My experience of growing potatoes in a furrow - mistakes, failures, achievements

Of course, it is not modest to call this method of growing potatoes "my". Moreover, it was not me who invented it and implemented it. He's not new. A little earlier I acquainted you with the experience of planting potatoes in a furrow. But it's one thing to retell the experience of others, and the other - to share your own - what I've achieved, what mistakes, the conclusions I've made. So, let's go ...

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I decided in 2014 to plant potatoes in furrows. Looking ahead, I will say that the harvest was good - the potatoes are large, tasty, there was more than ever before.

What do you need to get a good harvest of potatoes?

• First, a variety or varieties that are suitable for your soil and / or climatic zone.
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• Secondly, a sufficient number of rains or watering during flowering, when the formation of tubers.
• Third, timely measures to control pests (Colorado beetle, wireworm).
• Fourth, weeding, hilling.
• Fifth, the method of cultivation, the method of planting.

There are, of course, sixth, seventh, and so on, but these first five are the most important.

So, in 2014 I was lucky with all these five points:

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• variety of potatoes has chosen successful;
• the rains were on time;
• the beetle did not particularly annoy, as I carried out the processing on time;
• weeding, hilling friends helped to make, otherwise I would have this process dragged on;
• most importantly, I finally found a method of cultivation, a method of planting, which so far has given me good results.

Well, about everything in order.

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What kinds of potatoes did I plant?

I planted two varieties of potatoes - Adrettu and Picasso.

Sort of Adrett I planted earlier. I know its taste, I like it - friable. I once read that this is one of the first varieties of German breeding, which made a real sensation with its taste - until this cultivar with yellow flesh could not boast of its taste qualities.

Adrette tubers are round, slightly oval with a light skin, yellowish on a cut.The variety belongs to medium-ripening, high-yielding. The maturation period is 60-80 days. But with our climate it is possible to grow as early as possible. I am already 45-50 days after the shoots begin to dig up bushes to eat a young potato.

At me this grade does not grow large. Maybe our soil is too dense for it - we have heavy chernozems. But I'm not upset by the average size of the tubers, on the contrary, it is very convenient to boil potatoes in a uniform or oven in the oven. In addition, what else I like, so it's smooth lined tubers with small eyes - it's nice to clean.But I must warn - often potatoes grow far from the bush and, sometimes, fall under the blade of a shovel with a hood.

A cultivar Picasso planted a second time. The first time I was not lucky with this sort. The seed was not enough. I left the entire crop of Picasso on seeds - well, maybe only a couple of times I cooked the largest for food. But rats got into the cellar. They spoiled the seed, also potatoes for food. I managed only to try Picasso. But I tried it very much.

The cultivar Picasso refers to the medium-late. The term of full maturation is 110-120 days. For a very long time the green foliage holds. She began to dig up later than Adrettu. It seemed to me that it was at the end of the growing season that the tubers gained weight and became larger.

So I decided to try again. The harvest pleased. The potatoes are large, tasty, crumbly, well kept.

Although I have read many of the characteristics of this variety, everyone assures that this variety is not high in starch, it does not boil. But I bought seed in a specialized shop "The World of Seeds" (pos. Jubilee - Armavir) - I do not have any grounds for not trusting this seller. In addition, the variety has very distinctive external features - the color of the peel is light, slightly yellowish with bright pink spots.Beautiful, by the way, coloring of tubers! Perhaps, because of these bright spots and called the name of the famous artist ...

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I do not know what influenced the friability of my potato by Picasso... Maybe he liked my land. It may be that I always add wood ashes to the soil, which, as is known, has the property of increasing the starchiness of potatoes. It's hard to say... But the result is very happy.

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How I prepared furrows for planting potatoes - mistakes and violations of the method of growing potatoes in furrow

Here, honestly I admit, I have not carried out all the recommendations.

The first violation. I was not able to prepare furrows for planting potatoes in the fall, as recommended. I did it in the first half of February - the weather was relatively warm. I do not have a motor cultivator, so I used a shovel. I dig through the rows, dumping the excavated land on one side (to the east) from the furrow. Why to the east? This is so that the ridge of excavated land does not obscure the sun from the furrow during the day, it is better heated by the sun's rays.

The second violation. It is advised to make furrows strictly from the south to the north, so that the earth warms up well during the peak of a sunny day. But my plot is located so that it would have to ranks digging diagonally, and this is not very convenient, unusual. So I dug from the southeast to the northwest.

I prepared grooves, but when it was time to plant, the harvested furrows were not enough for all the sprouted potatoes. Approximately 1/3 of the land was traditionally planted in holes.

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How I planted potatoes

When it was time to plant, then on the furrow, I sprinkled ash on all the rows of wood ash - my parents did it that way - they said that they like potato ashes. A compost layer from the compost heap was poured on top of the ash. And then I laid the sprouted potatoes. The entire furrow fell asleep with the excavated soil from the furrow. Not very high ridges were obtained - 12-15 cm high.

Ashes with compost were also added to the wells, not just into the furrows.

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Where the harvest is more

The difference in the crop, of course, was in favor of the furrow. But, I think, not only the planting technology is the reason for the bigger harvest.

This I now understand that it would be necessary to leave everything for the purity of the experiment as I wrote above: part of the potatoes are planted in the holes, some - into the furrows. Plant both varieties.

But when I planted potatoes, of course, I did not think about any experiments - the goal was one - to get a good harvest. It's a pure accident that I had to put a piece of potatoes in the old-fashioned way.

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Experiment, by the way, I decided to conduct a completely different. This other experiment prevented the purity of the first. But first things first…

Neighboring the country site next to mine abandoned, it is rampant Jerusalem artichoke, which every year threatens to go to my garden. Every year and almost year-round I struggle with it not for a life, but for death - I plow through, I crawl on all fours on this boundary, I choose, I throw out tubers of Jerusalem artichoke.

And the experiment is like this. I read that the siderates are hammering weeds, slowing their growth. And Jerusalem artichoke for me - the same weed. So I decided to experiment. On this boundary in February I planted mustard with a strip - about a meter wide and along the entire length of my site - it's 60 meters, and maybe more.Mustard grew like a wall, weeds practically did not exist. Jerusalem artichoke made its way, but there was some small, low - below the mustard. I was glad that I found the administration for Jerusalem artichoke ...

But... The experiment failed. There was no weed on this site, until the mustard grew. After she mowed it, until September the strip of land stood almost clean. It was necessary to sow the mustard again, but the weather was dry. Sowing on dry land is useless. Well, do not water a hundred square meters of land to sow mustard! And September came, there were small rains and weeds were "peppered" on this boundary with terrible force. Jerusalem artichoke too... Somehow I missed, apparently a good time when they could still be handled, at least weeding, - the time for truck farmers at all is not enough catastrophically.

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Mulching potatoes is my experience

So, when the mustard has blossomed, I mowed it. By this time, the potatoes had already been weeded and dented once. I decided to lay chopped mustard, like mulch, in rows of potatoes.

Many reviews of truck farmers read that mulch retains moisture, does not allow the earth to get heated from the sun - in general, it brings benefits.Without any thought of experimenting with potatoes, I covered the mustard mulch with those rows of potatoes that were planted in the holes. It's a pure coincidence that I covered mulch with potatoes planted in holes. Just these rows of potatoes were closer to mustard crops. It turns out that it's hard enough - to drag the chopped mustard and lay it around the potato bushes. For all potatoes sloping mustard was not enough.

I only spoiled this mustard with potatoes. No, the moisture, really dried mulch kept well. This is a plus.

But we have spawned a sea of ​​snails in recent years. Previously, this was not. So, covering the soil around the potato bushes, I created excellent conditions for snails. During the day, they hid from the sun in a sloping, dry mustard, and at night they crept out to eat potato leaves.On the bushes, covered with straw, all the leaves of the potato were with small holes. I think that this really hurt the potatoes. Not only that it was planted in the holes, and not a furrow, but also its snails were whipped. And there was practically no snails on the potatoes without straw.

And one more inconvenience I experienced when digging potatoes from under the mulch. But this is my personal opinion, my experience. The fact is that I laid the beveled stalks of mustard whole, not crushed them. When it was time to dig, the shovel had to cut these dry stems plus heavy chernozem. That is, this is an additional effort. Our land can not be raked by hand, choosing the harvest from the holes, as shown in the video from other regions. The dried mustard grass, after digging up the potatoes, stood on end. For some reason, after my garden was plowed up late in the autumn, these scraps of hay-straw almost all remained on top. Although I expected that the smelly mulch will have time to partially break in the ground, that is, it will give additional food to the next harvest. I'll see what will happen to her in the spring - maybe I'm in vain worrying ...

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conclusions

The experiment with the method of growing potatoes in the furrow is not pure.

In the furrow, the potatoes were larger, there were a lot of them in the bush - this is a fact. In the holes is smaller, it was less in number. But it can not be admitted that this difference was only due to the ways of landing. Maybe the holes are the cause of a worse crop, or maybe snails. Hard to tell…

By the way, the potato was not harmed by large grape snails, but small, white. How to get rid of them is a difficult question. Large snails are very harmful to seedlings of pepper, cabbage, tomatoes, strawberries, other plants. But with them I'm more or less coping with beer traps and the Thunderstorm. But on small snails, Groza does not work, or rather, it is not so effective. To beer, they also for some reason indifferent. However, this is a big problem.

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What I plan to take from last year's experience

I did not cook the furrows again - I did not have time. But I'll try to do it again as soon as it gets warmer.

Potato varieties Adrett and Picasso I really liked. I will try to plant them again - I left my seeds.

I will add the ash.

I've reviewed a lot of videos. I decided that I would not compost the compost on the ashes, but on top of the sprouted potatoes - it would seem to be better for her.

The Cedarians will be planted again. But I will cover the dry mulch potato bushes, until I have a solution.

I'm not likely to mulch potatoes with mown grass. But there is a double-edged sword. Which is better - to keep moisture in the soil in the dry summer, to protect the tubers from excessive heating or to give the potatoes to eat snails? What is the future of summer? Dry or rainy? This is almost a rhetorical question ...

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Vermiculite for potatoes

And one more chip on You Tube saw. To keep moisture in the soil, one potato grower pours two handfuls of vermiculite into the bottom of each well, which keeps the soil moist.

The video clearly showed that from the part of the field where vermiculite was added - the potatoes are larger, its number is larger.

It's difficult to say what kind of year we will have - wet or dry, but I think that for our arid fields it is a good idea. After all, how do you know if such rains are needed for potatoes in April-May-June ...

Or maybe vermiculite is an alternative to mulching for soil moisture retention?... I'll see... I'll think ...

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And what methods of growing potatoes do you use? Tell us about your luck! Even if some mistakes were made - this is also important for all of us - because they learn from mistakes ...