What will happen to the harvest if you pick flowers from Potatoes? I share the result of my Experiment
For whatever gardeners go to grow potatoes better! They mark out complex schemes for the holes and build high beds, spud painstakingly, generously fertilize. Naturally, I also want to see the potato plantings luxurious at the end of the season!
And last year, while studying the scientific and botanical literature, I thought... Or maybe cut off the flowers of the potatoes? The results of the experiment were amazing!
It is well known that the very flowering of this culture is unnecessary for farmers - in order to acquire planting material or a crop, it is not necessary.
When the potato blooms, due to natural biological processes, it evaluates this as something terrible and important and begins to supply a lot of nutrients to the flowers.
What hits the underground part where the roots are supposed to form. In fact, due to flowering, they receive insufficient nitrogen, phosphorus, other minerals and even moisture. That is, flowers in potatoes are just as harmful as extra mustaches in strawberries and stepsons in tomatoes!
That's why I decided to cut them off cleanly. And remembering that the removal of any parts is always stressful for the plant, I conducted this event in the early morning, on a dry, clear day.
Guided by personal experience, I want to clarify that using a pruner is not necessary - you can do great with your hands!
The main thing is to remove the entire flower-bearing brush entirely, not limited to individual colors.
Having cut off the flowers, I watered the potato beds, carried out hilling. Top dressing is not required after that.
I also want to emphasize that it is important to remove flowers at the right time. If you do this during the budding period, then the potatoes will spend a lot of energy to grow the buds again.
If you wait for the flowers to bloom - after removing them, the potatoes, as needed, will start forming a good harvest.
This amazing "behavior" is explained by the fact that it is a self-pollinated culture. And when the process of pollination began and ovaries began to form in some places, the plant receives the appropriate hormonal signal. And it will definitely not waste energy on new budding.
After I cut off the flowers, potatoes, varieties, by the way, very capricious, they got stronger! I harvested a crop about a week ahead of schedule and the tubers were surprisingly large and even!
In conclusion of the topic, I want to add that if the potatoes managed to bloom, this does not mean that everything is lost! It is not too late to remove the emerging berry ovaries, which can also take away food and useful resources from the bush.