Today it is difficult to imagine that the potatoes popular all over the world, which are included in the daily diet of every person, were once only a wild plant. For the first time, the tribes of the Indians of South America began to eat it. And the first description was made by the Spanish historian Pedro Cieza de Leon in the middle of the 16th century. Today, the variety of culture is already represented by four thousand varieties, bred in different parts of the world. One of them is Timo Hankkijan, which has unique properties.

The history of the creation of the variety

Timo's potatoes were developed by Finnish breeders. As a northern country, Finland is characterized by a fairly short growing season. Despite this, Finnish potato varieties manage to please their gardeners. Summer in this place is rich in sun and warmth. In general, the climatic conditions are suitable for growing high quality potatoes. The Finnish breeders faced the following challenge: due to the short growing season, it was necessary to create ultra-early varietal potatoes. Having coped with this task, agricultural technicians were able to introduce the world to a new variety - Timo.

Interesting. It gained popularity in Russia, first of all, due to its early maturity. 2-2.5 months is enough for him to completely complete the growth process and have time to form fruits.

Feature and Description

Potato Leader

The Timo potato variety is represented by low-growing bushes that reach a height of 40 centimeters. They are compact, have developed foliage, light green stems and flowers of blue or purple color. On the cut, the tubers are creamy. The starch content is low, this parameter is only 12-14%. This is a table type of potato that is intended to be eaten. In this regard, even long-term heat treatment does not do much harm to the shape of the tubers, preventing them from quickly boiling.

Timo's potatoes

The fruits have the same size and shallow eyes, which can be easily cleaned mechanically. Tubers are rounded, light beige in color. There can be up to 5-7 of them on the bush. On average, the weight of the fruit is 120 g. The total amount of small potatoes for the entire crop is no more than 15-20%. Finnish Timo potatoes are used for cooking, processing and long-term storage.

Agrotechnics

Ramona potatoes

The variety tolerates drought well and at the same time grows on moist soils. He prefers sandy loam soil, and on loam, his taste characteristics and yield can be significantly reduced.

Note. Potatoes have good immunity to diseases such as potato cancer, black leg, rhizoctonia disease. Not very resistant to late blight. But this disease does not have time to greatly harm the potato, since its heyday occurs in the second half of the summer, and during this period Timo is already removed from the fields.

The foliar twisting virus is also not terrible for this variety. Due to this resistance, the degeneration of the variety does not occur, even if you do not engage in annual seed renewal. The worst enemies are the Colorado potato beetle and the golden nematode. Treatment against these insects must be carried out.

The cultivation process for this variety is quite simple. Particular attention should be paid to the pre-planting seed treatment, then the yield will be much higher. Before planting, it is important to conduct a preparatory stage, which takes place a month in advance.The tubers must be sorted out and dried, getting rid of rotten and spoiled specimens. Tubers, the size of which is not larger than a chicken egg, are suitable as planting material. But the periodic use of larger specimens can further save the variety from degeneration.

Council. Before planting, each tuber must be divided into 2 halves so that the number of eyes that have already germinated is in both halves in approximately the same ratio. The prepared material should be transferred to a comfortable warm room, after sprinkling with water and covered with a cloth.

This period is also suitable for treatment with drugs that provide protection against various types of pathogens. It is useful to dust it with ash. The property of ash to activate starch synthesis can improve the taste of potatoes. Ash can be sprinkled not only on tubers, but also on holes, as well as soil in the spring and autumn periods.

About the merits and demerits of Timo

Alena potatoes

The revealed early maturity and resistance to many pests, the advantages of this variety include:

  • the content of a large amount of valuable amino acids and a complex of vitamins in the finished product;
  • a long storage period, during which the quality of the product does not change, the preservation of the presentation is a feature of the variety, which is important when transporting products when selling large quantities of goods.

Even such a valuable potato variety as Timo has some negative points, which are also important to consider when choosing this variety:

  • a sharp change in temperature during cold snap and frost significantly reduces productivity;
  • the habitual phenomenon of a short growing season adjusts the biorhythms of the plant to a rapidly rapid stage of development, so the sprouts will sprout constantly during the season, requiring additional effort and time to get rid of them.

Despite the significant advantages, many potato growers do not make an unambiguous choice in its favor, since they believe that the huge potential of this variety cannot always be realized in the Russian latitudes. For large cities (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Perm and others) it is more profitable to buy finished products than to create conditions for their cultivation. And at the same time, a large army of gardeners with great pleasure grows this variety in their personal plots, while receiving enviable results.