Is it necessary to pick off flowers from potatoes, and why do they do it?

Potatoes were brought to Europe from South America, but were first used as an ornamental plant. The bushes were blooming intensively. The flowers are purple, white, pink. They looked beautiful against the dark green background of lush vegetation.

Potato flowers

Gardeners often discuss on forums the role of potato flowering. Some people believe that the absence of flower stalks is a bad sign. There will be few tubers on the bush.

Others are calm about the lack of flower stalks. What is a potato flower? Should I be concerned about plants dropping their inflorescences?

Flower structure

Potatoes belong to the nightshade family, so the structure of the inflorescences is the same in all crops of this family. They differ in size and shade. The root crop throws out a peduncle 3-4 weeks after the first leaves appear.

Breeders have developed ultra-early ripening potato varieties. Technical ripeness of root crops occurs after 36 days. Some plants do not have time to throw out flower stalks. Plants do not bloom:

• potato flowers are a cup that consists of 5 sepals and 5 petals;
• Each cup contains 5 stamens and 1 pistil. The plant is self-pollinating. The stamens are thick, bright yellow. The pistil is long, green, covered with a sticky substance;
• The peduncle is a stem up to 40 cm high. Inflorescences are formed at its crown;
• Potatoes are a good honey plant. The flowers give off a pleasant, sweet aroma.

After 2 weeks, the flowering period passes. The plant begins to form fruits. They are small, like small berries. The peel is green and thick. It protects the pulp with seeds. The berries are poisonous. They contain a large amount of corned beef.

Corned beef is found in the tubers when they sprout stems and in the flowers. This feature is well used by traditional healers. They collect potato flowers, dry them, and use them to prepare infusions and decoctions.

The drugs are used as an anti-inflammatory and antifungal agent. Gardeners use decoctions to treat plants against infectious diseases. Experts warn that if root vegetables are green in color, then the level of corned beef in them is increased. They cannot be eaten. You can get severe poisoning.

To prepare infusions, use whole flowers that are not affected by insects or disease. They should completely bloom. The buds are left on the bush for further ripening.

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Gardeners are dubious about this enterprise. There is an opinion that inflorescences cannot be picked from a bush. This prevents root crops from developing. What do farmers really think about removing flower stalks?

Reasons for germination

Such spots indicate the beginning of photosynthesis. If the potatoes are not completely covered with a green tint, but only with spots, then the solanine content in it is not exceeded. This product can be eaten. The main thing is to clean it well and cook it tasty. In general, experts do not advise eating even such a root vegetable. But this is everyone’s business. As they say, at your own peril and risk.

A potato tuber is a nutrient-packed version of a bud. Its goal is to germinate in the spring and form a new plant. This process starts when it gets warm enough. Sprouted tubers become less nutritious as starch is used up for germination.

If the potatoes sprouted during storage, this means that the storage is too warm. Elevated temperatures can also develop in the depths of the stockpile if ventilation is insufficient. The sprouts are dangerous to eat, so they will have to be cut off. The potatoes must be sorted and placed so that the optimal amount of air enters.

Should the flowers be removed?

Potatoes are grown from tubers. They are pre-germinated. The sprouts appear from the eyes, which are located throughout the peel. These are buds that develop under certain conditions.

The tubers are laid out in one layer on racks or in boxes. Place in a warm, well-ventilated room. After 2 weeks, sprouts appear and planting can be done.

After planting, leaves appear within 2-3 weeks. The bush begins to develop, producing lower shoots, stolons and upper branches. Roots are formed on stolons. To have more sprouts. The bush needs to be hilled. Stolons and tubers should always be in the ground.

The upper part of the stem produces a peduncle on which buds and subsequently inflorescences are formed. After the flowering period, fruits with seeds begin to form. When growing potatoes, it is necessary to take into account that the plant must go through all stages of the growing season. What happens when the flowers are removed?

Tubers consume a lot of nutrients to form pagons and inflorescences. There is an opinion that if you pinch the top of the stem, then all the nutrients will go to the formation of root crops. They will be larger.

In fact, the plant is programmed to form fruits and seeds. After removing the stalks, it will strive to release the peduncle again. This will take a lot of nutrients.

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As a result, gardeners will get the opposite result. The stem produces many stolons, on which many tubers are formed, but they are all small and of unmarketable appearance. The same effect is obtained if the flowers are removed.

A pleasant aroma emanates from the inflorescences. Some plant growers believe that it attracts not only pollinating insects, but also the Colorado potato beetle. If you remove the source of the aroma, there will be fewer pests. Experts say that the beetle appears on plants even before flower stalks appear.

It eats young leaves and stems of seedlings. To protect the bushes, it is recommended to treat young shoots and soil with Decis.

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When preparing the soil for potatoes in the autumn, “Nitrophoska” is applied. It prevents insects from emerging from the soil in spring and protects tubers from wireworms.

Farmers conducted many experiments with potato flowers. Some experiments yielded positive results.

If you remove potato flowers, the yield increases, the tubers increase in size, and many stolons are formed. Flowering potatoes can be picked only when pollination occurs and fruits begin to set.

In this case, the plant has gone through all stages of the growing season. It does not produce new flower stalks. The difficulty of this method of increasing productivity is that it is necessary to catch the moment of pollination. Picking flowers from each bush is painstaking work. Productivity increases by 25%.

Not all gardeners are ready to spend a lot of time and effort to monitor the pollination period of the plant and correct the bush.

It is recommended to use other methods to increase productivity. When the potatoes begin to bloom, fertilizing is introduced to compensate for the amount of nutrients spent on the formation of the peduncle.

Watering potatoes during flowering

During the period of budding and the beginning of flowering, tubers begin to form in plants . The green part of the bush has already been formed and the evaporating surface of the leaves is large, which means that the need for moisture increases.

If the end of spring and the beginning of summer turned out to be rainy , then there is nothing to worry about. If not, then you cannot do without additional moisture of the soil.

Attention. Lack of moisture during the flowering period will cause the plant to use resources to grow greenery. As a result, the tubers will grow small and unsightly.

At this time, potatoes are watered once every 7-10 days . Water also fractionally, waiting until the moisture is completely absorbed.

At the end of flowering, the need for moisture decreases , but tubers still need water to increase mass, because they themselves consist of 75% water.

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What fertilizers should I use?

Farmers warn that potatoes grow normally in soil with neutral acidity. During the preparation period, potassium salt, urea, and superphosphate are added to the breast. In the fall, you can add manure or bird droppings, but during the growing season it is not recommended to introduce living organic matter.

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The potatoes will go into the tops. Fertilizers can disrupt the acid balance of the soil, so they are introduced only when necessary. Pay attention to the following symptoms:

• the stems lose their juiciness, fleshiness, and become weak;
• the leaves turn yellow or acquire a reddish tint, which indicates a lack of potassium and iron;
• ridges and flowers are weak or not formed at all.

If plants develop with pathologies, then potassium sulfate, 20 g, superphosphate, 40 g and urea 20 g are introduced. These fertilizers are diluted in 10 liters of water. You can use the mineral complex “Bud”, “Kornevin”, “Potassium humates”. Carry out root feeding.

Many plant growers use mullein and bird droppings for feeding. Dilute 1 tbsp in 10 liters of water. l. mullein You must always remember that this is a nitrogen fertilizer. It stimulates the growth of tops, but not the formation of inflorescences.

If there are not enough potatoes in the plots, then you can introduce a solution under each bush, but most often fertilizers are added to the irrigation liquid at the rate of 1 liter per 10 liters of water. You can sprinkle fertilizer on the garden bed and water it.

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How to carry out the procedure

Those who decide to try to get rid of flowers should take into account that the side shoots will actively begin to grow, and the growing season will become longer by 2 weeks.

How to cut flowers. Recommendations:

Weather. The procedure is not carried out in hot and rainy weather, or in strong winds. Tools. Sterile gardening tools are used to reduce the risk of infection. Moving along the row

To avoid damaging the bushes and compacting the soil, you need to walk between rows carefully. Procedure time. When the buds are ready to open

If there is a delay, the lower leaves begin to dry. It is not recommended to remove a blooming flower. Because of this, diseases will arise. It's better to wait for the seeds to appear. What is removed: green ovaries. In this case, it is forbidden to break off the inflorescences. This will lead to drying and yellowing of the foliage and, as a result, a decrease in yield. Cutting flowering shoots is prohibited. In this case, the bush will produce small potatoes. Pick off fruits and dried flowers. If the moment is missed and the flowers have faded, the berries that appeared in their place are removed.

Important. You can't pick flowers

They are cut off with a disinfected sharp knife or scissors.

Why are there no shoulder straps?

Potatoes flowering occurs 3-4 weeks after the appearance of young shoots. This is the next stage in the vegetative development of the root crop. If the plant does not produce buds, this may be a symptom of a plant disease. The reasons may be as follows:

When growing potatoes, it is necessary to study the characteristics of the variety. Some crops do not produce pagons. They don't bloom. The tubers have time to form and ripen before the inflorescences appear. These varieties include Rocco, Mariella, Riviera. The absence of peduncles does not affect the development of stolons in any way.

During normal development, potatoes go through all stages of development. Stems and leaves emerge from the root crop. The stem gives rise to stolons, which are located in the ground. Tops and runners with inflorescences are developing. If the plant does not bloom, then it is necessary to find out the reason for this phenomenon.

Perhaps these are characteristics of the variety. To increase yield, flowers can be removed, but only after pollination has occurred and the fruit begins to form. Otherwise, the plant will try to restore the pagons.

When and how long do potatoes bloom?

The crop begins to bloom approximately 25–30 days after germination. The size of the tubers and their number depend on this important stage of the growing season. In the absence of flowering, the crop degenerates every year.

On average, the cycle lasts two weeks, but in some varieties it goes faster. During budding and the beginning of flowering, plants form 20–30 small tubers, of which only 5–10 fully ripen. At the peak of flowering, vegetables accumulate nutrients and water.