Potato Variety Adretta - Description Of The Species, Care And Other Important Aspects + Photo

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

Adretta: all the nuances of growing a popular potato variety

The process of growing potatoes is not easy and painstaking, not to mention the difficult choice - which variety is preferred. But this important nuance is a determining factor, especially when the climatic conditions of the growing region do not meet the needs of the crop. Adretta is a very successful hybrid, cultivated for more than one generation of gardeners. The description of the variety is basically a listing of its undoubted advantages, which compensate for some small shortcomings. In addition, Adretta is not only tasty, but also beautiful potatoes (the photos prove this), and visual appeal is an important factor when choosing a variety.

Content

• 1 Brief history of the variety

• 2 Description and characteristics of the hybrid

  2.1 Table: the advantages and disadvantages of Adretta potatoes

• 3 Planting and further care

  3.1 Video: how to plant potatoes correctly and quickly

• 4 Diseases characteristic of the variety

  • 4.1 Black leg
  • 4.2 Common scab
  • 4.3 Rhizoctonia or black scab

• 5 Collection and storage of Adretta

  5.1 Video: Harvesting Bagged Potatoes

• 6 Reviews about Adretta

Brief history of the variety

Bred in Germany (GDR) in 1975, the Adretta variety was not eaten for a long time, as it was considered fodder because of its color. Today you will not surprise anyone even with red or blue tubers, but in those days such a variety was very rare.

The Adretta variety did not immediately gain popularity due to its specific color.

Influenced the similar attitude to the new hybrid as a fodder crop, also the appearance of Adretta's tops.

The bush is distinguished by its powerful green mass, impressive growth and active flowering.

Adretta potatoes are powerful erect bushes

Over the past 20 years, Adretta has gained well-deserved popularity among consumers, thanks to its great taste, but not only. The enduring love of gardeners is due to the high yield, early ripening and the relative unpretentiousness of the hybrid.

Description and characteristics of the hybrid

Adretta's tuber is oval in shape, weighing about 130–150 grams. There are few shallow "eyes" on them. The pulp is yellow, the starch content is up to 23%, during cooking it shows moderate crumbling.

The main characteristic of Adretta is considered to be its high yield. This variety allows you to collect about 40 tons of potatoes from one hectare, and on a personal plot - up to 12 tubers from a bush. In addition, the culture has colossal resistance to infections such as late blight, cancer and nematodes, and very rarely admits pests.

It is also worth noting that Adretta potatoes are not only tasty, but also healthy. It contains B vitamins, carbohydrates and substances that stimulate the work of the heart and cardiovascular system.

Among other things, the hybrid is distinguished by good keeping quality. During storage, very few tubers deteriorate, and the rest hibernate in cellars without prejudice to taste. Even slightly frozen potatoes do not acquire the unpleasant sweetish aftertaste typical of most varieties. It can be stored further by drying a little.

Table: the advantages and disadvantages of Adretta potatoes

Benefits of the variety	Disadvantages of the variety
Easy to grow	Loss of germination during drought
Resistance to the vagaries of the weather and adaptability to different climatic conditions	Susceptibility to diseases such as rhizoctonia, scab, "black leg"
High yield	Germination of tubers during long-term storage
Early maturation	Incompact tuber bunch
Resistance to diseases such as hookworm, cancer, late blight
Good keeping quality

Planting and further care

Any potato prefers light soil, sandy loam or loamy. The culture grows well in peat and black soil, but does not like a heavy substrate in which moisture stagnates. It is necessary to add sand, manure and compost to such soil before planting. When the soil is acidified, when digging, lime or ash is added to it at the rate of 15 kg per hundred square meters. In general, potatoes tolerate increased soil acidity, but for Adretta in such a land, there is a high probability of scab disease, so it is worth adjusting the indicators in advance.

It is best to choose a site for a potato bed on a small slope going south or southwest. So it will be properly lit and not subject to moisture stagnation.

A garden bed on the southern slope allows you to provide the culture with a full daylight hours

The soil for potatoes should be actively enriched with oxygen. To do this, in the fall, the garden bed is dug up thoroughly and deeply, and after the procedure they are not leveled, since the inverted layers of earth contribute to the freezing of pests. In the spring, before planting, organic fertilizers are applied (7 kg per square meter) and the soil is loosened again.

Adretta is an early variety, therefore, it should be planted early, immediately after the ground warms up (in early May). Seed potatoes are germinated before this, keeping in the light for a month at a room temperature not lower than 8 ° С at night and about 15 ° С during the day. Turn the tubers once a week.

For germination, the tubers must be brought into the light about a month before planting and periodically turned over

The planting pattern for Adretta can be used as standard (60x35 cm), but given the massiveness of the bush, it can be planted as 90x40 cm. The distance between the furrows should be kept at 70 cm. This is necessary for free access to the plants.

Potato seedlings usually appear on the tenth day, and potatoes bloom 2 weeks after germination. Adretta blooms profusely and during this period it especially requires watering. This variety is very drought tolerant, but it will gratefully respond to moderate irrigation with higher yields, and belt top dressing will double the result.

Traditionally, mineral fertilizers are applied to potatoes at the beginning of the growing season, but any variety will thank you for the organic matter. The culture gives preference to fertilizing from a mixture of peat and manure or a mullein rotted with straw. After applying these fertilizers, you should carefully monitor the concentration of nitrogen in the soil. Its excess will lead to stimulation of the growth of green mass to the detriment of the tubers, and after wilting of the tops can provoke an attack of putrefactive bacteria.

The Adretta variety is an opportunity to enjoy the first tubers at the end of June

Thanks to Adretta's early maturity, it will be possible to enjoy the first harvest at the end of June. But the collection of tubers will take place in late August or early September. By this time, they will finally be formed and reach their optimal size. However, you should not delay harvesting potatoes. Adretta does not like to over-ripen and can rot.

Video: how to plant potatoes correctly and quickly

Diseases characteristic of the variety

Despite the obvious advantages of Adretta, this variety also has its weaknesses - a predisposition to diseases such as scab, rhizoctonia and black leg. They have the same nature - bacterial.

Blackleg

The first symptoms of the disease are wilting of young tops, yellowing and curling leaves. The stems turn black and then rot. The garden bed can become infected in the fall, when the seed tubers come into contact with the unharvested and already infected tops. In summer, the black leg develops especially actively in cold and damp weather.

If signs of disease are found, it is necessary to pull out and burn diseased plants, and dust the place where they grew with wood ash mixed with copper sulfate (a tablespoon of vitriol per liter of ash).

The black leg is able to destroy the entire crop in a short time.

Common scab

This common disease is incurable, but its effects can be mitigated if it is dealt with in a comprehensive manner. Ulcers, bulges and cracks form on the tubers after infection; the starchiness of the vegetable, its usefulness and taste decreases.

Scab loves loose soils, warm times of day and dry weather. By adjusting these factors, you can reduce the growth of bacteria, and with the help of fungicides, you can minimize the risk of damaging the beds to almost zero. True, you will have to use copper-containing preparations even before planting, by treating the tubers with a solution of the Prestige, Bator or Tuberculosis drug.

It is worth noting the fact that scab is more a local disease than a feature of the variety. It's just that Adretta and scab prefer similar conditions for development. But by reducing the acidity of the soil with lime or ash, you can free the garden from pathogenic bacteria for a long time.

Scab is an incurable disease, the negative effect of which can be significantly mitigated

Rhizoctonia or black scab

Rhizoctonia disease affects plants at any stage of their development. The disease becomes noticeable when it manifests itself in the form of black spots or depressions on the tubers, due to necrosis of the eyes and processes. The fungus quietly hibernates in the ground in the form of mycelium and stays in the soil for up to four years.

The main distinguishing feature is the black growths on the roots, resembling dried-up soil residues. In this phase, the fungus does not harm the vegetable, Rhizoctoniasis causes damage to the emerging seedlings - the stems turn black, the plants dry out and die. During the flowering of the scab culture, it appears as a netted death of tuber tissues. This happens already in dry heat, during mass budding.

Rhizoctonia causes a fungus that can winter in the soil for several years

The disease can be prevented by the following actions:

• careful selection of healthy planting material;
• treatment of seed tubers with fungicides;
• compliance with crop rotation on the site;
• planting potatoes in a sufficiently warmed soil;
• timely harvesting of tops after harvesting.

Collecting and storing Adretta

Given the non-compactness of the tuberous bunch, you can inadvertently damage the root crops with a pitchfork when digging up. This disadvantage should be taken into account and harvest should be done carefully.

Before putting potatoes for storage, you need to sort the tubers, choosing healthy roots without mechanical damage. Adretta has excellent keeping rates and is much less affected by rot than many other varieties. But in order to further reduce the percentage of "waste", you can treat the tubers with a solution of copper sulfate before laying. This requires 2 grams of the drug per 10 liters of water.

The cellar where the potatoes will be stored must be well ventilated, dark and dry. The optimum room temperature is 2–4 ° C, at a lower temperature the roots will freeze, and at a higher temperature they will begin to sprout and become unusable.

Video: harvest of bagged potatoes

Reviews about Adretta

Summing up, it remains to add that since Adretta began to be massively cultivated on personal plots and on an industrial scale, the demand for it has only been growing. This is facilitated by high yields, even on not very fertile soils or in non-ideal climatic conditions. And the culinary experts are delighted with the taste of Adretta. Indeed, what could be better than a potato that does not require special care, survives in difficult conditions, pleases with fertility and taste?