When buying potatoes, most consumers go for the sweetest and big ones. No one loves small-sized potatoes.
The main disadvantage of small-sized potatoes is that you need more to fill a bag and are tedious to prepare too. This results in a few bags per acre and a loss in general.
To produce big-sized potatoes, select a variety that yields big potatoes and enhance it with good feeding.
The Manitou potato variety is a high-yielder loved by many who make flies and chips. It is also good for domestic use. Manitou is a tall variety with erect to semi-erect stems with large light green to green leaves.
Though manitou variety is susceptible to leaf blight, it has a good resistance to tuber blight and wart disease.
Under good management, manitou potatoes can yield up to 20 tons per acre. This is almost equivalent to 100 bags. It has a maturity of 110-120 days.
Potato feeding
Before feeding, potatoes must be planted in well-drained loam or sandy loam soils. Black cotton soils only produce small-sized potatoes that often rot due to water clogging.
Read: Find out if Potato Farming is Profitable in Kenya
Plant on a pacing of 30cm between the rows and 35cm between the plants. Only plant-certified potato seeds and use DAP as planting fertilizer.
Drench with Citishooter organic hormone one month after sowing. Top dress with NPK 17.17.17 when plants are due flowering and a repeat application of citishooter. Apply at least 150kgs of each fertilizer per acre.
Disease control
To get big-sized potatoes, ensure you control fungal diseases especially leaf blight. Preventive application of fungicides such as redomil and Issacop can help.
Proper earthing should be done when weeding. This facilitates tuber enlargement.
Water stress can hinder tuber formation and expansion, Provide irrigation in case the rain subsides. To be on the safe side, planting should always coincide with rainy seasons.
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