Ilyinsky potatoes ripen early (we plant in May and harvest in July), are unpretentious in care, and retain their presentation well even after long-term storage. Its excellent taste allows it to be used in cooking: this variety is ideal for making crispy French fries.
High yield (10 or more tubers on one bush and up to 350 c/ha) has earned this variety well-deserved popularity both among domestic vegetable growers and farmers from neighboring countries.
Description of the potato variety Ilyinsky
This species is distinguished by medium-sized bushes, the height of which reaches 60 cm. Semi-erect shoots of the Ilyinsky potato are 0.5-1.2 cm thick. As the bushes grow, the stems located in the central part bend in different directions.
Important! For Ilyinsky potatoes, hilling is definitely recommended, which allows you to increase the volume of the harvest due to the growth of tubers in an additional layer of soil.
This variety grows 4-6 stems in each bush. At the top they are well leafy, and at the bottom they are often bare. The plates are large, potato-type, up to 12 cm long. They may have a slight waviness along the edge, but often it is absent. The color of the leaves is rich green.
The inflorescences of “Ilyinsky” are small, each of them consists of 3-4 buds of a red-violet hue. Their petals are fused at the base. The diameter of the corolla does not exceed 1 cm. The flowering period of the Ilyinsky potato begins in the first half of June when planted in May.
The ripening period of the vegetable ranges from 70 to 80 days
Potatoes "Ilyinsky" are characterized by a well-developed root system. Under one bush, from 8 to 12 medium-sized tubers grow. There are a small number of small fruits. The average weight of a tuber is 58-120 g. The fruits of this potato are regular oval in shape. Their surface is smooth, the skin color is red and uniform. The eyes are small and have an average depth. When you cut the tuber, you can see the white flesh.
The starch content of Ilyinsky potatoes reaches 16-18%. The taste is excellent, as confirmed by numerous reviews. It softens slightly during the cooking process. Ideal for purees as no grains are formed.
"Ilyinsky" is demanding on the composition of the soil. To obtain maximum productivity, these potatoes should be grown in loose soil with good moisture and air permeability in a mild climate. But experienced gardeners claim that it is possible to grow “Ilyinsky” on heavy soils, after adding peat, sand, and chopped straw to the soil.
What difficulties may there be when growing
When growing the Ilyinsky variety, take into account its susceptibility to late blight , when too much moisture accumulates at the roots of the plant.
To prevent the plant from becoming infected with late blight , it is recommended to discard infected tubers before planting and hill up the bushes at least three times a season.
It is advisable to spray the plantings several times with special preparations (for example, “Fitosporin-M” and make sure that infected plants do not come into contact with healthy bushes on the ridge, that is, remove diseased plants in a timely manner. Insect pests are the main danger to the crop . One of the most “formidable "Pests of the Solanaceae family can be considered the Colorado potato beetle. The whole difficulty of fighting them lies in the fact that they come to the surface of the earth unevenly. First, those that overwintered closer to the soil surface appear on the leaves. After that, more "deep" ones crawl out onto the potato sprouts "their brothers.
It is almost impossible to completely get rid of adults, their larvae and eggs at one time. Colorado potato beetles can destroy all potato plantings in a short time. If you don’t want to use chemicals, you will have to collect them manually throughout the growing season. Spraying with onion tincture helps a little. If there are a huge number of pests, you will have to use insecticides. “Decis”, “NO Colorado potato beetle” and other preparations are sold in every garden store. Before use, be sure to read the instructions.
Characteristics of the potato variety Ilyinsky
Potatoes "Ilyinsky" belong to the category of drought-resistant. The variety easily tolerates short-term lack of moisture and elevated temperatures and shows stable yields in such conditions. But it does not tolerate high soil moisture, so it cannot be grown in lowlands, as this can lead to rotting of the tubers.
Young shoots of “Ilyinsky” may freeze slightly in the event of return frosts. Therefore, it is necessary to plant this variety when the weather is warm.
Ilyinsky tubers do not crack. The variety is characterized by good keeping quality. The harvest is stored until the end of spring next year, subject to all conditions. The mass fraction of waste does not exceed 7-10%. "Ilyinsky" is not susceptible to mechanical damage. Its tubers tolerate transportation well without losing their presentation.
Important! Ilyinsky potatoes are suitable for making chips and French fries.
Productivity
This variety is considered mid-early. Potatoes ripen 70-80 days after emergence. The yield of marketable tubers is 87-99%, which is significantly higher than that of other varieties.
Productivity is average. From 1 sq. m. you can get about 5 kg of potatoes. This indicator is influenced by soil composition, climatic conditions and timely application of fertilizers.
Advantages and disadvantages
Potatoes "Ilyinsky" have a number of advantages. Many gardeners love him for this. Therefore, despite the fact that a large number of modern species have been bred, it remains relevant for 20 years. This is also facilitated by a small number of shortcomings.
The shelf life of this variety is 90-93%
pros
- Good keeping quality.
- Excellent product quality.
- Resistant to heat and drought.
- Great taste.
- Versatility of use.
- Not affected by potato cancer.
- Friendly maturation.
- Resistant to mechanical damage.
- Uniformity of fruits.
- High yield.
Minuses
- Average resistance to late blight.
- It is affected by the Colorado potato beetle, nematode and wireworm.
- Does not tolerate moisture stagnation well.
- Demanding on soil composition.
Harvest and storage
The most enjoyable moment for any farmer is harvesting. Let's find out how to harvest Ilyinskaya potatoes without loss and on time.
How and when to collect
Since the variety is early ripening, the harvest is harvested within three months after planting.
Advice. Take care of next year's harvest in advance. It is important to pay attention to the number of tubers on the bush. Choose only those with at least 10 healthy tubers and use this material for planting next year.
Two weeks before digging, all the tops are mowed down. It is advisable to harvest potatoes by hand so as not to damage the fruit. Those plants whose bushes have fewer filled “nests” are not suitable for sowing next year, even if large-sized potatoes are found on them.
Attention! Harvest potatoes only in dry weather!
Features of storage of the variety
The tubers can lie all winter and are preserved by 93%, unlike some other mid-early varieties, which are immediately eaten after harvest and are not stored for a long time.
To store vegetable varieties for a longer time, follow these rules::
- After digging, the tubers can be dried directly in the garden bed. At the same time, keep them in the open sun no more than a few times;
- after drying, place Ilyinsky for at least two weeks in a dry place with a temperature of +12–16 °C;
- It is advisable to inspect each dried tuber in order to sort out infected and small potatoes. It is recommended to place seed potatoes in a container separate from the “food” potatoes.
Reference . To preserve the Ilyinsky variety in proper form, keep in mind that it is prone to early germination. To avoid the rapid appearance of shoots, you need to reduce the temperature in the storage to +3–4˚С towards the beginning of spring.
Landing rules
It is recommended to plant Ilyinsky potatoes in the first half of May, when the soil has warmed to a depth of 20 cm and the threat of return frosts has passed.
Preparing the area for potatoes should begin in the fall with deep plowing. But if there is no time, it can be done in the spring, but at least 7 days before planting. For plowing, rotted organic matter should be added at the rate of 200 kg per hundred square meters. In its absence, it is necessary to use mineral fertilizers. They include nitroammophoska, potassium salt and ammonium nitrate, 1 kg each for the same plot size. After this you need to level the surface. Preparation of tubers consists of heating and germination for 10-14 days according to the standard scheme.
You need to plant Ilyinsky potatoes at a distance of 30 cm, and maintain a row spacing of 60 cm. This planting scheme will help ensure uniform lighting and ventilation of the bushes, and will also allow for high-quality hilling.
Important! The planting depth of Ilyinsky potatoes should be about 10-12 cm.
Specifics of growing and caring for potatoes
- The optimal temperature conditions for heating the soil are at the level of 8-10 degrees. This is necessary for the potatoes to begin to germinate and form young tubers.
- The average planting depth is 5-10 cm. The distance between rows is 60-70 cm, between tubers in a row is 25-35 cm.
- On the 6-7th day after planting the tubers, the soil is loosened in order to destroy the still filamentous weed seedlings, as well as to improve the aeration of the soil (saturation of the soil with oxygen).
- Watering is carried out as the soil dries. Irrigation rate per 10 acres: immediately after germination 15 cubic meters;
- during the formation of tubers 30 cubic meters;
- 20 days before harvesting and storing for the winter, watering stops.
Features of cultivation
Watering of plantings should be carried out only in the absence of prolonged rains. It is especially important that there is enough moisture during the period of shoot growth, flowering and ovary.
7 days after planting, the bed should be loosened to a depth of 2 cm to improve air access to the soil. When the potato shoots grow to a height of 12 cm, the first hilling should be carried out and repeated after 10 days.
Important! Throughout the entire growth period, you should weed the potatoes and loosen the soil at the base of the bushes until the rows close together.
Fertilizing should be carried out at the stage of flowering and ovary formation, if fertilizers for growth were applied during plowing. During this period, it is recommended to apply superphosphate (40 g) and potassium sulphide (25 g) per bucket of water. Fertilizers should be applied the first time in the form of an aqueous solution at the root at the rate of 1 liter per plant, and the second time by spraying on the leaf.
The yield of a variety depends directly on the planting scheme.
Advantages and disadvantages
- Thanks to the efforts of breeders, Ilyinsky has a number of undeniable advantages, including:
- very high yields;
- decent taste characteristics of root vegetables;
- low percentage of non-marketable fruits (no more than 1–13%);
- universal direction of use;
- good keeping quality and minor (up to 7%) losses during storage, which is rare for early varieties;
- unpretentiousness, no difficulties with cultivation;
- early ripening;
- even shape and uniform size of fruits;
- good transportability of the crop;
- drought resistance, resistance to many fungal and viral diseases of potatoes.
- However, the variety also has disadvantages. These include:
- low cold resistance;
- the need for high hilling of the bush due to the tendency of its trunks to disintegrate and lie on the ground;
- low resistance to nematodes and low resistance to scab and late blight;
- short shelf life (compared to later varieties);
- rarity (seed material for planting is difficult to find).
Easy to care
for Each variety has its positive and negative sides. According to reviews from vegetable growers, Ilyinsky has many more advantages than disadvantages. Positive qualities include:
- early maturation;
- ease of care;
- high productivity;
- good presentation;
- excellent taste;
- wide range of uses of tubers.
The disadvantages of the variety include poor tolerance of excess moisture, as well as susceptibility to late blight.
For almost two decades now, this potato variety has been grown on their plots by summer residents, as well as by industrial farmers. Its quality has been tested over the years and it is very popular among customers.
Diseases and pests
The Ilyinsky potato variety is susceptible to diseases such as late blight and golden cyst nematode. The main symptoms of late blight are dark spots that initially appear on the leaves, and then on all other parts of the plant.
This disease is incurable, but its occurrence can be prevented by prophylactically spraying plants with a solution of copper sulfate, copper sulfate, manganese or Bordeaux mixture. If the potatoes are already infected, drugs such as Oxychom, Ridomil Gold MC and Ridomil MC will help delay the spread of late blight.
The main signs of the spread of potato nematode include slow plant growth, drying and yellowing of the lower leaves. The tubers become small, and the root system has a worn-out appearance. To combat this pest, you can use drugs such as “Gromoboy 1”, “Gromoboy 2” and “Medvedtox U”.
Soil for potatoes
The characteristics of the methods of caring for this type of tuberous plant state that the soil in which our potato variety Ilyinsky is grown must be prepared in the fall. To do this, select a site where nightshade crops have not been cultivated for at least 3 years. Rotted manure is applied to the soil surface, about 250 kg per 1 hectare. You can sprinkle along with it a complex mineral fertilizer, which includes:
- ammonium nitrate - 2kg;
- potassium salt - 1.5 kg;
- nitroammophoska - 1.5 kg.
If there was lush vegetation in this area, then there is enough nitrogen in the soil and the percentage of ammonium nitrate in the fertilizer can be reduced.
After fertilizing, you need to dig the soil deeply or plow it with small mechanical equipment. In spring, the soil is leveled and the beds are prepared.
In loamy soils you can grow vegetables in high ridges, and in other soils in simple rows. About 60cm is left between the rows and placed perpendicular to the East-West line, and there should be 30cm between the holes. With this arrangement of rows, the plants will be better illuminated by the sun.
Plant characteristics
The Ilyinsky potato variety is capable of producing products, at the stage of technical ripeness, of more than 350 c/ha with good care.
When harvesting young potatoes for sale, the yield will decrease slightly. The marketability of tubers is about 99%. This is slightly higher than the average for other species, making it profitable to grow.
Description of the bush
The bushes of the plant are most often erect, up to 60 cm high, and consist of 4 - 6 stems. The stems are well leafy in the upper part, and may be bare below.
The leaves are potato-type, but without wavy edges, and grow up to 12cm. The color is green and rich. The veins are weakly expressed.
The apical inflorescences consist of simple flowers. The flowers are small, red-violet. Petals may grow together at the base.
Up to 12 fruits ripen in a fruit nest. Their weight ranges from 55g to 160g. The tubers are oval, covered with a thin skin, and reddish in color. It has small red eyes. They are located in little noticeable recesses. White pulp contains up to 18% dry matter.
Description of tubers
The fruits have a good taste. They contain about 17% starch and 0.12% sugar. When slicing, the cuts do not darken, which makes it possible to prepare potato pancakes and pancakes that remain light. When boiling and frying, the pulp does not crumble, but retains its shape. The puree turns out fluffy and aromatic.
Ripe potato fruits sent for storage do not lose their species characteristics for a long time. The tubers remain dense, do not wither and do not lose their taste. More than 93% of the harvest is well preserved until new tubers are harvested next year.
Especially tasty, you can make crispy potatoes. Therefore, on an industrial scale, this type of tuber is recommended for making chips.
Advantages
Ilyinsky potatoes are widely used in the fields due to their characteristics.
- It has high productivity.
- Product presentation is of excellent quality.
- The tubers are distinguished by their high keeping quality.
- The fruits are suitable for various heat treatments.
Also, the advantages that Ilyinskaya potatoes have include their resistance to viruses such as:
- cancer;
- late blight on tubers;
- common scab.
Characteristics of canker include the formation of white growths on the tubers and green growths on the stems, which eventually begin to rot. Such a nuisance does not threaten our potatoes, just like the presence of common scab lesions on the fruits.
Flaws
Plants are susceptible to diseases
Potato Ilyinsky is affected by late blight of stems. Pests that can cause significant damage include the golden cyst nematode and Colorado potato beetles.
Wireworms and mole crickets can also sometimes feast on fruits and leave traces of their visit. The wireworm leaves small through holes, and the mole cricket spoils the appearance, sometimes leaving only the peel.
