The Lasunok potato variety appeared a quarter of a century ago and already in this short time has become one of the most popular. All this is due to the excellent taste of the variety and its unpretentiousness in the cultivation and care. To get a good harvest, you only need to know a few rules.
Grade history
Lasunok potatoes were bred in the middle of the 20th century in Belarus. This variety appeared thanks to the employees of the center engaged in potato growing and horticulture. Lasunok entered the register of plants in Russia and Belarus in 1988.
Grade description
This is a medium late variety. Depending on the climate and the region, the lassoon potato growing season can be from 80 to 100 or from 100 to 120 days.
Shoots
Bushes of this potato variety grow up to 1 meter. The tops are strong, powerful, the stems are thick. The leaves are also coarse and thick, covered with a hard fluff. During flowering, the bushes are covered with white inflorescences. Even with the potato planting scheme of 70x40 weeds cut off the chances of breaking through the densely closed bushes of Lasunka. And this is another plus - moisture is so well preserved, which is especially true for arid regions.
Roots
Potatoes of this variety are oval-round and large in size, the weight of each root crop is about 200 grams. The peel can be light yellow to light brown. The eyes on the potato are small in size. The creamy potato itself.
Potatoes are well boiled, the starch content in it is from 16 to 22%. Due to this property, Lasunok is well suited for mashed potatoes, potato chips, starch and french fries.
Characteristics and features of the variety
Lasunok is considered the most delicious potato of all varieties of the Belarusian selection. However, its taste depends on the type of soil on which it is grown. So, the best taste in potatoes, which grew on sandy soil.
Let's consider this variety in more detail:
- An important feature of this potato is its high resistance to diseases such as tuber blight, cancer, viruses S, M, Y, L. As well as its average resistance to diseases: rhizoctonia, black leg and scab.
- A potato crop is harvested 3-4 months later (depending on the region) after the first shoots appear.
- Flowering takes a long time.
- The sucker gives a large crop. From one hectare of land, up to 62 tons of potatoes are harvested. Under one bush, usually from 8 to 11 tubers.
- Potato sprouts at a temperature of 5-7 degrees above zero.
- Any kind of soil is suitable for growing this potato variety. The lassoon is unpretentious in this regard.
Where can I grow a lassoon
Since the variety is unpretentious, it grows well in almost all areas. If we consider the post-Soviet lands, then it is good for cultivation:
- Central District;
- North Caucasian;
- Far Eastern;
- Central Black Earth;
- Northwestern;
- Belarus;
- Woodland;
- Transcarpathia.
Advantages and disadvantages of the variety
This variety has many advantages over others:
- high productivity;
- resistance to pests, especially to the Colorado potato beetle, which spoils most varieties of potatoes;
- pleasant taste;
- high immunity, protecting against fungus and viruses.
But besides the pros, Lasunok also has some disadvantages:
- the harvest is not very long;
- potatoes are soft, therefore, more suitable only for cooking. When frying, there will be no crisp;
- unstable to bad weather conditions: extreme heat and lack of water adversely affect the quality and quantity of the crop.
How to plant potatoes
You can start planting potatoes when the soil warms up. At a depth of 10 cm, its temperature should be +7 degrees. This usually happens in late April - early May. It is advisable to start landing in the morning.
In order to get a good harvest, you need to choose the right place for planting potatoes.
Depending on what soil the plant will be in, you need to choose the depth of planting. So, on sandstone, tubers need to be planted to a depth of 10-12 cm, and on loam - 5-7.
The landing site should be flat and well lit. It is important to remember that it is impossible to plant potatoes in one place often, since the soil there will lose its beneficial substances. Once every 4 years, the place of landing should be changed. It is useful to plant potatoes in the place where legumes or winter crops grew before it.
This method also has a good effect on the crop: after harvesting in the fall, a cress is planted in its place. It grows rapidly and nourishes the soil, which is good for the next potato harvest.
Soil preparation
The surface of the soil should be flat. You need to start preparing the site in the fall. It should be plowed and fertilized, manure is best suited, it has a good effect on the quality of the crop.
Before planting potatoes, the soil needs to be loosened and weeds removed.
It is also possible, but not necessary, to mulch potatoes for such purposes:
- to protect against frost;
- for even distribution of water;
- to protect potatoes from weeds;
- for heat distribution.
Mulching is carried out before planting potatoes. First weed should be removed, then moisten and loosen the soil, apply fertilizer and leave for several days for ventilation.
When mulching with straw, potatoes are well protected from cold and drought. For the procedure, it is necessary to loosen the soil and make furrows, between which leave about half a meter. In them, you should put the tubers at a distance of 30 cm, and then cover with a layer of mulch of 20 cm. After the sprouts reach 6 cm in height, you need to cover the potatoes with another layer of straw of 15 cm.
Preparing planting material
You need to start preparing tubers for planting in 4 weeks to get a good harvest. To do this, they need to be removed from the repository and germinated. A couple of days the tubers will warm up after cold storage, and after 2-3 weeks sprouts will appear.
Before planting, you can divide each potato into pieces, but each of them should have a sprouted “eye”. Even from small tuber slices (at least 50 g), large potatoes will grow.
To get more sprouts and this happened faster, you can use special methods, wet or dry:
- When wet tubers should be stored in humus or sawdust, the temperature should be about 15 degrees. With this method, planting material begins to grow very quickly after planting in the soil.
- With the dry method tubers are stored in crates in the light. The peel of the potato is green from this. Please note that such potatoes are not suitable for eating, but good for planting, because with such preparation it will suffer less from insects and diseases.
Landing pattern
When planting potato Lasunok, the depth of each hole should be 8-10 cm on sandy soil and 6-7 on loam. Before planting tubers in the pits should be poured wood ash or humus - half a kilogram. The tuber planting pattern is 70 by 40 cm.
Potato care
Variety Lasunok does not require special care. It only needs to be watered, fertilized, spud and weed in time.
Watering
Watering potatoes at the first time after planting is not necessary: during this period, only the root of the plant is formed. After that, the Sucker should be watered with plenty of water, but not often. For the entire period of irrigation growth should be at least three. Potatoes should be watered during flowering and on very hot days. The best time for watering is morning.
Top dressing
The sucker needs nitrogen fertilizers so that there is not too much greenery, and the potatoes are well developed. The fact is that when the bushes are too thick, then all the nutrients from the soil go to the maintenance of the greenery, and not root crops. As a result, the potatoes remain small.
During the growing season, the lassoon should be fertilized with top dressing containing phosphorus and potassium. Good for this Diammofoska or Nitrophos, as well as mullein. In total, about 3 top dressings for the entire period are enough.
Loosening and weeding
Loosening helps the roots get enough oxygen and moisture. The first time you should carry out this procedure within a week after planting potatoes and at the same time you need to remove all weeds. Loosening should be carried out regularly until the hilling period.
Hilling
The first hilling is carried out when the height of the bush is 10 centimeters. During this procedure, you should dig up the soil that is between the rows, to the trunks of the bushes and sprinkle them on all sides. Hilling should be carried out every 2-3 weeks.
We suggest you look in more detail about why to spud potatoes and how to do it correctly, in the video clip:
Protection against diseases and pests
Potato Lasunok has high immunity. It is resistant to diseases such as late blight, cancer, blackleg, verticillin wilt, scab, alternariosis, fusariosis and other diseases and viruses. In addition, the Colorado potato beetle does not harm this variety.
However, the lassoon may suffer from such a pest as a wireworm. To prevent its occurrence, preventive measures can be taken before planting potatoes. Since the wireworm can spoil the crop, we advise you to bury plastic glasses with potato peels in the ground a week before planting the tubers. After 3 days, wireworm larvae will gather in them. The procedure can be repeated again as needed.
Harvesting and storage
Harvesting occurs at the end of summer - the beginning of autumn. To do this, you can use special tools or assemble manually.
Before harvesting for storage, let it dry in the fresh air. Then you need to remove the damaged potatoes, and put the good ones in wooden boxes and put them in storage in a place where the air temperature is about +2 degrees, for example, in the basement. Humidity should be approximately 70%. Such storage conditions will help preserve the harvest until the spring.
The Lasunok potato variety has remained at the peak of popularity among gardeners for many years. And not in vain, because it is easy to grow, it does not require complicated care and copes with diseases without additional efforts and resists pests. In addition, this variety has a pleasant taste.