RECOMMENDATIONS AND OBSERVATIONS
Spring-2018 in Central Russia and the Volga region was protracted, almost the whole of April the weather remained cold, so planting work in many farms began even with a small but lagging behind the usual terms. Nevertheless, the hot May made it possible to catch up: as a result, the planting of potatoes in most regions of Russia this year took place in the optimal agrotechnical time frame, and in the future a favorable regime for growth and development of culture remained in many territories, which ensured friendly seedlings.
PRE-PLANT TREATMENT
What else can you say about the features of the season that has begun? It is worth noting that the winter of 2017/18 in the central part of the country was relatively warm, without deep freezing of soils, and not too snowy. Thus, it is logical to assume that potato fields in the near future may be exposed to an invasion of pests that have successfully survived the cold period. It is also quite likely the early development of diseases - late blight, alternaria, etc.
It is possible to prevent the manifestations (and hence the grave consequences) of both of these with the help of timely preventive measures. First of all, we are talking about preplant treatment of seed potatoes with insectofungicidal and fungicidal preparations. The largest companies in the production of plant protection products offer farmers a wide range of products that effectively perform these tasks.
Among the most famous tools are Uniform, Celest Top, Emeto Quantum, Quadris. Processing with any of the listed preparations under the conditions of the current season helps to protect seeds from soil and tuberous infections and is the key to a good harvest.
Let's give real examples. In the farm "Agroalliance" of the Nizhny Novgorod region, which specializes in growing seed potatoes, Celest Top (0,4 l / t) was successfully used for pre-planting tubers this year. Another agricultural enterprise - "A7 Agro", Orenburg region, - preferred for the pre-planting treatment of potato seed material Uniform mixed with thiamethokam (350 g / l). In both cases, 15 days after planting, farmers recorded excellent results: clean, even seedlings without traces of infection. It is important to note that potato planting in the Orenburg region was carried out in a complex infectious background. In addition, the potatoes in "A7 Agro" are grown on irrigation, which imposes additional risks of damage to plants by diseases, therefore, the specialists of the farm approached the choice of the drug for processing especially carefully.
WORK ON THE SCHEME
After the emergence of seedlings, agricultural producers working according to a protection scheme created individually for their holdings (taking into account climatic conditions and other factors), as a rule, proceed to the processing of plantings with a contact preparation. This is followed by processing a system product. These stages should be carried out strictly within the time frame provided for by the scheme, taking into account the phase of development of the culture and before the first signs of disease appear.
Numerous studies confirm that farms operating in strict accordance with a well-developed treatment scheme (usually including 7-10 stages) show higher economic achievements compared to those that are limited to two or three treatments per season. But it is important to understand that the scheme itself, in isolation from agricultural technology, when using low-quality seeds, without making mineral nutrition, will not bring the desired result.
COMBATING WEEDS
The mild winter created conditions for the aggravation of another problem: mild frosts did not cause noticeable damage to either perennial or annual weeds. This means that there will be a lot of weeds in the fields (especially where the appropriate treatment was not carried out in the fall). It is better to start fighting them with preventive measures - using pre-emergence herbicide treatments (this will help to avoid phytotoxicity).
If the herbicidal treatment is carried out after the emergence of seedlings, it is necessary to choose preparations of milder action.
The list of weed control products on the Russian market has not changed much this year. Among the promising new products, we can mention the two-component Soil Herbicide Artist (preparative form: water-dispersible granules (WDG) containing flufenacet 240 g / kg and metribuzin 175 g / kg).
The drug is convenient to use, effective against bedstraw, black nightshade and white marie.
Also, farmers can work with self-prepared mixtures. For pre-emergence herbicide treatment, a mixture of metribuzin (0,7 l / ha) and Boxer (3 l / ha) or the classic combination of metribuzin (0,7 l / ha) and rimsulfuron (50 g / ha) are suitable.
For seedling treatment, preparations are used, if necessary, in strict compliance with the dosages recommended by the manufacturers of the products.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE START OF THE SEASON
In an article published in the journal’s vulgar issue, we examined in detail the reasons why a number of farms received excellent potato harvests in the past season, despite weather disasters (the secret to success, I recall, was high-quality seeds and accurate adherence to growing technology). Observing the situation that is developing in the SZR market at the beginning of the new season, I cannot but note that many professional potato growers conducted a serious analysis of the mistakes of the past year and made the right conclusions.
On the whole, agricultural producers did not increase the volume of expenses for the purchase of plant protection products, but began to pay great attention to the choice of preparations and use well-thought-out plant protection schemes. People want to produce not just a lot of potatoes, but a lot of high-quality potatoes, and with this approach they will certainly achieve their goal.