantation, whether it will not be destroyed by diseases and pests, and what the tubers obtained from it will look like.
