In many countries, landowners have successfully grown the Rocco potato variety. Its popularity is due to its high resistance to all known crop diseases, consistently high yield, widespread use, both in the food industry and in home use.
It has long been bred by Dutch breeders, but we first appeared only in 2002. This potato immediately fell in love with gardeners and has been popular for more than 15 years, despite the constant breeding of new varieties.
🥔 Rocco potatoes: description
This vegetable belongs to mid-season table varieties. In some regions, it is considered late ripening. Depending on the conditions, the minimum ripening period is 100 days, the maximum – 145. This variety has a good yield, one hectare of land can grow up to 400 quintals of selected potatoes. On average, each bush produces 8-10 tubers weighing 100-125 grams. The percentage of starch is 13-16%. When cut, the pulp does not darken immediately, so this variety is suitable for the production of chips and fries.
Bushes are erect, tall, even. Leaves of a rich green hue, not too large, with small jagged edges. Flowers are painted in light lilac, sometimes reddish. By the way, the plant may not have flowers at all, but this feature will not prevent it from tying large tubers.
Rocco is suitable for growing in regions with any climatic conditions, it is not picky about soils. He is practically not susceptible to diseases, agricultural technology is standard.
🥔 Potato variety Rocco: characteristic of tubers
The following distinctive features can be distinguished:
- elongated rounded shape;
- thin smooth rind;
- pale pink shade with slight pigmentation;
- superficial eyes, numerous;
- the pulp is beige;
- after cooking, it acquires a pleasant delicate taste;
- one bush gives up to 1,5 kg of tubers;
- good presentation;
- satisfactory keeping quality – 89%;
- tubers are used for wholesale and retail trade;
- are used to prepare a variety of dishes.
🥔 Pros and cons
Rocco’s potatoes have the following positive properties:
- Good survival rate.
- Low growing requirements.
- Drought resistance.
- Fast and friendly shoots.
- Tolerance to extreme weather changes.
- Sufficiently high keeping quality.
- Excellent taste.
- Wide range of applications.
- Disease and pest resistance.
- Good safety of fruits during transportation.
This subspecies has no drawbacks.
🥔 Features of cultivation
Even a novice summer resident, who has never previously dealt with potatoes, can easily grow the Rocco variety, since this culture is unpretentious and not demanding on growing conditions. But still, you need to know some of the features of her agricultural technology.
In the central and southern regions, planting begins in late April or early May. If Rocco’s seed potatoes are planted in cold soil, they will freeze, rot and not yield. Therefore, rush is not needed here.
To get large and even tubers, you need to take care of the quality of the soil. When seed tubers are planted in hard or acidic soil, they can grow deformed specimens that are unusable. Therefore, it is advisable to dig up the ground twice on the site: in the fall and spring immediately before planting the planting material. In parallel, black soil, manure and bird droppings can be added to the soil.
Before planting, the selected potatoes must be germinated. Thanks to germination, the eyes will hatch and sprout strong shoots, which will then give amicable shoots. Without this procedure, the sprouts will appear asynchronously, which will greatly complicate the subsequent care of the plants.
On the day of planting, sprouted potatoes are treated with Bordeaux liquid or a weak solution of potassium permanganate. First, wood ash, a few peas of nitrogen fertilizers and a little onion husk are placed in the hole. All this provides plants with nutrients and provides additional protection against pests and fungal diseases. As it grows, potash and organic fertilizers, saltpeter are applied.
🥔 Care after planting
Received Rocco’s potatoes reviews from many gardeners. Basically, he is praised for its unpretentious care. It does not need additional watering, as it perfectly tolerates prolonged drought, and with prolonged downpours, the tubers do not deteriorate or rot.
Plants respond well to weeding and loosening. When hilling, they give larger and more numerous tubers, therefore it is recommended to huddle bushes 2 times. The first time this should be done at the moment when the height of the tops reaches 15-20 cm, and the re-hilling is carried out a couple of weeks after the first procedure. The higher the ridges, the better the stolons will grow, which means that more tubers will be formed. Thanks to this, up to 9-12 rather large potatoes can be harvested from one Rocco bush.
To prevent pests from attacking plants, they should be treated with insecticides or fungicides (for prophylactic purposes). If this is not done, then the larvae of the Colorado potato beetle, aphids, wireworm and potato moth can greatly harm this vegetable crop.
🥔 Harvesting and storage
The maximum residence time of tubers in the ground is 155 days. They cannot be kept longer, otherwise they will be spoiled by the larva of the May beetle, wireworm, late blight or scab. Experienced gardeners know that timely harvesting is the best solution to this problem.
As soon as the stems begin to dry out and lay on the soil, the potatoes can be dug up. It is best to do this with a shovel or pitchfork.
The dug out tubers are laid out on the site for drying and subsequent sorting. Spoiled, small and damaged specimens are removed from the total mass. They must be consumed or disposed of immediately. The most beautiful tubers are selected as planting material for the next year. All steel potatoes are folded into wooden boxes or placed in nylon nets and stored.
The containers with the harvest are stored in a cellar or basement with a low temperature and low humidity. So the vegetables will retain their properties until the next harvest. In order to prevent their massive damage, rotten specimens must be removed as they appear.
🥔 Application
Rocco’s potatoes are widely used in cooking. The taste of this variety allows you to prepare a wide variety of dishes. For example, mashed potatoes, stews, pies, pancakes, boiled potatoes, soups and salads. Since the tubers have a beautiful presentation, they are used for wholesale in production, for sale in markets and in specialized stores. This variety has found application in folk medicine. The juice of raw tubers, as well as grated pulp, help people cope with many diseases.
📖 Conclusion
Now it is clear why Rocco is so popular with us. In cultivation, it is unpretentious, in storage too, it has an attractive appearance and great taste. Summer residents who tried to plant this potato in their plots never refuse it again.
📽 How to update a potato video
