In the Moscoww region, frosts are quite probable to return until the fi rst decade of June. To protect potatoes from the returning cold weather, it is possible to use a temporary covering material in the “planting – seedling emergence” period. The authors have studied the use of covering materials on early potato varieties of Udacha, Zhukovsky early, Red Scarlet, Snegir’, and Meteor. Studies have been conducted on the test plot of the Vegetable Growing Department of Russian State Agrarian University – Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy in 2017-2019. Non-woven white and black material of the same density of 17 g/m2 was used for covering. No covering was used in the check variant. The cultivation technology was standard,it included tillage (plowing, spring tillage, and cutting ridges before planting), as well as plant care (inter-row cultivation and hilling-up). Planting was carried out with a single-row potato planter. The earliest emergence of seedlings was observed under white covering material with a diff erence of 5-6 days in relation to the check variant. In the variant with a black covering material, the diff erence averaged 3-4 days. Due to covering, planting was carried out earlier than expected and the crop was formed by July 15. The interphase period between potato planting and seddling emergence decreased, while that from seddling emergence to harvesting increased, consequently, the yield increased by 11.6…14.7%. The maximum yield was obtained with the Red Scarlet variety using the white covering material, the minimum – in the check variant without covering. The same trend is typical for other varieties. It has been established that covering with any material has a positive eff ect on the duration of the potato growing season and the yield by increasing the period of tuberization. Covering allows getting early potato varieties 2 weeks earlier in the Moscow region.
