Maturity of potatoes

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The best time for harvesting potatoes is considered to be the time when the tops of the plant have completely faded and died. Indeed, when the foliage begins to grow and dry, the development of both the above-ground and underground parts of the plant slows down and then stops altogether. Tubers grown by this time form a strong skin and accumulate the proper amount of nutrients. Communication potatoes with stolons weakens. That is, there comes a time when you can dig up potatoes without fear of serious damage to the tubers.

Relationship between the selection of the variety and the harvest time of the

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potato Since, due to climatic conditions, the time of planting in different areas may shift, the time of ripening of potatoes everywhere is determined separately. And here, to obtain high yields in a particular region even at the planting stage, the correct selection of the variety is of great importance.

According to the ripening speed and growing season, potatoes can be divided into several categories:

  • Early ripening varieties are ready for digging in 50-65 days.
  • Vegetation of medium early potatoes ranges from 65 to 80 days.
  • Mid-season varieties produce high-quality yields after 80–95 days.
  • Mid-latency potatoes before ripening are in the soil from 95 to 110 days.
  • In late varieties, the longest time elapsing before harvesting potatoes — at least 110 days.

Therefore, in each case, the selection of varieties for planting is conducted individually. Moreover, among the decisive criteria is not only the maturity of the potato and its growing season, but also the purpose of the variety, its taste, ability to withstand winter storage.

Factors affecting the maturity of potatoes

Even planting tubers of the same variety, gardeners can not be sure that the potato harvest will be held at the same time.

  • The introduction of excessive amounts of organic matter slows down the growing season of the bushes, and when digging new potatoes in tubers, an increased content of nitrates may be found.
  • The poorer the soil, the faster the time comes when you can dig potatoes. On the fertile soil the vegetation of plants, and hence the growth and development of tubers can continue until late autumn.
  • On a dry soil that is chronically lacking in moisture, the time of maturation of potatoes is also reduced. Already in the middle of summer on the plantations, where the plants did not have enough watering, you can see wilted yellow stems or completely wilted bushes.
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In the first case, there is a risk to get an unripe harvest by the autumn, which is not able to transfer winter storage. And with the second and third variants of the development of events, the tubers will be extremely small, or all of them will turn out to be small.

The goal of any gardener is a high yield, perfectly preserved all winter. For this it is important that the tubers ripen, gain weight, form a dense skin and accumulate useful substances.

How to determine when to dig potatoes? Focusing on the drying and dying off of the leaves, it is important to remember:

  • to keep the tubers in the soil for more than three weeks after the green has withered, does not make sense;
  • later harvesting potatoes will result in poor storage;
  • If the stems and leaves, despite the approaching cold, are green, measures should be taken to accelerate the ripening of the tubers.

If early frosts still damaged the plants, then it is better, without delay, to harvest potatoes. Otherwise, nutrients from the tubers will be used to restore the tops.

Cutting tops and other ways to approximate the maturity of potatoes

One of the easiest ways to avoid the situation when you have to dig new potatoes in the fall is to mow more green leaves. This often happens with a late landing or a wet summer. As a result, tubers that have not formed peel are easily injured and poorly stored. If one cannot wait with the harvesting of potatoes, then no less than 7–10 days before digging, the tops should be carefully mown. For a plant, this becomes a sign of the end of the growing season, and the tubers are ripening. The same procedure is done if during the harvest you have to use a digger for potatoes or a walk-behind tractor.

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For the production of commodity potatoes in the early stages of use today and chemicals.

  • When desiccating two weeks before harvesting potatoes, the ridges are sprayed with diluted copper sulfate at the rate of 5 grams per liter of water. The chemical literally draws moisture from the greens, as a result, the leaves become stained and then curl and dry.
  • At the end of a long cool summer, accompanied by frequent precipitation, the tops are treated with magnesium chlorate. The tool is made at the rate of 20 grams of chemical per liter of water. If the weather remains dry, after 5 days the green part of the plants dries out.
  • Spraying potato bushes with superphosphate at the rate of 2 kg per 10 liters of water helps to speed up the aging of the leaves. Irrigation is carried out in the afternoon or evening after the flowering period, while from 5 to 10 liters of chemical are spent on the weave.

These techniques will help to obtain high-quality tubers in the summer, when digging new potatoes is especially risky because of the high probability of mechanical damage.

Most of all, the acceleration of ripening is justified on peatlands and low-lying areas, where in a rainy summer it is difficult to get a friendly ripe harvest.


Weather conditions when digging up potatoes

The best time to dig up tubers is dry, warm weather, when you can dig potatoes and then sort them. Crop dries quickly, cleared of soil residues and is not frozen.

If rainy time is approaching, it is better not to delay with cleaning. Since excessive moisture at the end of the growing season can provoke potato diseases, the appearance of decay on the damaged areas and adversely affect the shelf life.

The optimal temperature conditions for harvesting potatoes are in the range of 10 to 17 degrees. Since both a cold snap and stable frosts can not only damage the tops, but also harm tubers. For this reason, do not dig potatoes in the early autumn morning, when the air becomes noticeably cooler than the soil.

Read also: Where and how does persimmon grow: features of the crop and its cultivationor specialized potato diggers. Pitchfork can pry all tubers formed on the bush. Damage from this tool is minimal, and it is easier to work with them. But if the tuber is still damaged, unlike a potato, notched with a shovel, it cannot be stored and must be immediately recycled. In addition, when using forks, small potatoes are often not selected from the ground.

When digging new potatoes on loose soil, it is often enough to pull the stalks of the potato bush so that most tubers appear on the surface, the rest are extracted using a fork and a spade. On dense, heavy soils, a bush is broken in, introducing a blade on the side to save the tubers.

These rules work in small areas, but if the plantation is large, one cannot do without specialized equipment. A homemade potato digging or plant fixture can greatly facilitate the process, reducing not only the labor costs, but also the time for harvesting tubers.

Working with a potato digger requires adhering to some principles.

  • Mechanization is effective if the rows of bushes are even.
  • Distance allows for the management of the digger not to damage neighboring plants.
  • During operation, it is important to ensure that the digger for the potatoes goes off easily, and the potatoes remain on the ground after the passage. If the depth is chosen incorrectly, the work will either become more complicated due to excessive dumping of the soil, or some of the crop will be lost.

No matter how the potatoes are harvested, manually or with the help of mechanical devices, after harvesting the tubers, they are necessarily sorted, removing diseased and damaged potatoes. And if necessary, planting materials for the next season are selected right away according to the varieties.

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