Growing potatoes on our own plot is troublesome, but very grateful, because potatoes are always present on our table. It is all the more interesting to get acquainted with new varieties that breeders give us annually. One of these achievements has received the promising name "Meteor" and as evidenced by reviews of experienced gardeners, it justifies it.
Selection
"Meteor" obtained by scientists of the All-Russian Research Institute of Potato Farming. A.G. Lorkha (Moscow region) by crossing the seed medium seed "Shurminsky 2" and hybrid 84.19 / 44.
However, the State Register of Breeding Achievements of the Russian Federation included the variety in 2013 under No. 9154500. It is worth noting, however, that preliminary work on breeding has been carried out since 2008, with the participation of at least a dozen different research institutes. 
Botanical description
Characteristics of any vegetable should begin with a description of the plant. In potatoes, of course, we are primarily interested in tubers.
Tubers
Tubers "Meteora" have an oval-rounded shape and rather large sizes (the mass of one potato is from 100 to 150 g). The peel is smooth, transparent, the color is from yellow to cream, the flesh is light yellow, does not darken when cut. Small painted eyes are not very deep.
"Meteor" refers to low starchy varietiesThe content of starch in it is from 10 to 12% (sometimes indicators from 12 to 14.9 and even up to 16% are sometimes indicated, however, we give the data stated by the official originator).
Important! The current opinion that the high starch content determines the high taste qualities of potatoes is erroneous. Moreover, high-starch potatoes (with a starch content of more than 25%) are generally considered to be fodder.
Early varieties of potatoes (and “Meteor” is just that) always have lower starch content than later ones. Such tubers have dense pulp, keep their shape well and do not fall apart during heat treatment, and, therefore, more suitable for cooking. 
Variety is considered universal, suitable for cooking in the peel and without it, cooking salads, baking and frying.
It only remains to add to this that since the pulp of the "Meteor" does not darken when cut, this variety can also be used for sale in purified form, in vacuum packaging.
Bushes
Shrubs from "Meteor" are considered average, but the cultivators, who grow the variety, claim that they noticeably rise above the beds, where other types of potatoes are planted. Plant - upright or semi-upright, intermediate type. It looks magnificent, although the stems are few, and their thickness and leafiness is average. Stems and corolla - green, leaves - intense dark green, medium size and dissection. Side shoots are short. Flowers - small, white.
Characteristic variety
Thanks to the efforts of breeders, in "Meteor" managed to achieve very high product characteristics, provided by the successful combination of varietal and hybrid potatoes. 
Disease resistance
The originator of a variety declares its resistance to a variety of the most dangerous "potato" diseases, however, Meteor can not boast of all these problems equally high immunity. Below is more detailed information about this:
| Type of disease | Degree of stability |
| golden cyst nematode | high |
| potato cancer | high |
| late blight | high in tubers average at terrestrial parts of the plant |
| wrinkled mosaic | relatively high |
| banded mosaic | relatively high |
| scab | high |
| rhizoctoniosis | high |
| dry rot | high |
| ring rot | high |
| alternarioz | average |
The probability of infection of any vegetable by a particular infection depends on two factors - the genetic potential of the variety and the quality of agricultural technology.
Familiarize yourself with potato disease control methods.
The originator of "Meteor", thus, provided the creation of high-quality source material, but the second half of success is completely dependent on the gardener himself. 
Terms of ripening
"Meteor" is not just an early, but ultra early court of potatoes. Full maturation of tubers occurs within 60-80 days from the moment of germination, however, the first young potatoes can be undermined already one and a half months after planting.
Early ripening periods are characteristic for the varieties "Rozara", "Gala", "Luck", "Queen Anne", "Bellaroza", "Veneta", "Zhukovsky Early", "Uladar", "Timo Hankian", "Impala", "Red Scarlett, Farmer.
Yield
Each bush "Meteora" forms from 10 to 12 tubers. Thus, taking into account the size of potatoes and the recommended planting scheme, from one hundred square meters you can take an average of 200 to 400 kg of crop, but in the most favorable climatic conditions for a vegetable, this figure can rise to 450 and even 650 kg. The percentage of commercial tuber crops (used for human consumption, not for planting) is very high: from 88 to 98%. 
If you dig up potatoes without waiting for it to reach full maturity, the average yield figures look a little different:
- when digging for 45 days after emergence of shoots - from 175 to 210 kg per hundred;
- when digging on the 55th day after the emergence of shoots - from 230 to 320 kg per hundred.
Did you know? The world record for potato yield is 1,223 kg per one hundred square meters.
Stickiness
A feature of the variety is also its high resolution. Potatoes are great for winter storage, the percentage of damage (under optimal conditions) does not exceed 5%. Good preservation of tubers also provides their resistance to mechanical damage.
Growing regions
"Meteor" is recommended for cultivation in the Central, Central Black Earth, Volga-Vyatka and West Siberian regions of the Russian Federation, but amateur gardeners have already managed to successfully test the new product almost throughout the territory of Russia. In other countries, the variety has not yet found wide application. 
Landing rules
The quality of the material chosen and what starting conditions will be provided for it directly depends on which level of the above-mentioned range, lower or upper, the quantity of the crop taken from the bed will approach.
Did you know? Many people think potatoes are not very useful product, and yet the amount of vitamin C in it is not lower than in citrus fruits. And, using a dish in a uniform right with a peel, we receive a large amount of beta-carotene and the most important organic acids. A total of 200-300 g of puree provides a daily dose of potassium, phosphorus, magnesium and calcium.
Optimal timing
Experts recommend starting planting potatoes late April-early May, but to focus on the calendar dates in this matter, in general, is wrong. First, spring does not come to all regions suitable for growing Meteor at one time, secondly, modern conditions are characterized by high climate variability, and the old ideas about the beginning of planting work can no longer be rested.
There are two ways to determine the optimal time for planting potatoes - scientific and popular. Being guided first, one should proceed from the temperature of warming up the soil at a depth of laying a tuber (10 cm): it should be at least +10 ° C (this usually happens when the average daily air temperature is at least 8 ° C). The second is simpler. People say: if the bird cherry has begun to bloom - it's time to plant potatoes. Another good indicator is birch leaves: they should grow to the size of a penny coin. 
And yet whatever method of setting the landing date is chosen, the weather forecast for the next couple of weeks is still worth asking. If after the onset of stable, seemingly warm days, night frosts unexpectedly return, they can cause irreparable damage to young shoots.
Another method to determine the time of planting potatoes - use the lunar calendar.
Choosing a place
Potato - plant photophiloustherefore, for planting, it is best to choose a site that is well lit by sunlight and does not fall into the shadow of nearby buildings, fences or garden trees, and build potato fields from north to south.
Lowland areas where stagnation of water is possible, as well as high groundwater flow are not suitable for culture. Also, the plant is afraid of strong winds, especially the northern and northeastern ones, in connection with which it is desirable to try to choose a site where these areas will be reliably protected.
An important prerequisite for a good harvest potato is soil fertility, and for early varieties this indicator is of particular importance: the ultra-fast ripening of the crop will not allow the farmer to “relax” and make up for the lack of nutritive soil due to subsequent dressings.
Important! The presence of a sufficient amount of mineral elements in the soil does not solve the problem of organic deficiency, without which plant cells simply cannot absorb the nutrients in the soil.
As for the composition of the soil, then the "Meteor" is best suited loam. 
Good and bad predecessors
Any gardener knows well that to get a decent harvest, you must follow the rules of crop rotation. Each culture is particularly demanding for strictly certain nutrients and, accordingly, extracts them and the soil in the maximum amount. On the other hand, some plants have the property of enriching the earth with some elements that others most urgently need.
Important! One year is not enough for the garden to rest from a certain culture. The minimum break should be two years and the longer it will be than the better.
Thus, in order to obtain maximum yield at minimum cost, it is very important to plant potatoes in a place where “useful” crops grew for it and, on the contrary, “harmful” did not grow. What concerns one and another of the indicated categories is indicated in the table:
| Good Potato Precursors | Permissible Potato Precursors | Poor Potato Precursors |
| rye rape legumes pumpkin melon watermelon cucumbers bow garlic | carrot beet cabbage greenery | potatoes tomatoes Sweet pepper bitter pepper eggplants sunflower sorghum |
As far as not every summer resident can afford such luxury, experienced gardeners advise to resort to some tricks, for example, alternate beds and inter-row spaces, use different varieties of crops, plant green manure immediately after harvest, so that the earth will be rich by next year.
Rapeseed, rye, mustard, buckwheat, sweet clover, lupine, alfalfa, phacelia, and oats are referred to siderata plants (“green fertilizers”).
Soil preparation
Preparing the soil for planting potatoes involves a thorough cleaning of the soil from weeds and residues of previous crops, as well as the laying of fertilizers, especially organic matter. 
It is best to use manure (10 kg per square meter) or humus (5 kg per square meter) for this purpose. Fertilizer unfolds on the ground in the fall, and in the spring the plot is dug up. If it was not possible to do it in advance, you can add organic matter directly during the spring digging process, but no later than two weeks before planting.
We should also not forget about mineral fertilizers, and the earth must be enriched not only with traditional nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, but also with iron, magnesium, calcium and sulfur.
Preparation of planting material
Proper preparation of planting material allows not only to accelerate the subsequent germination and, consequently, the maturation of the crop, but also more efficient use of the area due to the culling of painful and weakened tubers.
Before planting the tubers are exposed decontamination and growth stimulation. As a treater, you can use the following composition options (based on a bucket of water):
- bluestone (a tablespoon with a slide) + potassium permanganate (several granules);
- wood ash (1 kg).
For additional feed and protection against pests You can add to the prepared solution 40 g of urea, 60 g of superphosphate and 10 g of boric acid. Another option is to use system insecticofungicides for defensive processing, for example, Matador, Masterpiece, Aktara, Maxim, Prestige, etc. In the resulting mixture, the tubers are aged for 20-30 minutes.
Germinate tubers begin a month before the intended landing. First, they need to be kept for 2-3 days in intensive heat (about +30 ° C) to start germination, then for the remaining time move to a cooler place (about +15 ° C).
Important! It is necessary to germinate tubers in the light: firstly, it will ensure the formation of more useful sprouts, and secondly, solanine, formed under the influence of light, will protect the planting material from pests.
If you need to sprout potatoes in a shorter time (15-20 days), it is better to use the wet method: the tubers are laid in boxes and peppered with peat, humus or sawdust, which must remain moist all the time. 
Some prefer to speed up the process not by pre-sprouting tubers, but by processing them with modern ones. growth stimulants (for example, "Potytinom", "Micon" or "Appin"). In this case, it is enough to conduct the appropriate procedure just a day or two before landing.
Scheme and depth of landing
Recommended for "Meteor" landing pattern: 35 cm between the bushes and 60 cm between the rows. The bookmark should be rather deep, not less than 8-10 cm. It is also good to put a nutritional supplement in the hole:
- 0.5 cups of bone meal or a tablespoon of nitrophobia;
- 700 g of humus;
- 5 tablespoons of wood ash.
An interesting method of planting is planting potatoes in bags. This method helps to save space on the site, and also does not require hilling.
How to care
Agrotechnics growing "Meteor" is not very different from the standard, which is used for all early potato varieties. The variety has a high level of adaptability to different climatic conditions, however, some features for its care still depend on weather fluctuations, soil composition and planting zone.
In general, the general rule is this: a week after the tuber is laid in the ground, the gardener begins his first concerns.
Watering
"Meteor" refers to heat resistant varieties and tolerates drought well. Nevertheless, to obtain a good harvest, watering is required at intervals of about 10 days (of course, you do not need to water the garden on rainy days). 
When watering potatoes, it is important to take care that the earth is not just wet on the surface, but also soaked with moisture to a considerable depth (about five times the depth of tuber budding).
Top dressing
The specificity of the super early potato is that the main nutrients that are needed by the plant should be present in the soil at the time of planting. But if you see that the bush is clearly developing more slowly than we would like, the situation can be remedied by carrying out 2-3 foliar or root dressings using complex mineral fertilizers.
Important! The need for nutrients in potatoes increases with intensive soil moisture, so if summer is rainy, additional feeding may also be necessary.
All varieties of early potatoes respond well to magnesium and calcium, this feature must be considered when choosing the optimal composition of fertilizer. Perfectly suited for these purposes, mullein. 
A liter of liquid mullein is diluted in a bucket of water and poured into 2 liters for each bush or filtered and used for foliar feeding. You can also use carbamide as a fertilizer (a tablespoon per bucket of water), but in this case, the amount of solution per bush should be reduced by four times. Of the finished fertilizers, Kemira performed well.
Weeding and loosening the soil
Removing weeds and loosening the soil are the procedures with which to start caring for a potato bed. A week after planting, as soon as the first sprouts appeared, these activities should be carried out and subsequently repeated regularly, ensuring that the loosening was not too deep, and gradually reducing its area as the bush develops.
Learn how to remove weeds from the garden, in particular, folk remedies.
Hilling
Agrotechnics growing "Meteor" involves a deep landing, so hilling is not a necessary procedure. The moisture reserve necessary for the culture is ensured by other activities, such as watering and loosening. But for cold climatic zones, especially in the period of increased likelihood of late frosts, high hilling can prevent plants from freezing. 
Preventive treatment
The high resistance of the variety to major diseases and pests (including the notorious Colorado potato beetle and aphid) usually requires only a few preventive sprays of bushes with fungicidal and insecticidal preparations of systemic action.
Against the Colorado potato beetle, both traditional methods (for example, mustard and vinegar) and special preparations are used: Taboo, Regent, Confidor, Tanrek, Launch, Komandor, and Lightning.
Harvesting and storage
Despite the high rates of decay, "Meteor", like all early potato varieties, is very sensitive to the approach of spring, which is reflected in the intensive germination of tubers stored in the cellars. The problem can be partially solved by properly preparing the crop for future storage.
Dug tubers should immediately be carefully inspected and searched, removing damaged, rotten or moldy specimens. Some even recommend washing the potatoes thoroughly, removing dirt and microorganisms on the surface. Then the tubers are recommended to be laid out in a light-protected and well-ventilated place for a couple of weeks, after which they should be re-inspected and selected. Only after that the potatoes can be placed in a place of permanent storage. 
The optimal conditions for this are:
- total absence of light;
- humidity not higher than 75-85%;
- temperature from +1 to +7 ° C.
It also does not hurt to pick potatoes a few times during the winter, removing the spoiled tubers.
Did you know? The largest potato, which is listed in the Guinness Book of Records, weighed 11.2 kg. This monster was raised by a resident of Saudi Arabia, Khalil Semkhat.
Advantages and disadvantages
All this allows us to highlight the following indicators that favorably distinguish "Meteor" from other varieties of potatoes:
- early ripening;
- high yields, even at an early stage;
- excellent taste;
- universality in use;
- high product quality, small amount of waste;
- excellent quality;
- drought tolerance;
- heat resistance;
- cold resistance;
- good adaptation to changing climatic conditions, the possibility of cultivation in regions with different climates;
- resistance to many fungal diseases and pests;
- unpretentiousness, lack of special requirements to agrotechnology;
- suitability for different soil types.
Even the most rigorous analysis does not allow to distinguish, however important limitations. The only thing that can be noted is the increased demands of the potato for the nutritional value of the soil, but this requirement applies equally to any early cultivars, because it is the presence of a sufficient amount of organic matter and minerals that allows the plant to quickly form a very high yield of tubers with excellent taste.
Reviews of potato variety "Meteor"
Thus, there is every reason to believe that in the coming years, the Meteor potato variety will gain a large number of fans not only in the territory of the Russian Federation, but also in other countries.
