Seed potatoes Unica: characteristics and comparison in tables, photos

The Unica potato is a new Peruvian variety. Gardeners who have successfully grown it say it's well-deserved name. It's popular for its low maintenance, ability to grow in any soil, producing good yields with very large fruits, excellent flavor, and excellent shelf life. Furthermore, it exhibits excellent resistance to many dangerous potato diseases.

Table with characteristics of the Unique potato variety

The table below shows the main characteristics of Unik.

Characteristic	Description
General information	The variety belongs to the mid-season potato.
Ripening period	80-95 days.
Starch content	13%
Weight of commercial tubers	400-750 g, sometimes reaching 1500 g
Number of tubers in a bush	10-15 pcs.
Productivity	320 c/ha
Taste qualities	The taste is salty, slightly sour, not bland, so it does not require the use of spices.
Marketability	98%
Shelf life	96%
Peel color	Crimson
Pulp color	Yellow
Color of inflorescences	White
Cooking class	Belongs to culinary type B, suitable for preparing any dishes.
Suitable growing regions	Any
Disease resistance	To the majority of dangerous potato diseases: cancer, nematodes, late blight and others.
Growing specifics	Regular mulching with heated grass is required, ensuring it doesn't touch the stems during early planting. This mulching is stopped only when the shoots are fully grown. Since the tops are very tall, they need to be supported (in southern regions). However, this should not be done vertically; they should be tied in a fan-shaped pattern.
registry	Not registered
Country of origin	Peru

Photo gallery of the potato variety Unika:

The origin of the Unica potato variety

Unica is a Peruvian potato variety that hasn't yet become widespread in our country. This is due to the difficulty of finding planting material. It was first brought to Omsk by a city administration official. Now, it's gradually spreading across Russia.

Description of the potato variety Unique

Let's take a closer look at the main distinguishing features of the variety.

Bushes

According to the description, it forms bushes with 6-7 shoots, reaching a height of 110 cm. The stems are strong, sturdy, and brown. The leaves are small and light green.

Tubers

The tubers are very large, oval-shaped, and can weigh up to 1.5 kg. The potato skin is crimson, and the flesh is yellow.

Nutrients and nutritional value

Potatoes contain a huge amount of nutrients, including potassium, phosphorus, various vitamins, etc. The energy value per 100 g of product is about 70 kcal.

Productivity and ripening time

This variety is considered high-yielding. A single bush can yield up to 15 tubers weighing 400-750 g, sometimes reaching 1,500 g. Up to 320 kg of potatoes can be harvested from a hundred square meters, equivalent to about 40 buckets.

The variety is mid-season, meaning 80-95 days pass between germination and ripening.

Resistance to diseases and pests

It is characterized by good resistance to virtually all dangerous potato diseases and pests. However, if agricultural practices are not followed, scab, late blight, and powdery mildew may develop, negatively affecting the quality of the harvest.

What regions is it suitable for?

The variety adapts well to any soil and various weather conditions, making it suitable for cultivation in any region of the Russian Federation.

Advantages and disadvantages of the Unique potato variety

Unique has the following advantages:

• large fruits;
• excellent yield rate;
• good shelf life;
• resistance to most potato diseases;
• versatility of application;
• specific taste;
• no soil requirements;
• drought resistance;
• ease of care.

The only drawback is the tall tops, which make care and harvesting somewhat more difficult.

Planting Features of the Unique Potato Variety

To get a good harvest, you need to follow some planting rules.

Requirements for the landing site and its preparation

Although Unica is undemanding regarding soil, it is best planted in sandy, loamy soil with low acidity. A sunny location with no surface water table is preferable.

Plot preparation begins in the fall. After harvesting, remove all plant debris and weeds, and plant green manure. In October, incorporate the green manure into the soil and add additional manure. In the spring, dig the beds again, adding a complex mineral fertilizer mixture.

Selection and preparation of seed tubers

Only healthy tubers should be used for planting; they should show no signs of rot or disease. Potatoes with threadlike sprouts or unopened eyes are also unsuitable.

Before planting, the tubers need to germinate. To do this, lay them out in a single row in a bright, warm room a month before planting them outdoors.

Planting times and rules

The planting time depends on the growing region:

• South - first ten days of April;
• Middle zone - beginning of May;
• Siberia, the Urals - the last days of spring.

Potatoes are planted in holes dug in a staggered pattern. The distance between holes should be 40 cm, and between rows 60 cm. The planting depth depends on the soil type. In loose soil, it should be 10 cm. In heavy soil, the depth is 5 cm.

Please note! Potato tubers grow to a large size. However, this is not a problem when planting, as they can be divided in half.

Caring for the Unique potato variety

Although the variety is not demanding in terms of care, standard agricultural requirements still need to be met.

Watering

Apply up to four times per season. Stop watering a few weeks before harvest to allow the soil to dry and release easily from the tubers.

Top dressing

Fertilizers are applied according to the following scheme:

• at the stage of 3 true leaves, feed with mullein infusion (2 kg per 8 l of water);
• during the budding period, add ash solution (1 kg per bucket of liquid);
• During active flowering, feed with superphosphate (45 g per 10 l of water).

Loosening, weeding, hilling

Loosening the soil is necessary to enrich the root system with oxygen and improve the flow of moisture and nutrients. Do this once every 14 days.

Hilling should be done twice during the growing season:

• when the seedlings grow to 15 cm, rake the soil to a height of 6 cm;
  After 2-3 weeks, hill up to a height of 20 cm.

Bushes need to be weeded periodically. If this isn't done, weeds will rob the plants of nutrients, negatively impacting the harvest.

Protecting the Unika potato variety from diseases and pests

The table below presents methods for preventing and controlling diseases that may appear on a variety if agricultural practices are not followed.

Disease	Prevention	Methods of control
Late blight	maintaining the distance between bushes; timely destruction of plant residues; autumn digging; compliance with watering rules; compliance with crop rotation.	treatment with Immunocytophyte and Silk (in warm weather without precipitation); use of chemicals Oxychom, Arcerid.
Common scab		Use of drugs: Agat-25; Fitosporin-M; Prestige KS.
Powdery mildew		Treatment with chemicals Bayleton, Azocen.

The nuances of harvesting and storing the Unique potato variety

Since this variety's tubers are large, they should be harvested with a pitchfork. This speeds up the process and prevents soil from sticking to the potatoes.

After digging, the harvest must be dried. After this, the tubers are sorted, any diseased or damaged ones discarded, and the rest are placed in wooden boxes and stored in a cool place.

Please note! It is not recommended to store potatoes in bags. They do not provide sufficient oxygen, causing the tubers to rot.

Comparison of the Unika potato variety with other varieties in the table

Variety	Ripening period (number of days to maturity)	Starch (%)	Yield (c/ha)	Weight of tubers (g) Number of tubers per bush Color of tuber, pulp	Shelf life (%)
Unique	Mid-season***	13	320	400-750, up to 1500 10-15 crimson, yellow	96
Alvara	Mid-early**	13-15	295-540	90-110 8-14 reddish, light yellow	90
Bellarosa	Ultra-early	12-16	350-550	100-200 7-15 red, light yellow	93-96
Ilyinsky	Mid-early**	15.7-18	176-346	55-160 8-13 red, white	93
Beauty	Mid-early**	13.5-15.6	130-321	95-140 6-8 red, light yellow	94
Labella	Early ripening*	12-15	176-342	78-102 13-16 red, yellowish	94
Red Sonya	Early ripening*	13.3-14.6	174-340	78-122 6-10 red, yellow	93
Rosalind	Early ripening*	12-17	203-223	60-115 10-16 reddish, yellow	94
Sarpo of the world	Late-ripening*****	14-17	350-360	75-140 6-11 reddish (pink), snow-white	94
Favorite	Mid-season***	12.6-16.4	420	101-136 6-12 reddish, creamy	93
Evolution (Evolution)	Mid-early**	16-18.7	420-590	70-140 9-15 red, light yellow	92

Ultra-early – 35-50 days.

*Early ripening – 50-65 days.

**Mid-early – 65-80 days.

***Mid-season – 80-95 days.

****Late ripening – 110 days or more.

Real reviews of the Unique potato variety

Unica is a relatively new variety for Russia, distinguished by its abundant yield and ease of care. The tubers have an excellent marketable appearance and are suitable for growing commercially.

User Oleg Telepov, Omsk

In 2006, I propagated the Agria and Unica varieties for myself. Initially, Agria had seven tubers, and Unica had four. I removed sprouts from both varieties twice and planted them one at a time through seedlings. Then, after removing the sprouts twice, I cut the tubers into pieces, each with one eye, and planted those as well.

Both varieties yielded approximately 200 kg per 100 m², and an average of 500 grams per bush. Although some bushes yielded as much as 1 kg.

Now let's compare it to 'Scarlet Zarya'—518 kg. It turns out that 'Agria' and 'Unica' don't hold a candle to 'Scarlet Zarya.' But the planting material is completely different, as is the planting pattern. 'Agria' and 'Unica' were sparsely planted to create better conditions for photosynthesis. 'Unica' and 'Agria' had approximately 300 bushes per 100 square meters, grown from a single shoot (or bud), while 'Scarlet Zarya' had 666 bushes per 100 square meters, each growing from a 70-gram piece with 2-4 buds. 'Scarlet Zarya' was planted in mid-May, while 'Unica' and 'Agria' were planted on June 13th. I earthed up 'Scarlet Zarya', but not 'Unica' and 'Agria'. "Scarlet Dawn" is a mid-early variety, while the propagated varieties are mid-season. I saw 518 kg of "Scarlet Dawn" and 200 kg of "Unica" and "Agria." And I concluded: "Agria" and "Unica" yield more than "Scarlet Dawn"!

User Aleuksey, 02/12/2018, 11:58 AM

Peruvian potato Unica. Over the past 10-12 years, I've tested over 20 potato varieties from Russian, Dutch, and even South American selections, based on the following criteria:

• resistance to diseases and pests;
• high yield on all types of soil;
• independence of varieties from the weather conditions of the season;
• good taste;
• marketability of tubers and good preservation of tubers during winter storage.

I think it's important to touch on the history of this variety. While searching online, I only read the following sentence: "In the second half of the 2000s, Omsk gardeners developed the Unica potato variety, which is distinguished by its high yield and disease resistance." This article will be based on my own research and information received from experimental gardener Viktor Sergeyevich Obushev, who, in turn, was not only one of the first to obtain Unica but also reproduced it from seed (I'll discuss this later). This variety was brought to Omsk by B. Sapozhnikov, chairman of the potato growers' club, from the Timiryazev Academy, where a batch of varieties bred in Russia, Holland, and South America was being tested.

Based on my five years of observations of Unica, I can confidently state that the variety is almost ideal for growing in our region.

I sent planting material to the south (Krasnodar Krai, Stavropol, Rostov Oblast), where potato cultivation is very challenging, and received good reviews. In my opinion, Unika has only one drawback: some difficulties in harvesting due to its very vigorous vegetative mass—the green stems reached a height of two meters. It's a mid-season variety, although I harvest in early October, when frost damages the tops.

This variety is distinguished by its colossal growth vigor. It seems that if not for the frosts, Unica would have grown until the New Year, increasing its yield. For example, we were able to guess the bushes from which we harvested a 15-liter bucket of large tubers. Small potatoes are almost never encountered. Even obtaining seed tubers is a challenge. We've encountered some specimens weighing 1.5 kg without any cavities inside.

I grew potatoes using the usual technique (loosening, hilling, weeding), and in this extreme, cold, rainy season, on heavy soil with groundwater at 40-50 cm, Unika yielded 320 kg (40 ten-liter buckets) of large tubers per 100 square meters, not counting seed. For testing, I grew the potato on elevated soils with deep groundwater during the drought of 2011-2012. Unika's yield was several times higher than that of other varieties.
Vladimir Adamchuk.

User Samfer, December 23, 2020, 3:48 PM

Where to get planting material
...for enormous harvests, now I want to, but I can't. My son is no good. Plant one tuber, you'll dig up three, and they're small. Unika is a good variety, with proper care.

User DirliMirli, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, July 6, 2016

We dug up one of the Unika plants. These potatoes are fantastic, and they look like little pigs.

I didn’t fertilize it with anything, I didn’t even add manure or humus.

The tops are 1.5 meters tall. I didn't hill them up or water them, and I never had time (we're at a construction site), and this year I haven't even gone near the garden.

I can imagine what it will be like if I feed it :greeting:

User Roman S., 04/17/2020, 10:34 PM

Potatoes 2020
According to Unica, this variety is listed in the Kenya National Potato Board's variety catalog (analogous to our registry).You can compare it to well-known varieties like Jelly, and it turns out there's nothing unusual about it. The stated yield is over 40 tons/ha, and most modern varieties, with proper farming practices, reach this figure. So I don't see anything unique about it.

And about resistance to viruses and diseases.

You can't compare Peruvian varieties with European ones. Peru is a high-altitude region. I'm too lazy to look it up, but there's a clear correlation between the spread of viral and fungal diseases and altitude (if anyone's interested, I can find it). The higher the altitude, the less favorable the atmosphere is for the development of diseases. Therefore, resistance to viruses and diseases in Peru and here are two very different things. But the folk do-gooders won't tell you this, otherwise, uniqueUniquewill become an ordinary variety and the business will not take place.

Top.tomathouse.com's Conclusion: Is the Unique Variety Worth Buying?

Many gardeners, seeing the bountiful harvest of the Unica variety, consisting of huge, attractive tubers, are eager to purchase planting material. However, it's important to understand that achieving this result simply by planting the crop is not possible. Although the variety is easy to care for, certain cultivation requirements must be met.

Therefore, when deciding whether to buy Unika seeds, you need to consider that to get a good harvest, it will take time and effort to grow it.