I have often heard how a potato called "second bread". But judging by how actively our family eat the root, I would do it in competition with the bread would have given primacy. That's be honest, how many reserves for the winter, we did not, every time that number is small - maybe it's time to get a potato field?! But jokes aside, the most important thing in this case - to save the harvest, as not everyone is able to eat everything until the last kartoshinu - part of stocks over time simply becomes unusable consumption.
In this article I will talk about the major potato diseases that affect potatoes in storage, as well as give some guidelines to help prevent them.
And I'll start, of course, with blightAs this fungal disease can destroy almost the entire crop. How do you recognize this enemy? It is enough to cut the potato - if deep into her flesh go gray spots, then threatened the harvest.
Particularly dangerous to store potatoes infected at a high temperature, however, about the safety reserves for the winter in a flat, and can be no question. But not so bad - if the potatoes stored in the basement, there is a chance that the disease will not develop, because this fungus is not transmitted from tuber to tuber.
Next potato disease - Fusarium dry rot. Its characteristic feature - greyish sunken spots on potatoes, in place of which a wrinkled skin.
Infection occurs through the lumps of moist soil, namely, when the crop is harvested in the rainy weather. If you find the process of storing the affected potato tubers or any mechanical damage, remove them from the crowd, as they are most vulnerable to the development of dry rot.
Another fungal disease - sheath blight. It manifested in the form of black sclerotia, which are easily scraped off with a fingernail.
As a rule, this disease occurs in the potatoes, if harvest was very late, with the onset of wet and cold weather. In order to protect stocks, treat their drug Maxim Dachnik, and then dry it and sent to storage.
Wet bacterial rot - sore that turns potatoes into a gray mass. Finals for infected tubers to be sad - the fruits are covered with slime and rot, while exuding an unpleasant smell.
Save the harvest will only regular inspection of potatoes and calculating "sick" potatoes, and, needless to say, the right temperature regime at the same time must be observed.
And finally, patchiness. The development of the disease does not occur during storage and even at the most a bed, when, due to various reasons, violated conditions for potato growing.
Most importantly, it looks no different so the potatoes will not be - brown spots will be visible only after the cut. Only the careful treatment of potatoes, namely, trim tab on its storage, can prevent the emergence of spot, as most of the disease are exposed to the roots, which are simply dumped in the cellar height. Yes, and this proves to be the case.
So, sending the potatoes for storage, keep the "ear to the island" in time to calculate and neutralize its "enemy".