Potato Variety Sonny, Description, Photo, Characteristics And Reviews, As Well As Cultivation Features

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

Sonny is a potato that boggles the mind

The sonny puzzled a lot of simple gardeners and even scientists with his appearance. A poor-yielding variety with small fruits would not interest anyone. And this one gives large tubers, does not get sick, you do not need to huddle, and most importantly, the Colorado potato beetle does not like it.

Content

• 1 History of the Sonnok potato variety
• 2 Variety description

• 3 Features of cultivation

  3.1 Video: planting potatoes with eyes

• 4 Reviews of gardeners about potatoes Sonny

History of the Sonnok potato variety

The hype around potatoes Sonny has been going on for decades. Today a legend is already ready about him - this is a masterpiece of folk selection, and it is not clear which country. The variety is old, it has been grown since the last century in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and other former Soviet republics.

Many sources (on forums, online stores, magazines for summer residents) say that Sonny has another name - Bogatyr, by the way, it is the original one. A version has already appeared: how the Bogatyr turned into the Sonny. Perhaps some gardener by the fall forgot that she had planted in the spring and renamed the variety in her own way. So from the gardener to the gardener, the seed tubers of the Bogatyr began to move under a new name - Sonny.

But the origin of the Bogatyr is not so easy to find out. The variety is not in the State Register of the Russian Federation, and you cannot find seeds in the official sale. It is not grown in industrial fields, it is found only in amateur plots. Gardeners buy tubers on the market, send each other by mail, and order them from online stores.

When potatoes with a double name reached the Belarusian market, many gardeners who first bought and raised Sonka were shocked by the size of the tubers and their number in the nest. Some began to be proud that such a potato was developed in their country. Articles appeared on the Internet with descriptions of the Sonka as a potato of national Belarusian selection. Others were on their guard, saw signs of transgenicity in the variety, began to write and call the editorial offices of local newspapers and magazines. One of these newspapers turned out to be Zhodzinskiy Naviny.

The editorial staff started to investigate and contacted the Plant Protection Institute. Scientists answered in such a way that all questions about the Bogatyr (Sonny) remained open.

To be honest, this story both amused me and intrigued me. An international mystery, which has been overgrown with various fables for many years, required a solution. Fortunately, official information about the origin of the Bogatyr is still preserved. Alas, it is too early to ascribe the legendary folk selection to him, and it is unfair.

The potato variety Bogatyr (Sonok) was bred in Russia, at one of the Far Eastern experimental stations. The author is the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution "Federal Scientific Center for Agrobiotechnology of the Far East named after A. K. Chaika ". The enterprise mainly specializes in grain and forage crops, but the structure also includes a potato growing department. The State Register includes potato varieties: Kazachok, Yantar, Dachny, Smak, Sineva, Filatovsky.

As for the Bogatyr, most likely, he did not pass competitive or state tests, therefore he was not allowed to mass and industrial cultivation. And this is not surprising, the variety has features that do not fit into the ideas of modern potatoes. Nowhere and no one indicates that the Bogatyr, or the Sonny, is transgenic.

Description of the variety

The most significant advantage of Sonka is its huge potential in increasing the yield. Depending on the quality of care, soil fertility, climate, the weight of one tuber ranges from 50 to 500 g. 8-15 pieces grow in one bush, maximum 40. There are no official yield indicators, according to different reviews of gardeners, it is possible to collect 5– 10 kg of potatoes.

Sonka's harvest is plentiful, up to 40 tubers of different sizes can grow on one bush

Tubers are oval and rounded, even, few eyes, collected at the top. The skin is rough, creamy, with a mesh pattern. The pulp is white, does not turn black on the cut. When cooking potatoes only slightly crumble, retain their shape. The variety is well suited for frying, making soups and mashed potatoes. It tastes the most common.

Sonka's tubers are covered with a cream-colored skin with a mesh pattern, there are almost no eyes, they are all collected on tops

The sonny is resistant to cancer, scab, black leg. In dry conditions without irrigation, when many varieties produce small fruits, this one sets up normal medium sized tubers. Colorado beetles still attempt to attack Bogatyr, but if there are other varieties on the site, they first settle on them. Another advantage of the variety is good keeping quality.

Son also has several disadvantages that can destroy the desire to grow him:

• This is a late-ripening variety. It takes 140 days from germination to harvest. The warm season lasts almost 5 months not in every Russian region.
• Due to the late maturity, the crop is harvested no earlier than September, and in the fall, bushes and tubers are actively colonized by late blight fungi.
• Tubers grow not only under the bush, but also within a radius of 50–70 cm around, that is, when digging potatoes, you will have to manually dig up large areas of land. It is unlikely that this variety is suitable for mechanical harvesting.
• The planting process is unusual and laborious. It is recommended to plant in a square-nesting way, and even with eyes that need to be cut from the tubers.

Of course, you can take a chance and plant this curiosity. But the main problem is the search for the seeds of a real Hero or Son. Those who are interested will have to buy them from private traders in the market, according to an ad or in an online store, trusting an unfamiliar seller.

Growing features

This variety has a long dormant period, so before planting the tubers must be "woken up". Transfer them to a warm and bright place for germination a month before. Dig up the land on the site deeply, adding 1-2 buckets of humus or compost and 0.5 liters of wood ash for each square meter.

You can start planting when the soil warms up to +10 ° C. For 1-2 days from the sprouted potatoes, you need to cut out the eyes - sprouts with a small piece of pulp - and spread them out to dry the slices.

Video: planting potatoes with eyes

For what reason this cunning technique went to the people, you can guess from the description of the variety. The tubers are large, and the eyes are concentrated in the upper part, the rest of the potato is without sprouts, there is no point in burying it in the ground. But I do not see the need to pick eyes out of small potatoes. And the gardeners themselves write that they buy small seeds of the Son and plant them entirely.

Planting is done according to the scheme 50x50 cm, the embedding depth is 10-15 cm. Seedlings will appear in 7-14 days. If you want to collect an unprecedented harvest, then water the bushes once a week and feed them once every two weeks with organic infusions, ash, complex fertilizers for potatoes. These activities, like weeding, should be carried out before the bushes close.

With the square-nesting method, it seems as if the rows run across, and along, and diagonally; the bushes are well lit by the rays of the sun

It is impossible to loosen the aisles and huddle up the Sonny. Indeed, widely around the bushes, at the very surface of the earth, stolons grow and tubers are poured. Walking with a hoe, you chop it all off. Many gardeners consider such a ban a plus, because they are exempt from some of the physical labor.

1–2 weeks before harvesting, in order to prevent late blight, cut and remove the tops from the field. If 140 days have not passed since the emergence of seedlings, the harvest will still be, but normal and even below average. Leave tubers from the most productive bushes for seeds. Plant them in partial shade before storing them.

According to the general popular opinion, the seeds of the Bogatyr potato do not need to be renewed every 5-6 years by growing mini-tubers from botanical seeds. It does not degenerate. Professional vegetable growers have their own opinion on this matter.

Reviews of gardeners about potatoes Sonny

Bogatyr, or Sonny, is a rather controversial variety that has long been hotly discussed by both beginners in vegetable growing and professionals. In this he is unique and attractive in his own way. And if you take a sober look at the prospect of growing, then there are enough shortcomings in the variety to understand why it did not pass state tests. Whether the Sonny deserves a place on your site is up to you.