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Probably, not only every student, but also many kids know that the edible parts of a potato are underground. From childhood, many remember the tale "Tops and Roots", where a cunning peasant deceived a greedy and lazy bear who wanted to do nothing, but with the help of threats to get his share of the harvest. So in the case of potatoes, he got exactly half of the crop by weight - "tops", which he did not know what to do with, because they turned out to be completely inedible.
True, in the modern world, the aerial parts of potato bushes are also used. Potato tops are used to prepare special infusions to combat insect pests. And if there is a significant amount of green mass, it can be composted and get valuable organic fertilizer. Although you should not rejoice at the too large size of the leaves and stems of the potatoes. After all, the size of the potato tops does not directly affect the yield. Of course, with a good harvest of potatoes, as a rule, large and tall tops grow, but if its height approaches the meter mark, then it's time to sound the alarm. In this case, the likelihood is too high that the tubers of such tops will ripen small and few in number.
The reasons for the intensive growth of tops
Why do potatoes have high tops? There are several answers to this question, and often the reason lies precisely in the wrong actions of the gardener himself.
Excess nitrogen
It often happens that acting with the best of intentions, a person does not get exactly the result that was planned. So in this case, an excessive dose of fertilizers can lead to an excessive growth of the leaf mass of potatoes, unfortunately, to the detriment of the yield of tubers.
An excess of these fertilizers leads to the fact that the tops of potatoes can grow up to a meter or more in height. But the tubers hardly develop at the same time, and the yield will be unsatisfactory.
What to do if the tops have already grown? You can try to adjust the feeding. Superphosphate is best suited for these purposes. Of course, the tops of this will not go anywhere, but stimulation will be given to the process of tuberization. After all, superphosphate has the ability to accelerate the aging process of potatoes and activate the outflow of nutrients from the leaves to the tubers. To prepare a nutrient solution, 100 g of superphosphate are diluted in 10 liters of hot water and potato bushes are spilled with the resulting solution. This amount is enough to process one hundred square meters of a potato field.
For the future, you need to know that if, when preparing the beds for planting potatoes in autumn or spring, they were filled with manure or humus, then no additional nitrogen fertilizers are required for the potatoes.
But feeding with phosphorus, potassium, iron, magnesium and trace elements can be carried out several more times per season, especially if signs of starvation appear on the leaves: chlorosis, yellowing, and others.
In general, you need to be very careful when feeding potatoes. Indeed, even if the tops grow large and healthy, and the tubers will delight in their size and quantity, potatoes oversaturated with fertilizers are poorly stored.This means that all your good harvest may soon be lost. Therefore, it is advisable to feed it strictly according to the instructions and it is better to give less than overfeed.
Large tubers
For the same reason, when the gardener wants to do the best, and the result is not at all the best, he uses large tubers for planting.
What's going on? Large tubers contain a correspondingly larger supply of nutrients. Therefore, potato plants grow intensively and increase their green mass in height mainly due to the tuber, and the root system almost does not develop. When the nutrition from the tuber ends, the plant begins to develop new tubers, but the time has already been lost, the growing season is coming to an end and the tubers grow very small.
Lack of light
The simplest answer to the question: "Why do potatoes have high tops?" is the fact that plants may lack lighting. Probably everyone who has ever grown seedlings at home knows this effect well. If the level of illumination is low and the sprouts do not have enough light, then they begin to stretch strongly in height. So potatoes, planted in a shady or semi-shady place, in the struggle for additional lighting, begin to stretch upward, closer to the sun.
The same effect can occur in a sunny location if the tubers are planted too close together. Potatoes do not react well to the thickening of the planting - they either begin to stretch out or are affected by fungal diseases from poor air exchange in the beds.
Although in the southern regions, where the sun is so much that there is enough of it for everyone in abundance, even in semi-shady places, despite the high-growing stems, quite good potatoes can ripen.
Weather
If in all the above cases, much depended on the actions of the gardener themselves, then no one else can influence the weather. And in a warm and rainy summer, all the grass grows by leaps and bounds. Potato tops are no exception. And since the weather conditions are quite unpredictable, then in this case only one thing can be done. Wait until the potatoes have bloomed and after a while trample all the tops, so that they lay on the ground and would no longer be able to take nutrients from the tubers. As a result, all the energy of the plants will be transferred to the tubers and you will be provided with a bountiful harvest.
What to do if the tops are low
In fact, the height of the potato tops does not always have a negative effect on the potato yield. After all, there are many varieties that are characterized by a high aboveground part. For them, the height of a potato bush within one meter is practically the norm.
You can only worry in those cases when a variety known to you has grown for a long time, which has suddenly become very elongated.
Everyone knows that the world is far from perfect, therefore, while some are very worried about the high size of their potato tops, others are perplexed why their tops are so small.
If you are testing a new potato variety and are faced with one of these problems, then you should not worry before the time when you harvest. Because potato varieties have very different characteristics and there are some among them, including those whose tops do not grow higher than 40-50 cm. But at the same time, they can boast quite a decent yield - up to 25 tubers per bush. For example, the popular Red Scarlet potato variety has similar characteristics.The potato variety "Luck" also has very low tops. The short stature of the bushes is just a feature of some varieties.
But not everything is so simple. Unfortunately, undersized potato tops can also cause a lack of nutrients, primarily phosphorus. At the same time, the potato yield decreases sharply. To be sure of the diagnosis, it is enough just to dig at least one tuber from under the bush and cut it into two parts. With phosphorus starvation, a purple hue will appear on the cut. Superphosphate feeding will help to cope with this problem, and it is better to carry it out in the form of spraying on the leaf.
Thus, you should not be very upset if it seems to you that the tops of your potatoes are not like those that grow in your neighbor's garden. First you need to make sure that this is not a feature of the variety, and then take any measures.
