Potato variety Nevsky
One of the most popular Russian varieties of potatoes was and still is Nevsky. It was bred back in 1976 at the North-West Research Institute of Agriculture by crossing two varieties - Candidate and Veselovskaya. It turned out to be very successful, combining good taste, yield, as well as resistance to many diseases and unfavorable environmental factors. Currently, this variety is allocated more than 26% of all areas allocated for planting potatoes throughout the country. He came to the liking of both large manufacturers and amateur summer residents, showing a lot of advantages and advantages.
Nevsky belongs to medium early varieties - 75 - 90 days pass from germination to technical maturity.
Description
Tubers
The tubers have an oblong-rounded shape, the peel is even, without roughness, white-yellow in color with slightly pinkish open eyes. On the cut of the tuber, a pale white flesh is visible, which does not darken for a long time. Starch in tubers is contained in a moderate amount - from 10.4 to 14.8%. The weight of an average tuber is 90 - 130 g. It is because of the attractiveness of the tubers that these potatoes have earned themselves recognition, and besides, they are easy to wash, clean and do not fall apart during cooking.
Bushes
The ground part is represented by low bushes with numerous erect stems, which are highly branchy. The leaves are green and dark green, medium in size. What is important - when they are eaten by the Colorado potato beetle, they recover very quickly. Flowering is short, but friendly, pleasing to the eye with lush snow-white inflorescences.
Yield
Nevsky has a fairly high yield. With good care, his bush gives an average of 8 - 15 tubers, which is about 1.5 kg. It is very important that it has a high potential: very responsive to fertilization and timely processing. When grown in favorable conditions, it can yield 60 tons per hectare, which is a very high figure.
Adaptation to weather conditions
Nevsky is a drought-resistant variety due to its powerful root system, which allows it to absorb moisture from deeper soil layers. Bushes with dense leaves also do not allow moisture to evaporate much from the root areas. In very hot weather, the leaves look slightly withered, but in fact they just curl up into a tube to reduce moisture evaporation. For the same reason, they have a glossy surface that reflects the sun's rays.
According to long-term observations, it can also be concluded that this potato is resistant to waterlogging. The only thing: excessive moisture is highly undesirable in case of insufficiently heated soil.
Disease resistance
Potatoes Nevsky well tolerate mechanical damage that occurs during harvesting and transportation, therefore, it is less susceptible to bacterial, viral and fungal infections. The variety is highly resistant to common scab, potato crayfish, rhizoctonia, black leg, but most importantly - to the terrible enemy of the nightshade family - late blight. Even in such years, when this disease is spreading very massively, a minimum of fungicide treatments are required.
Harvest
Already from the middle of summer, the tops begin to lie down and wither, and by mid-August they can dry out completely. This means that you can no longer pull with cleaning. The plant does not like cold soil, and before autumn it is imperative to dig out the harvest. Marketability with timely harvesting is high - 90 - 95%.
Other characteristics
The tubers are well stored until spring, then the eyes begin to sprout vigorously.It is important not to miss this moment and start pre-planting in time, since this potato does not tolerate sprouting well.
Nevsky responds with a good harvest to preliminary preparation before planting, which includes disinfection and germination of tubers in the light for 2 - 3 weeks.
Although this variety can grow on any soil, it prefers fertile sandy loam and light loamy most of all. He is very responsive to fertilization. It reacts poorly to prolonged low temperatures, especially during the planting period.
These potatoes are ideal for use in soups and salads, as they hold their shape well and do not overcook. But for making mashed potatoes, it is less suitable; this requires varieties with higher starchiness.
Nevsky is recognized as one of the best varieties not only in our country, but also abroad. It produces a stable harvest even in the most unfavorable years and has great potential when creating the best conditions.
I have been growing Nevsky for a very long time, more than 20 years. The bushes are stocky, beautiful, in the garden you can see from afar where this particular variety grows. It differs from others in larger, wider, not heavily dissected leaves. The tubers are also quite characteristic, pink in the recesses near the eyes. This is convenient for me, there is little likelihood of accidentally mixing them with other varieties.
I use it for salads, cook in uniforms - it does not boil soft and does not crack, delicious.
The main drawback is poor germination after breaking off or accidentally damaging the shoots during planting. It is best to spread the tubers intended for planting in one layer in early spring in boxes with wet sawdust. And when the time comes, carefully transfer them to the ground. One year, due to inexperience, I broke off the sprouts. About a third of the bushes did not come up. And in the fall, under such bushes, which did not have tops, but grew only at the root, 2 - 3 potatoes, the size of a walnut, were dug up.
We always plant part of the garden on Nevsky. We are not giving the entire area for it, because we noticed that not every year there is a good harvest. We plant in large quantities for sale, since it has a very pleasant appearance, and it is easy to peel such potatoes.
I do not advise germinating, the sprouts still break off. After planting, such a potato sits in the ground for a long time. We get the seed material from the cellar 3 - 4 days before planting and just warm it up. Seedlings are normal.
I have been growing Nevsky for eight years. During this time, I came to the conclusion that these potatoes are in great demand for fertilizers and timely care. If you prepare the soil for this variety and mix it with humus or compost, and when planting under the uterus, put half-rotted manure, then the yield will be better than when planting in the usual way.
Also in my practice, he showed good results when planting in hay or straw. I do it this way: before landing, I dig a trench where the boletus will be. I put hay in a thick layer at the bottom of the trench, put potatoes on the hay, and under each uterus - half-rotted manure and pour a handful or two of ashes on top. Then I bury it with earth and level it with a rake.
One of the most beloved and crop-stable varieties! Among various similar varieties, we are recognizable, Nevsky has very beautiful and even tubers, shallow pinkish eyes, delicate white flesh. When planted under straw, even in the cold and rainy summers of the North-West of Russia, it gives a good harvest. Scab resistant. The variety is early, so you can indulge yourself with young potatoes from mid-July. You can remove it already in the second half of August. At the same time, it is perfectly stored.
A versatile culinary variety.Due to the fact that it has the correct shape, thin light skin and no deep eyes, it is a pleasure to clean it. Good for frying and preparing gratin, ideal for salads.
On my garden plot, I tried no less than thirty varieties of potatoes. For one reason or another, I refused most varieties after two or three years. Currently left only four varieties, including Nevsky. And it is with this variety that I occupy most of the garden. This potato attracts me first of all for its unpretentiousness. It gives consistently good yields in dry summers, rainy summers, hot and cool summers. Tubers in the nest are located rather compactly, do not "scatter", which is important with our manual method of harvesting. And in keeping quality, that is, the ability to be stored for a long time, in my opinion, the Nevsky variety has no equal at all. I don’t remember coming across even one rotten or shriveled tuber!
In my opinion, the only disadvantage of this variety is that the tubers turn green very quickly in the light.
"Nevsky" is a fairly stable variety, in different weather conditions it always gives a good harvest (I grow it under straw). Resistant to late blight. With timely additional mulching, the bushes have time to develop and become powerful, too rough for the Colorado potato beetle.
Before planting, I always vernalize tubers in egg cages, under a cellophane cover, until leaf buds are formed. So it rises faster and gives a powerful impetus to growth, having time to use the spring moisture from the soil.
Where can you buy this variety?
I live in Chita. The climate for agriculture is terrible, as the locals say - it will not burn, it will rot. Every year we experiment - we plant several varieties. It is Nevsky that has been helping us out for the second year already. Last year there was a severe drought, only thanks to this potato the harvest was possible. This year we were literally drowned, and again he helped out. We are going to abandon other varieties and leave only him.