Young potatoes: benefits and harms, how to germinate and when to plant

In summer, last year's potatoes stored in the cellars lose their useful properties. And to satisfy the culinary preferences of vegetable lovers, young potatoes are grown, which are dug up in the middle - end of June. Two weeks after the flowering of the garden crop, yellowish tubers with a thin skin appear on the markets. It is impossible to refuse boiled young potatoes with dill or green onions. But during the summer you can grow tubers yourself twice.

What is the use of young potatoes?

The benefits and harms to the human body are hidden in the tubers of young potatoes. But there are more useful properties:

1. Contained in young tubers, vitamins, trace elements will saturate the tissues of the heart, organs of the digestive tract. Daily consumption of potatoes in the amount of five hundred grams will result in a daily dose of ascorbic acid.
2. For the smooth functioning of the heart, potassium is needed, which is abundant in tubers. The element removes excess water from the body, which leads to the dropping of extra pounds. Useful potatoes for people with edema, dropsy, arising from poor kidney function.
3. The work of the intestines, its mucosa is normalized with daily consumption of boiled potatoes in the skin.
4. Sit down on a summer potato diet, a person will improve his mood, improve brain function. There are no fats in the fruits of the vegetable, but a lot of proteins and simple carbohydrates.

In the tubers used together with the peel, in 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 people with obesity. 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 an increase in blood sugar.

Beloved by many, young fried potatoes 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 their high starch content. It is especially worth giving up mashed potatoes for older people with impaired bowel function.

If potato tubers are stored improperly, harmful substances accumulate in them. Greenish fruits should not be eaten, otherwise the body will be poisoned.

Can I 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 help vegetable growers - potato lovers came breeders and brought out such vegetable varieties that give two harvests in a summer.

Ultra-early varieties

In order for potatoes to reach technical maturity, vegetable varieties are used that are ready for harvest in forty to fifty days:

The reddish tubers of the Alena variety are dug up after 45 days. Potatoes are distinguished by excellent taste, the ability to long-term storage. The vegetable plant is disease resistant.

Ariel's light yellow tubers reach a weight of one hundred grams. Potatoes are designed for replanting and produce 2 crops per season.

The Bellarosa variety is suitable for both summer use and winter storage. The rough dense peel protects tubers from mechanical damage. And the mass of fruits 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 starch.

For re-planting, early Zhukovsky potatoes with pinkish skin and white flesh are also chosen. It is ready for consumption 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?

The peculiarities of growing potatoes include vernalization of planting material. It consists in the preliminary germination of tubers.

A month before planting, he althy tubers are laid out on shelves in a layer in 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 sprinkled 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. The environment in which the tubers are contained is best moistened with a solution of mineral s alts. It is prepared from thirty grams of superphosphate and twenty - potassium s alt per ten liters of water.

From germinated material, they will get a forty percent increase in yield.

For re-planting, potato tubers are harvested during flowering. Sick and infected fruits are being culled.

Thin-skinned tubers are physiologically not yet ready for the second planting, so cuts are made on them with a sharp knife. To avoid infection of planting material, the tool is treated with a solution of potassium permanganate. Then the tubers are dipped in a liquid that stimulates the growth of seeds. Of the drugs, it is better to choose Fumar along with the hormonal agent Gibberellin. Growth stimulants are diluted in a bucket of water according to the instructions. The tuber treatment procedure takes three minutes. Processed potatoes should be immediately planted in the ground.

To get he althy tubers, you can plant them in the same place, but after digging the area and fertilizing it with urea or ammonium nitrate.

The planted potatoes are processed as usual, not forgetting to weed and spud.

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 the 5th-7th.

Harvesting

Potatoes are re-harvested depending on the period when they were planted. The harvest period falls in mid-September - the first half of October.

Before digging up the tubers, the tops are mowed. After harvesting, the potatoes are dried in a dry and dark place, removing damaged and diseased fruits.

After a two-week quarantine, potatoes will be covered with a dense skin. It is sent for storage in a cellar or barn. Potatoes are stored in rooms with ventilation at a temperature of 3-5 degrees Celsius and a humidity of sixty to seventy percent.

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