Ludmila Dulskaya
Molyanov Agro Group LLC (MAG LLC) is an authorized manufacturer of high-quality elite and reproduction seed potatoes of Russian and European selection. The rich experience of employees in potato seed production allows us to choose the best varieties for producers and offer agronomic support during cultivation. Seed material is grown in protected agro-ecological conditions. Potato health improvement is carried out on our own areas using modern methods. The head of the crop production department of Molyanov Agro Group LLC talks about the progress of planting seed material this season Rail Rakhimov:
- Seed production of our company is not localized in one region: the head office is located in the Samara region, seed crops - in the Republic of Mari El, Ulyanovsk, Samara, Kaliningrad and Chelyabinsk regions. Now we are systematically increasing the areas specifically for seed crops: they have grown by 10-15% in general.
We plant potatoes taking into account the weather conditions, and not everywhere they allow us to carry out a full day's work. The weather in the regions is very different: in Mari El, the air temperature is plus 4-6 degrees and it rains, in the Krasnoyarsk Territory it is hot, plus 32 degrees. In the Chelyabinsk region, more than half of the area has already been sown, in the Ulyanovsk region - only about 30%. Warming is expected in the Volga region in the near future, things will go faster.
For planting seed crops, the timing is still optimal. We usually start landing on May 15-17. This year there will be a shift by a week, but for us it is not critical. Unfortunately, those who had already planted potatoes were prevented by returning frosts. Spring this year is cold, seed growers will need to make nutrition adjustments, change the protection and dressing scheme in order to protect growing tubers from soil pathogens as much as possible.
There are more than 10 varieties in the assortment of MAG LLC. We work in close cooperation with the southern regions, we grow varieties on order, we consult during the growing season of crops. Everyone who wants to get a certain variety has the opportunity to observe in the field during the growing season, evaluate the quality of crops, see how resistant the variety is to diseases and how it manifests itself in general.
Now we are growing seed potatoes of ultra-early European varieties, such as Riviera, Arizona, Colomba, Lisana. For the conditions of Siberia, where the weather has been changing for several years, there are high temperatures that not all varieties of potatoes can withstand, the variety is perfect Crown. In addition, we identified one domestic variety - Grandeewhich has performed well. The variety showed a good harvest and may well compete with European ones.
For many years we have been doing a lot of work on breeding new Russian varieties, conducting state tests in the regions. Through the labor of many years of painstaking work of the employees of MAG LLC, a variety of its own selection has been created, which takes its rightful place in the category of early ripening varieties and is now being tested in the regions - this Julia. It is already receiving good reviews from farmers.
Julia - a variety of yellow-skinned, early ripening (vegetation 65-70 days), the tubers have creamy flesh and a smooth peel. Has a premium look. Differs in high productivity and high keeping quality that allows to save a crop. An important feature of this variety is its adaptability to mechanized harvesting: it has a strong peel. Also, everyone knows that in the next 2-3 years, producers will have to supply clean potatoes to the networks, and the Julia variety meets these requirements.
We test not only the manufacturability of the variety, but also its taste as a table variety, and the results are positive. We hope that by the end of 2022 this variety will be accepted into the State Register of the Russian Federation, and we are now working to quickly offer a certain amount of this variety for commercial plantings.