Let's talk about how to plant potatoes, as certain requirements for its cultivation must be observed, especially if you want to get a good harvest. Potato is the most, seemingly simple to grow, traditional, unpretentious root crop. It does not apply to moody plants. Planted everywhere, except that areas of the Far North or the desert are not comfortable for growing it. However, this vegetable is not as simple as it might seem when you first met. It is necessary to begin the formation of a future crop with planting.
When to plant potatoes
To get a really big crop, you need to plant potatoes on time. Timely landing is the first, very important condition. It’s time to start planting as soon as the soil “ripens”.
How to determine if the soil has ripened for planting potatoes? The "ripened" soil crumbles well, does not stick together in a lump when compressed by hand, it is warmed up to + 7 ° C to a depth of 10 cm (you can check it with an ordinary street thermometer). The air temperature (average daily) should be at least + 10 ° С, which usually in the Kuban coincides with the last decade of March, and in the middle zone with the first decade of May.
In 2019 according to the lunar calendar the most successful days for planting potatoes in the Kuban on March 22-24, March 29-31. If these days are not lucky with the weather, then the days of the first decade of April are also suitable (except for April 4-6, these are unfavorable days).
Beginner gardeners often hesitate to plant potatoes for fear of return frosts. But just planted potatoes are not afraid of frost. Since even if in April (in the Kuban) night-time temperature drops are possible to -2-4 ° C, then by the time the shoots appear, frosts no longer exist. If, nevertheless, a strong cooling is expected, then with such a weather anomaly it is enough to cover the plantings with a film or covering material (spanbond, lutrasil, others), or spud potato seedlings “with your head”.
Late landing, on the other hand, is fraught with many troubles. By the end of spring and the beginning of summer, especially if the spring turned out to be arid or the winter was not snowy, the soil catastrophically loses its moisture reserves. Therefore, potatoes planted late will grow small, it will be small due to lack of moisture.
Causes of poor potato germination
Did you know this situation? Landing time was observed. Frost or drought during flowering, the formation of tubers was not observed, and sprouts are rare or generally long.
The reasons may be different, but the main one is planting seeds with white sprouts grown in the basement during storage. If you are planting tubers with white sprouts, then get ready for the fact that they sprout twice as slow.
The second reason for low germination is an elementary poor sorting of planting material. Seeds must be selective. To plant spoiled, slightly rotten, too “sluggish” or with thin sprouts of potatoes is useless, even harmful - thus, it is very easy to introduce an infection into the soil that can destroy the whole crop not only this year.
If you still decide to plant potatoes with sprouts that have sprouted during storage, then hold it in the light so that the white sprouts grow stronger, turn green.
Do I need to water potatoes
Many people ask the question - do I need to water potatoes? How many times does it need to be done during the growing season? Dry, hot weather is most harmful to early potato varieties. Drought can cause the tubers to spawn a little. If the dry weather lasts a long time, the outer tissues of the potato tubers stop growing. Root crops remain small, cease to grow. If, after a long drought, heavy rains begin, then the tubers begin to grow intensively from the inside, which leads to cracking of root crops.
The greatest need for moisture in potatoes occurs during the formation of buds, flowering. If the summer is dry, then planting potatoes can be watered two times, so that the stolons begin to actively form tubers.
Planting early potatoes
Early-ripening, ultra-ripe varieties of potatoes can already be harvested 40 days after germination. In order for the early potato to yield a high yield, its own planting rules must also be observed.
Larger tubers are selected for planting. They germinate earlier, form a powerful bush, and root crops ripen three weeks earlier, and their size will be large.
How are seed potatoes selected for planting? In order not to plant diseased or damaged tubers, it is recommended to wash them with water at room temperature, and dry well in the open. Next, carefully inspect, discard soft, diseased, cracked tubers.
Seed potato sprouting
Pre-germination accelerates the formation of seedlings, gives a good growth of early potatoes. To do this, with the beginning of spring, about 4-6 weeks before planting, potatoes should be removed from the store (cellar), germinated in ambient light at a temperature of + 16 ... 20 ° С. At higher temperatures, the tubers will begin to sprout faster. If the room has dry air, it is necessary to spray tubers daily with water. For better germination, they can be treated with a solution of potassium humate (in a proportion of 3 g per 1 liter of water).
Green tubers are very well preserved by spring. To do this, they must be kept in the light for several days, and then stored at a temperature of + 4 ... 6 ° C until planting.
How to plant potatoes, standard shovel planting
Wells are prepared before planting. The depth of each is 10 cm. The distance between the holes is 25-30 cm, between the rows is 60-70 cm.
At the bottom of the hole, you can add a little well-rotted humus (compost), a handful of ash. Mix humus with ash well, put the soil in the hole, plant potatoes to a depth of 8 cm. If the tubers are large, you can plant them deeper, but the layer of earth above the tuber should not be more than 5 cm. Do not add manure to the hole!
You can plant potatoes in the furrow "under the shovel." But for this it is necessary to have a uniform seed, as well as to accurately determine the depth of planting, which depends on the degree of heating of the earth, the size of the tubers. This landing method is described in detail here.
How to plant potatoes with sprouts
Is it possible to get a good potato crop from parts of seed? Can. Cut a third of the potato (crown with “eyes”), dust the slice with ash, lay the potatoes in layers, cut down, in a vegetable box. If the room is heated, and the air is not dry, the sprouts will develop well, actively. Slices need to be planted finer than whole potatoes in a warmer soil. Details on how to plant potatoes with their eyes are here. And about growing potatoes from sprouts - here.
How to plant potatoes on the comb
This is not a very standard way. But, like any other, it has a right to exist. With this method, the landing scheme, as in the usual. The difference is that we will plant potatoes on the ridges.
First you need to prepare the combs. With a chopper we make grooves with a depth of 10 cm. The soil must first be dug up or plowed. A layer of humus or compost is poured along the entire length of the grooves (layer height 8 cm). Ash is poured over the humus. We have a shallow groove.
The next step - we fill this groove with soil - we get a kind of "bed" for the seed. Here on this "bed" now you need to spread the tubers. And then we rake ridges 10 cm high on both sides so that the mounds on both sides of the "bed" in the section resemble the letter "M". Our potatoes lie between the ridges, in the recess of the letter “M”.
Then it is very convenient to spud potatoes: they raked the mounds closer to the middle and that’s all. In addition, the potato in the soil is at first at a minimum depth, therefore it warms up well, grows faster. The knolls of the earth on both sides retain moisture well, and the potato needs it very much when hilling, when it blooms, forms tubers. Accordingly, we get a larger crop.
How to plant in a ditch or trench
This method of planting potatoes is quite laborious, since it requires significant preliminary preparation. Trenches or ditches are prepared in advance, in the fall after digging or plowing the ground. Depending on your capabilities, ditches or trenches can be manually digged with a shovel or walk-behind tractor. The distance between the trenches is 70 cm. Then the trenches or ditches are filled with plant debris - grass, straw. You can spill them with a solution of Baikal EM, which contains live microorganisms that contribute to the faster processing of plant residues into valuable biofertilizer. Laying potatoes on such a “pillow” contributes to an increase in yield by at least 30%.
How to plant in ridge containers
Gardeners who have tested this method of planting assure that the yield is doubled. But you also have to work hard, especially at the beginning. The most time-consuming part of this method is the installation of container boxes. They can be made of different materials. It all depends on your material, physical capabilities. Someone makes such ridges-containers of brick, someone - of slate, and someone knocks together from boards. The height of the beds is at least 30 cm. Such beds need to be prepared in advance - in the fall. Ridge containers are first filled with organic matter - plant debris - mowed grass, thin branches. This layer should occupy at least 50% of the height - it should be noted that during the winter it will become thinner. Then, on top of all this, a layer (5-10 cm) of rotted manure is poured, a compost layer is 10-15 cm. The last layer is ordinary garden earth. From above everything is abundantly watered with Baikal's EM solution and the resulting bed is left such for the winter. In spring, if necessary, a mixture of soil with compost is added from above. You will do this difficult preparatory work once in 4-5 years - you only need to add compost from above every year. So much time it will be possible to use such a bed with success not only for planting potatoes.
The scheme for planting potatoes in such a ridge-container is a checkerboard pattern. The distance between the potatoes is about 30 cm.
How to plant under a black film or non-woven shelter
Now among gardeners, non-woven material of black color is becoming more and more popular, but black film is also often used. Most often used to protect the beds from weeds, as well as for faster heating of the soil in early spring. But now we will consider an interesting way to grow potatoes under a black shelter. First, you need to dig a future bed well, choosing as much as possible all the roots of the weeds. Then cover the ground with a black shelter, securing the edges so that it is not blown away by the wind. Then, cruciform incisions are made in the film or in the shelter. The distance between them is small - 15-20 cm. The arrangement is staggered. When you make cuts, focus on the size of your little scoop - it should be convenient for them to select some part of the soil through the cut holes. So, pick the ground through the cuts with a scoop so that under the film or shelter you get a hole 10 cm deep. Prepared seed potatoes are placed in this hole. The hole is carefully poured, and the edges of the incisions are slapped on top with the palm of the hand - they do not need to be fixed. That's it, potatoes are planted. Watering it is not necessary, and hilling it too. The potato crop with this planting method ripens a month earlier. Two to three weeks after flowering, you can cut (mow) the tops, raise the shelter, and harvest a rich crop almost from the surface of the earth.
This method is similar to another - growing potatoes under a straw. Only here a shelter will be a 15-20 centimeter layer of straw.
How to plant in a barrel
If you are a fan of gardening experiments and, I would say, an adventurer, then this method will inspire you. I think it’s not difficult to find an old rusted, worthless barrel at an inveterate gardener. An old tall barrel without a bottom is exactly what you need. It is better if it has rusted through holes on the side. This is even better, since if they are not there, you will have to “hole” the walls yourself so that the soil inside breathes, and excess moisture has found where to drain. At the bottom of the barrel, lay various small branches, planks. On top of this is a thick layer (about 30 cm) of compost, and on top a few potatoes. The number of tubers depends on the diameter of the barrel. Pour potatoes with a ten-centimeter layer of soil. Only the first sprouts appeared - again put a few tubers, again on top of 10 cm of soil. Do it several times. The number of layers depends on the height of the barrel. It is advised that the total height of all layers does not exceed 1 meter. I read that if a barrel with a volume of 1 m3, then you can get a crop volume of a bag. Most importantly, do not allow the sprouts to form lush greens, otherwise the plants will spend all the energy on the leaves, and not on the roots, tubers.