How to plant potatoes - watering, germination, ways of planting

Potatoes are the most seemingly simple for growing, traditional, unpretentious root crop. It does not belong to whimsical plants. It grows everywhere under any conditions. However, this vegetable is not as simple as it might seem at the first acquaintance. Let's talk about how to plant potatoes, as certain requirements for growing it must be respected, especially if you want to get a good harvest. Starting the formation of the future harvest is necessary from planting.

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When to plant potatoes

To get a really big harvest 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 whether the soil has ripened for planting potatoes? "Rushed" soil crumbles well, does not stick together with a clump when squeezed by hand, heated to + 7 ° C to a depth of 10 cm (you can check with a regular street thermometer). The air temperature at that (average daily) should be not less than + 10 ° C, which usually coincides with the last decade of March in Kuban, and in the middle zone with the first decade of May.

Beginners gardeners often delay with potato planting, for fear of recurrent frosts. But just planted potatoes are not afraid of frost. Since even if in April (in the Kuban), night temperature drops are possible to -2-4 ° C, then by the time of emergence of frost, there is no longer any. If a strong cooling is expected, then with such a weather anomaly enough to cover the landing film or cover material (spunbond, lutrasil, others), or to sprout potato sprouts "with head ".

On the other hand, late planting is fraught with many troubles. By the end of spring-early summer, especially if the spring turned out to be arid or the winter was not very snowy, the soil catastrophically loses its moisture reserves. Therefore, potatoes planted late, grow small, it will be small because of a lack of moisture.

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Causes of poor germination of potatoes

Is this situation familiar to you? The landing time was observed. Frozen or drought during flowering, the formation of tubers was not observed, and seedlings are rare or they generally do not exist for a long time.

The reasons can be different, but the main thing is planting seeds with white sprouts that grew in the basement during storage. If you plant tubers with white sprouts, then prepare to the fact that they rise twice as slowly.

The second reason for low germination is elementary poor sorting of planting material. Seeds should be selected. Plant corrupted, slightly rotten, too "lethargic" or with thin sprouts of potato is useless, even It is therefore harmful to inject into the soil an infection that can kill the entire crop not only in this year.

If you still decided to plant potatoes with sprouts germinated during storage, then hold it in the light so that the white sprouts become stronger and turn green.

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To water or not

Many ask the question - should I water the potatoes? How many times is it necessary to do this during the growing season? Most of all dry hot weather is harmful to early varieties of potatoes. Drought can cause a tuber to grow slightly. If dry weather lasts a long time, the outer tissues of potato tubers stop growing. Roots remain small, stop growing. If, after a long drought, heavy rains begin, the tubers begin to grow intensively from the inside, which leads to the cracking of the root crops.

The greatest need for moisture in potatoes occurs during the formation of buds, flowering. If the summer is dry, planting potatoes can be poured two times, so that the stolons begin to actively form tubers.

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Planting early ripened potatoes

Early ripening, ultra-ripened varieties of potatoes can be removed after 40 days after emergence. To early potatoes gave a high yield, their rules of planting must also be observed.

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For planting, tubers are selected larger. They earlier give seedlings, form a powerful bush, and root crops will ripen three weeks earlier, and their size will be large.

How is the seed of the early potato seeded for planting? In order not to plant diseased or damaged tubers, it is recommended to wash them with water at room temperature, dry them well in the open air. Then carefully examine, cull soft, diseased, cracked tubers.

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Germination of seed potatoes

Preliminary germination speeds up the formation of shoots, gives a good growth of early potatoes. To do this, with the beginning of spring, about 4-6 weeks before planting, potatoes should be taken from the storage (cellar), germinated in diffuse light at a temperature of +16... 20 ° С. At a higher temperature, the tubers will begin to germinate faster. If indoor dry air you need to spray the tubers with water every day. For better germination, they can be treated with a solution of potassium humate (in the proportion of 3 g per 1 liter of water).

Very well by spring, the green tubers remain. To do this, they must be held in the light for several days, and then stored at a temperature of + 4... 6 ° C before planting.

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How to plant potatoes - standard planting - for shovel

Preparations are prepared before the planting. The depth of each is 10 cm. Distance between the holes - 25-30 cm, between the rows - 60-70 cm.

At the bottom of the hole, you can add a bit of well-repelled humus (compost), a handful of ash. It is good to mix humus with ash, podpushit soil in the hole, plant potatoes to a depth of 8 cm. If the tubers are large, you can plant deeper, but the layer of land 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 material, as well as to accurately determine the depth of planting, which depends on the degree of warming up the soil, the size of the tubers. This method of landing is described in detail here.

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How to plant potatoes sprouts

Can you get a good harvest of potatoes from parts of seed? Can. Cut a third of the potatoes (top with "eyes"), cut the cut with ashes, fold the potatoes in layers, cut down, into the vegetable box. If the room is heated and the air is not dry, the sprouts will develop well, actively. Plant cuts need to be smaller than whole potatoes, in a warmer soil. Details about how to plant potatoes with eyes - here. And about growing potatoes from sprouts - here.

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How to plant potatoes on the comb

This is not quite a standard way. But, like any other, has the right to exist. With this method, the planting scheme is the same as for the conventional one. The difference is that we will plant potatoes as if on ridges.

First you need to prepare ridges. We make a groovy groove 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). Above the humus, ashes fall asleep. We got a shallow groove.

The next step is to fill this groove with earth - we get a "bed" for the seed material. Now on this "bed" now you need to lay out the tubers. And then we heat the combs 10 cm high on both sides so that the hills on either side of the "bed" in the section resemble the letter "M". The potatoes lie between the crests, in the recess of the letter "M".

It is very convenient then to hoe the potatoes: they scooped the mounds closer to the middle and - all. In addition, the potatoes in the soil are first at a minimum depth, so it warms up well, sprouts faster. The mounds of the earth on both sides keep the moisture well, and it is very necessary for the potatoes when hilling, when it blooms, it forms tubers. Accordingly, we get a bigger harvest.

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How to plant in a ditch or a trench

This way of planting potatoes is quite laborious, as it requires considerable preliminary preparation. Trenches or ditches are prepared in advance, in the autumn after digging or plowing the land. Depending on your ability, ditches or trenches can be manually digged with a shovel or motor block. The distance between the trenches is 70 cm. Then trenches or ditches are filled with plant remains - grass, straw. You can spill them with a solution of Baikal EM, which contains live microorganisms that facilitate faster processing of plant residues in valuable biofertilizer. Putting potatoes on such a "pillow" helps to increase the yield by at least 30%.

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How to plant in a ridge-container

Ogorodniki, who tested this method of planting, assure that the crop is doubled. But I also have to work hard, especially at the beginning. The most time consuming part of this method is the installation of box-containers. They can be made from different materials. It all depends on your physical, physical abilities. Someone makes such a ridge-containers of bricks, someone - from slate, and someone knocks from boards. The height of beds is not less than 30 cm. To prepare such beds it is necessary in advance - in the autumn. Container-cracks are first filled with organic material - plant residues - mown grass, thin branches. This layer should occupy not less than 50% of the height - it should be taken into account that over the winter it will become thinner. Then, on top of all this, a layer (5-10 cm) of the overgrown manure is poured, the compost layer is 10-15 cm. The last layer is ordinary garden land. Above everything is abundantly watered with a solution of Baikal EM and, the obtained bed is left for the winter. In spring, if necessary, a mixture of soil and compost is added from above. Such a complex preparatory work you will do once in 4-5 years - it will only be necessary to add compost every year from above. So much time you can successfully use this bed, not only for planting potatoes.

The scheme for planting potatoes in such a ridge-container is a chess order. The distance between the potatoes is about 30 cm.

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How to put under a black film or a non-woven cover

Now among truck farmers more and more popular is the non-woven material of black color, but black film is also often used. It is most often used to protect beds from weeds, as well as for faster heating of the soil early in the spring. But now we will consider an interesting way of growing potatoes under a black shelter. First we need to dig well the future bed, choosing as far as possible all the roots of the weeds. Then cover the ground with a black cover, fixing the edges so that it can not be blown away by the wind. Then, in the film or cover, cross-cuts are made. The distance between them is small - 15-20 cm. The order of location is chess. When you make incisions, be guided by the size of your small sovochka - they should be comfortable choosing some part of the soil through the cut holes. So, select the ground with the sovochkom through the notches, so that under the film or shelter you get a hole 10 cm deep. Prepared seed potatoes fit into this hole. The well is carefully covered, and the edges of the incisions are slammed from above with the palm - there is no need to fix them. All potatoes are planted. Water it is not necessary, to hike, too. The yield of potatoes with this method of planting ripens a month earlier. A week after two or three after flowering, you can cut (topple) the tops, raise the shelter, collect a rich crop almost from the surface of the earth.

This method is similar to another - growing potatoes under straw. Only here a 15-20 centimeter layer of straw will serve as a shelter.

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How to put in a barrel

If you are a lover of garden experiments and, I would say, an adventurer, this way will inspire you. I think it's not difficult to find an old rusty, not worthless barrel from an inveterate gardener. An old high barrel without a bottom is the most needed thing. It is better if it has rust-free holes on the side. This is even better, since if they do not exist, we will have to "hole" the walls themselves, so that the soil inside breathes, and the surpluses of moisture find where to drain them. At the bottom of the barrel stack different small branches, plates. Above this is a thick layer (about 30 cm) of compost, and on top are several potatoes. The number of tubers depends on the diameter of the barrel. Cover the potatoes with a ten-centimeter layer of soil. Only the first shoots appeared - again put a few tubers, again on top of 10 cm of soil. So 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 volume harvest with a bag. Most importantly, do not allow the shoots to form lush green, otherwise all the energy of the plants will be spent on the leaves, and not on roots, tubers.

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