The benefits and harms of young potatoes, how to germinate and when to plant
In the summer, last year's potatoes stored in cellars lose their beneficial properties. And to satisfy the culinary addictions of vegetable lovers, young potatoes are grown, which are dug up in mid - late June. Two weeks after the flowering of the garden crop, yellowish tubers with a thin skin appear in the markets. It is impossible to refuse boiled young potatoes with dill or green onions. But during the summer you can grow the tubers yourself twice.
Why are young potatoes useful?
Benefits and harm to the human body are hidden in the tubers of young potatoes. But there are more useful properties:
- Vitamins and microelements contained in young tubers will saturate the tissues of the heart and organs of the digestive tract. The daily consumption of potatoes in the amount of five hundred grams will lead to a daily dose of ascorbic acid.
- For the smooth functioning of the heart, potassium is needed, which is abundant in the tubers. The element removes excess water from the body, which leads to shedding extra pounds. Potatoes are useful for people with edema, dropsy, arising from poor kidney function.
- The work of the intestines, its mucous membrane is normalized with daily consumption of boiled potatoes in a peel.
- Sitting on a summer potato diet, a person will improve his mood, improve brain function. There are no fats in the fruits of a vegetable, but a lot of proteins and simple carbohydrates.
In the tubers, consumed together with the peel, in the baked and boiled form, all substances useful to the body are preserved. And the amount of starch is much less than in old fruits. Young potatoes are useful for obese people. It has ten to thirty percent fewer calories than the old one: from 75 to 90 Kcal per hundred grams of product.
Who is the vegetable contraindicated for?
There are no absolute contraindications for eating young potatoes. It is necessary to properly prepare the product and use it in moderation for those who suffer from diabetes. The carbohydrates in the tubers will cause your blood sugar to rise.
Fried young potatoes loved by many are forbidden to be included in the menu for overweight people. A metabolic disorder after fried potatoes with daily use is guaranteed.
Mashed potatoes are also considered heavy food due to the high starch content in the dish. It is especially worth giving up mashed potatoes for elderly people with intestinal dysfunction.
If stored improperly potato tubers they accumulate harmful substances. Greenish fruits cannot be eaten, otherwise the body will be poisoned.
Can you get two crops of potatoes in a summer?
In temperate regions, young potatoes are grown twice a season. First, tubers planted in spring are harvested in mid-summer. Then they are planted a second time and harvested in September-October.
To the aid of vegetable growers - potato lovers, breeders came and bred varieties of vegetables that give two harvests per summer.
Ultra early ripening varieties
In order for the potatoes to reach technical maturity, vegetable varieties are used that are ready for harvesting in forty to fifty days:
The reddish tubers of the Alena variety are dug up after 45 days. Potatoes are distinguished by excellent taste and long-term storage capacity. The vegetable plant is resistant to disease.
Light yellow Ariel's tubers reach a weight of one hundred grams. The potato is designed for replanting and produces 2 crops per season.
The Bellarosa variety is suitable for both summer use and winter storage. The rough, dense peel protects the tubers from mechanical damage. And the mass of the fruit reaches two hundred grams.
The early varieties include Impala with yellowish tubers of 100–150 grams. A distinctive feature of the variety is the low calorie content of the vegetable: it contains only fifteen percent of starch.
For re-planting, Zhukovsky early potatoes with pinkish peel and white flesh are also chosen. It is ready for use in fifty days.
The advantages of early types of vegetables are their ability to ripen quickly, and give high yields twice.
How to germinate and when to plant a vegetable?
Especially growing potatoes includes vernalization of planting material. It consists in the preliminary germination of tubers.
A month before planting, healthy tubers are laid out on the shelves in a layer of 2-3 rows. The air temperature is maintained at around 12-15 degrees Celsius, then the vegetable germinates faster.
Wet vernalization is carried out for ten to fifteen days. The tubers are placed in boxes or baskets and covered with wet sawdust. Sawdust can be replaced with peat or humus spilled with water. The conditions for keeping containers with planting material - the air temperature is 14-18 degrees above zero. It is better to moisten the medium containing the tubers with a solution of mineral salts. It is prepared from thirty grams of superphosphate and twenty grams of potassium salt per ten liters of water.
From the germinated material, a forty percent more yield will be obtained.
Tubers are harvested for replanting potatoes during flowering... Sick and infected fruits are rejected.
Tubers with a thin skin are physiologically not yet ready for a second planting, so cuts are made on them with a sharp knife. To avoid contamination of the planting material, the tool is treated with a solution of potassium permanganate. Then the tubers are dipped in a liquid that stimulates seed growth. Of the drugs, it is better to choose Fumar together with the hormonal agent Gibberellin. Growth stimulants are diluted in a bucket of water according to the instructions. The tuber processing procedure takes three minutes. Processed potatoes should be immediately planted in the ground.
To get healthy tubers, you can plant them in the same place, but after digging up the area and fertilizing it with urea or ammonium nitrate.
Planted potatoes processed as usual, not forgetting to weed, huddle.
The second time they are planted in grooves at a distance of seventy centimeters and at a depth of ten. Planting dates - in the first days of July, no later than 5-7 days.
Harvesting
The potatoes are harvested again, depending on the date when they were planted. The harvesting period falls in mid-September - the first half of October.
Before digging out the tubers, the tops are mowed. After harvesting, the potatoes are dried in a dry and dark place, removing damaged and diseased fruits.
After going through a two-week quarantine, the potatoes will be covered with a dense skin. She is sent to storage in a cellar or shed.Potatoes are stored in rooms with ventilation at a temperature of 3-5 degrees Celsius and a humidity of sixty to seventy percent.
One of the cheapest and best carbohydrate foods, what harm can there be from it, you need to eat everything in moderation and there will only be benefits. And I plant potatoes only according to the lunar calendar, every year I do this and get an excellent harvest.