When people talk about a phenomenon like curly potatoes, they try to consider the available control measures. But first of all, you need to understand why potato tops are curled. The phenomenon characterizes various deformations of the tops. They can manifest themselves abruptly or make themselves known only with time. A disease is dangerous if you do not start to fight it in time. Probably a suspension in development and a sharp decrease in productivity. To understand why potato leaves are curling, you need to consider the reasons.
Content
Curly potatoes description of the reasons
The phenomenon can be caused by various factors that contribute to the occurrence of deformation. Bloated wavy leaves with characteristic dark spots are more common. This can often be found in the Leningrad region. The soil affects the manifestation of the disease. First of all, the lack of the necessary amount of calcium in it contributes to the characteristic symptoms.
Damage to drugs that destroy weeds
Often, gardeners approach the choice of a chemical preparation to eliminate weeds without proper care. This leads to two symptoms:
- pronounced twisting of the leaves of the plant;
- characteristic increase in volume, black spots.
This entails a halt in the development of tubers. Their number may be less than that of a healthy potato bush. Choosing high-quality drugs for weed control, you can not rush to irrigation.
Why else tops of potatoes curls
- Often, various viral and infectious diseases are found in potatoes.
- More often the culture suffers from mosaics, which lead to deformation of the leaf, yellowing of the tops, its twisting to the vein, which is located in the center.
After this comes the moment of cessation of plant growth. The bushes cannot grow to the size that they are sorted by. Those leaves that do not seem to be affected by the disease remain small. When digging, gardeners find a small number of tubers, many of them small or deformed, are not suitable for consumption or for selection for planting next year.
Mosaic may not be the same in different varieties. For some, it acts with minimal loss for the crop, and the quality of the tubers remains at its best. But if the curl of potato leaves run, delay treatment, the disease will progress. Even those cultures that were immune to mosaic viruses will begin to lose the quality of tubers. The difference between healthy and affected will be noticeable.
Viral infection can accumulate in planting material, which leads to the gradual degeneration of potatoes. This can occur slowly or quickly. At the time of detection of the symptoms of viruses that differ in nature and structure, method of exposure, fungi and bacteria, it is impossible to save the plant.
Before you understand why the tops of potatoes are curly, it is important to understand how the virus enters the crop. More often this is facilitated by a living organism that eats potato leaves. A prime example of a virus carrier is an aphid. Why potatoes are crispy, what kind of disease it is and how to treat it are important questions. Going deeper into the topic of why potatoes are crispy, it is important not to forget that earlier identification of the signs of the virus can play an important role in the rehabilitation of crops to preserve fruits and yields.
Types of mosaics due to which the leaves are curled
People often ask themselves why the tops of potatoes are curly, not thinking that the plant could have been infected for a long time. The virus often hides in the plant, is in a latent state, without showing the usual symptoms.
- Ordinary and folded. The disease can be triggered by three different viruses or a combination of both. On the leaves there are spots of different shades, from dark to light. The disease is also provoked by strains of viruses. Symptoms of the disease can be masked if the air temperature is high and direct sunlight for a long time affects the potato.
- Speckled. Curly potatoes raises many questions, among which the relevant is how to treat the plant. But determining the type of disease plays an important role. Soil fungus is more often the culprit of the speckled mosaic, which can be overlooked due to mild symptoms. You can notice the signs at the beginning of the growing season, according to the characteristic bright spots.
- Wrinkled and banded. Curly potato tops can be triggered by various reasons. Often the culprit of potato curly becomes the Y-virus or S-virus, which can cause the disease on its own and in combination with other pathogens, the photo can be seen on the network. These mosaics are characterized by angular spots. Possible necrotization of the veins. The defeat of the leaves is so pronounced that they become fragile and vulnerable. Necrotization can destroy the stems of the culture, and affect the petioles. A wrinkled mosaic shows a lag in the formation of new leaves and the growth of bushes. The stems become weak.
Rhizoctonia
Answering the question of why potatoes are curled, one cannot but mention the fungal disease, which leads to the formation of black hard spots. They can be easily cleaned with tubers. The symptomatology of the disease is noticeable on the sprouts in the form of sores, which can lead to the death of the affected areas of the sprout. Poor soil or the presence of fungus in the seed material aggravates the disease. When harvesting, most tubers will be underdeveloped. During periods of drought, affected by rhizoctoniasis cultures rarely survive.
Methods of struggle
Curly potatoes are common. The network has enough information about measures to combat the disease and photos of symptomatic signs.
To eliminate the likelihood of the disease, seed is selected only from healthy bushes. Planting material must be of the highest quality, without the slightest hint of a possible disease.
Pest and weed control is carried out taking into account all stages of the crop vegetation. The quality of the processing agents should be high. Small and non-varietal tubers are more often susceptible to infection by viruses, so they are not selected for planting material.
Reviews
Sergey:
“For several years in a row, he fought against a mosaic disease. What drugs just did not try until I came to the use of Prestige. Thanks to the neighbor for good advice. I recommend to everyone".
Irina:
“I got used to fighting curly. The main thing is to use quality material for fertilizer with potassium content on time. If the soil is of good quality and the planting material is selected, you can forget about the problem of curly tubers. ”
Valentine:
“For a long time I was tormented by the question of why the leaves of the potato are curling. Every year the disease manifested itself more strongly. This year we bought a new planting material and processed it well before planting. There were no problems so far. ”
Marina:
“I bought a cultivar resistant to mosaic viruses, but I couldn’t avoid the disease until I changed the fertilizer and used Prestige the next year.”