Batat: cultivation in the central strip of Russia

Many have heard of sweet potato, but few have seen it. Even less tried. But you can cook delicious dishes from sweet potato. That's just where to get it? In big cities, sweet potatoes are sold in supermarkets. But not everyone lives there. And the price of it "bites". Is it possible to grow sweet potato in the middle lane? Because the climate there is little like the weather conditions of Colombia and Peru, where does this plant come from.

Relatives of sweet potato

Hope inspires that the sweet potato is the closest relative of the morning glory. This is the scientific name of the binder, which has long been grown in our latitudes. Lianas with pink, white and purple flowers braid arbors, various supports and pleases the eye all summer. They are especially beautiful in the morning. The seeds of the morning glory of these varieties are well tolerated by winter frosts and give amicable shoots. But the blue morning glory requires special attention. Sow it in April in pots. Seeds in the ground are not preserved.

Sweet potatoes require even more attention. But the process of growing it can be called amazing and exciting. All gardeners will be interested to learn how sweet potatoes are grown in the middle lane.

Appearance

The batat is a creeping liana. Its length can reach five meters. The stems are rooted in the nodes themselves. Therefore, usually a plant in height is not more than 20 cm. The potato has many varieties. Leaves of some of them are palmate, others - heart-shaped, as in bindweed. Flowers are light, not formed on all plants.

Fruits are tubers, like potatoes.

Long or round. But usually a lot more potatoes grow. Some specimens reach a length of 30 cm. Peel white, pink, light pink or orange, with a barely noticeable roughness. Easily separates from the pulp. Inside the fruit is soft pink, yellow or red (dessert varieties). On the cut of the tuber appears juice, similar to milk.

The weight of a single tuber is from 100 g (inexpensive) to 3 kg. At home, it grows to ten kilograms. And the yield of sweet potato is amazing: from a hectare you can collect 50 tons. And even 300 centners of stems for animal feed.

Growth conditions

In the tropics, sweet potato is a perennial plant.

In the subtropics and places where the temperature falls below zero, it is cultivated as an annual one. After all, with the slightest frost, leaves, stems, and even tubers are killed. And with a drop in temperature to 10 degrees its development stops.

It is polluted by sweet potato bees. But if it does not bloom, it's okay. After all, this is the case, what is important is not tops, but roots.

Vegetation period is from 180 to 250 days. In this case, it is necessary to take into account both recurrent and first autumn frosts. Here and count, is it possible to grow yam in the central strip of Russia.

Beneficial features

What did the sweet potato deserve such attention that it is trying to grow thousands of kilometers from its homeland?

This is one of the few plants where all parts are edible. In terms of calories, sweet potato is more potatoes. Third of the weight is starch. The potato contains glucose, ascorbic acid and various mineral salts, vitamins. Grade, the flesh in which yellow, contain a lot of carotene.

Varieties of sweet potato

Usually it tastes like potatoes. The potato can be fodder (almost unsweetened). Vegetable contains a small amount of sugar. Dessert is the sweetest and most delicious. There are varieties with a taste of banana, melon.

Among those grown on our territories - almost unsweetened Potato, vegetable Record and dessert Chestnut.

Dishes from sweet potato

They say that it can be eaten fresh. Young leaves are soaked in salt water to remove bitterness, and put in salad. But hardly anyone will do this regularly.

But from boiled sweet potatoes they make mashed potatoes, put it in borsch and soup. Fry pancakes from cooked in a peel and peeled (not to boil). It is possible to form and prepare cheesecakes, manti, cutlets. Very tasty sweet potato - fried in slices on sunflower oil. If you eat it with sour cream, then you can not tell from the syrniki. The tubers are baked and dried.

Sweet varieties go for the preparation of various sweets.

A drink resembling coffee is prepared from seeds.

With the industrial cultivation of sweet potato, you can get flour, alcohol, sugar.

Area of distribution

Batat is traditionally grown in tropical and subtropical regions.

But it can successfully grow and yield in more northern regions. It is cultivated in a hundred countries of the world. The batat is successfully grown on the territory of Ukraine, the countries of Central Asia, in the south of Russia, and also in the Caucasus.

How to grow sweet potato in the central part of Russia?

In order to enjoy the fruits of sweet potato, gardeners grow it under a film. Although this is worth a lot of trouble.

Cultivation of sweet potato in the middle belt is possible because the soil there is quite suitable. He likes light and loose ground. Well, if it's sandy loam and loam. Sour soil is first lime.

For development, the best temperature is from 25 to 30 degrees. But even with a decrease to 20 normally develops sweet potato.

Cultivation in the middle band is possible in areas where there is a lot of sun, closed from the wind by trees or buildings. In the shade grows, but there will be no harvest.

The precursors of sweet potato are pumpkin, onions and tomatoes.

Site preparation

The peculiarity of growing sweet potato is that, with a deep digging of the soil, the roots become too long and thin, the root crops go deep into the ground and do not grow large. For this reason, the land for cultivation of sweet potatoes in the middle band is digged to a depth of not more than 20 cm. It is advisable to do this in the fall. At the same time, two kilograms of humus are injected or twice as much as compost (per square meter). Add mineral fertilizers containing phosphorus. In spring, the soil is loosened, previously spreading the nitrogen fertilizer.

Reproduction

It is very interesting to propagate sweet potato. Cultivation in the middle band does not occur from seeds. After all, this is a long process, requiring at least two years to obtain a normal crop.

You can plant like potatoes, digging tubers into the ground. But then he will grow back late and by the beginning of the cold weather will not have time to harvest. And this bush will have too many stems. There is a very interesting and at the same time simple method of reproduction. In early March, tubers of sweet potatoes are placed in sand or light soil. Preliminarily they can be cut, the place of the cut to be disinfected. Periodically moisturized, but not poured. The temperature in the room should be 18-25 degrees. Scions with four nodes, reaching 10-12 cm, carefully tear off and placed in a jar or other convenient dish with water. There they take root.

It is even easier to propagate sweet potato by placing it vertically in a glass of water. So it takes up less space. You can sprout sprouts in plastic cups or a greenhouse. In the first days, or even weeks, June sprouts planted on a permanent place.

From one potato tuber you can nibble from three dozen to hundreds of shoots. And what if you only have one process? To be content with one bush? Leave it for reproduction and never find out what tastes of sweet potatoes?

Cultivation in the middle band can be carried out by cuttings. When your sprout starts to grow and gives enough long shoots, they are cut off and divided into parts with 4 knots. Large leaves cut off or remove part to reduce the loss of moisture. A few days you can hold in the water and disembark, moisturizing the earth around well. You can multiply by layers, sprinkling the stem in several places with earth.

Planting and care

The rooted processes penetrate into the earth by 6 cm.

The rows are placed at a distance of 70 cm. You can plant in a square-nest way. If your cultivar is not large, then there is enough distance between plants 30 cm.

Special watering is not required. We must ensure that the soil under the bushes does not dry out. Otherwise, the plant will begin to feed itself with supplies from tubers. But it can not stand the stagnation of water either.

The stems and leaves of sweet potatoes cover the earth around a dense carpet. Therefore, the soil under them does not dry out very much. Watering is stopped a couple of weeks before harvest.

Top dressing is performed no more than once a month.

If the stems are placed on supports, the soil around the plant is regularly loosened. This does not allow the formation of a dense crust that does not penetrate the air, destroys weeds that can muffle sweet potato.

Growing in the middle belt is simplified, because there are no poultry pests here. Only sometimes cases of fungal infection are recorded. Therefore, with increasing humidity (frequent rains and high temperatures), sweet potato can be treated with antifungal agents ("Fitoverm").

Storage

The cultivation of sweet potato in the central part of Russia is complicated by the fact that it is difficult to keep the harvest for a long time. Tubers are well preserved in the cellars and cellars. But with high humidity and low temperatures can rot. Optimal storage temperature is from 13 to 15 degrees, moisture - up to 90%. If the cellar is very wet, do not store the planting material in it. Better bring it into the house and put it in the coolest place. A tuber intended for food, use in the first half of winter.