Многие слышали о батате, но мало кто его видел.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. Yes, 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.
Hope inspires that the sweet potato is the nearestrelative of the morning glory. This is the scientific name of the convolvulus, 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 mornings. 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.
A batat is a creeping liana.Its length can reach five meters. The stems are rooted independently in the nodes. Therefore, usually a plant in height is not more than 20 cm. The potato has many varieties. The leaves of some of them are palmate, others - heart-shaped, like a vine. Flowers are light, not formed on all plants.
Fruits are tubers, like potatoes.
Длинные или округлые.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 another 300 centners of stems for animal feed.
In the tropics, sweet potato is a perennial plant.
In the subtropics and places where the temperaturefalls below zero, it is cultivated as an annual one. After all, at 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 that it is not the tops that are important, but the 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. So, you can count on whether it is possible to grow sweet potato in the central part of Russia.
What did the sweet potato deserve such attention that it is sought to grow thousands of miles from its homeland?
This is one of the few plants thatall parts are edible. In terms of calories, sweet potato is more potato. Third of the weight is starch. The potato contains glucose, ascorbic acid and various mineral salts, vitamins. Grade, the pulp in which yellow, contain a lot of carotene.
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.
They say that you can use it 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 itin 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 will not distinguish it from syrniki. The tubers are baked and dried.
Sweet varieties go for the preparation of various sweets.
A coffee-like drink is prepared from the seeds.
With industrial cultivation, sweet potatoes, alcohol and sugar can be obtained from sweet potato.
Batat is traditionally grown in tropical and subtropical regions.
But it can successfully grow and yield inmore northern regions. It is cultivated in a hundred countries of the world. Batat is successfully grown on the territory of Ukraine, the countries of Central Asia, in the south of Russia, and also in the Caucasus.
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 already 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 limed.
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 potatoes are pumpkin, onions and tomatoes.
The peculiarity of growing sweet potato is that whendeep digging of the soil roots become too long and thin, 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.
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 in tubers inthe earth. But then it will grow late and by the beginning of cold weather it 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 potatoes by placing itvertically in a glass with 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 can be nipped from threetens to hundreds of sprouts. And what if you only have one process? To be satisfied with one bush? Leave it to reproduce and never find out what tastes of sweet potatoes?
Cultivation in the middle band is possiblecarry out 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 land, moistening the earth around well. It is possible to multiply by layers, sprinkling the stem in several places with earth.
The rooted processes penetrate 6 cm into the earth.
The rows are placed at a distance of 70 cm. You can plant in a square-nest way. If your variety is not large, then there is enough distance between plants 30 cm.
Especially watered is not required. It is necessary to ensure that the soil does not dry under the bushes. Otherwise, the plant will begin to feed itself with stocks of tubers. But it also does not tolerate water stagnation.
The stems and leaves of sweet potato cover the ground 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 props, the soil around the plant is regularly loosened. This prevents the formation of a dense crust, which does not allow air, destroys weeds, which can drown the sweet potato.
Growing in the middle lane is simplified becausethat there are no sweet potato pests here. Only sometimes they record cases of fungal infection. Therefore, with an increase in humidity (frequent rain and high temperature), the sweet potato can be treated with antifungal drugs (“Fitoverm”).
Growing sweet potatoes in central Russiait is difficult because it is difficult to preserve the harvest for a long time. Tubers are well preserved in cellars and cellars. But at high humidity and low temperatures can rot. The optimal storage temperature is from 13 to 15 degrees, moisture - up to 90%. If your cellar is very wet, then do not store planting material in it. It is better to bring it into the house and put it in the coolest place. Use tubers for food in the first half of winter.
