Should You Pick Potato Flowers?

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

It is unlikely that in our latitudes there is such a garden where potatoes would not grow. Accordingly, every summer resident strives to achieve maximum professionalism in growing this important, tasty and healthy crop! And more and more often on the endless expanses of the Internet there are disputes about whether it is worth picking off flowers from growing potatoes, and opinions on this matter are diametrically opposite - some believe that it is necessary to pick off flowers, since potatoes spend a lot of energy on flowering and on the subsequent process of seed formation, and because of this its tubers simply do not have time to grow to a decent size, while others are convinced that in no case should the flowering of this culture be forcedly interrupted, since all plants, without exception, have their own cycle development. So how can you be?

Scientific experiment results

Representatives of a highly respected scientific community conducted a rather interesting experiment - they planted three beds of the same potato variety, while leaving the first bed unchanged, without breaking off any buds or flowers, that is, in fact, they gave the potatoes the opportunity to completely pass through the entire cycle of its full development. The very tops of the potato bushes growing in the second bed were slightly pinched, and all the buds with flowers were completely removed from the potatoes planted in the third bed. And when the time for harvesting the long-awaited harvest came, the researchers got very interesting results: a relatively small number of nodules were formed on the potato bushes planted in the first bed, but at the same time they all boasted quite large sizes and fairly clear shapes, but on the bushes that grew on the third bed and from which all the inflorescences were completely removed, there were many tubers, but they were all very small in size (only in a few cases could really large tubers be seen).

The experiment carried out allowed the researchers to draw very logical conclusions: first, the number and size of tubers are in direct proportion to pinching the tops or removing the inflorescences; secondly, the injury of plants that occurs during the cutting of flowers invariably entails an increase in the maturation of tubers, because the restoration of damaged stalks of potatoes has to spend truly colossal forces; and, thirdly, plants whose tops were pinched or the flowers were torn off, always turned out to be more susceptible to various ailments (and it's not a secret for anyone that late blight alone can easily destroy up to seventy percent of the crop)!

What to do?

Anyone who plans to collect seeds from potatoes for the subsequent cultivation of tubers should definitely not pinch the tops, much less pick off the inflorescences. If this culture is grown exclusively for the sake of obtaining crops for their own consumption, then you can still pick off the flowers if you wish, but this must be done only at the very initial stage of their formation (that is, at the stage of the ovary). If the buds have already managed to gain color, then you should not touch the inflorescences - they are left unchanged until the seeds ripen. In general, before making a final decision, experienced summer residents are advised to take into account several important factors.

First of all, special attention should be paid to local climatic conditions - for example, in areas with a windy and rather arid climate, there is absolutely no need to pick flowers, since in this case most of them are already sterile. This means that the formation of seeds at the end of the growing season simply does not occur, that is, no energy is expended on their ripening at all.

It is worth taking into account the fact that the summer resident who picks off potato flowers constantly walks between the rows, trampling the soil. The full hilling of the beds, due to the too impressive size of the potato bushes, turns into an almost impossible task, and the solid soil layer begins to significantly slow down the process of tuber development, which in turn simply cannot but affect the yield.

And yet a person, sadly enough, is a carrier of a wide variety of ailments: both bacterial and fungal. And when the inflorescences are removed, all kinds of bacteria, viruses and fungal pathogens begin to actively spread from one bush to another. In especially neglected cases, this can easily lead to crop loss!

Still, you probably should not make the decision to completely remove potato flowers - if you really decided to try, then it is better to do it at least partially, especially if this is done for the first time. And only then, based on your own experience, you can understand whether it is really worth increasing the volume of plucked inflorescences!