Preparation of potatoes for planting - selection, germination, gardening

Preparation of potatoes for planting - how to carry it out correctly? Planting potatoes requires preparation. It includes several stages. First, the selection of seed tubers. How important is gardening? Do you need to germinate potatoes? Can you do without it? Practice shows that this is a very important stage - the germination of potatoes. How to do it without mistakes? Read about it below.

«Eyes" seed potatoes until sleep

Seed considered potatoes, which is used for growing crops, but not all, and that,who was trained for landing. When the potatoes are at rest, they are smooth, but on closer examination you can see the “eyes” from which the sprouts will sprout. Currently, seed is almost always produced from mini tubers that are grown under laboratory conditions to protect it from viruses and pests.

Certified specialists receive tubers for 3-5 years. Conditions are very strictly controlled. Then they go to specialty stores.

Selection of potato tubers for seeds

My parents began preparations for planting on the field, selecting tubers for seeds from the previous year's harvest. But now this method of obtaining seed material is not suitable. Seeds are best purchased in specialized stores, i.e.seed potatoes must be certified. This means that the tubers are not infected with any diseases or pests.

First of all, you should decide which potatoes you want to grow or, more accurately, eat. Now there is a great variety of varieties. Some are great when fried, some are preferable for soups, and some are especially tasty when baked or mashed. Or maybe you love your own homemade chips? And there are such varieties!

Regardless of where you purchased the seed, you should carefully check its quality before you start preparing. No doubt it should not contain rotten or damaged tubers. The surface of the potatoes should be clean, without stains, without soft areas. Cracks or warty growths should also not be, as this can be signs of many diseases.

Such tubers should not be among the seed potatoes

In the picture on the left, a crack in the tuber means that if you plant it, it will rot - you will not get a healthy harvest from it. This is one of the most common diseases - dry rot.

The seed material was stored at low humidity.

And in the photo on the right, seed potatoes are well landscaped, but as you can see, the tubers are very shriveled. This suggests that they were stored at low humidity and at temperatures above 10 degrees. Such weakened seed will also not give you a good harvest.

Let me remind you that the most comfortable temperature for storing seed potatoes before germination is no higher than 4 degrees.

The size of seed tubers should not exceed the size of chicken eggs. But there are some varieties, for example, the Impala variety, which even has a large seed. If so, then you can divide them into several pieces so that each lobe has one or two eyes. This technology of growing potatoes from the eyes is very common among gardeners.

Sprouting potatoes

Which potato to plant, germinated or not? It is up to you. There are several options here.

You can plant it without prior germination, without much preparation. Such tubers can be planted without waiting for the earth to warm to 10 ° C.But then experienced gardeners are advised to cover the area with non-woven covering material, for example, Agrospan 30. It is especially effective in growing early young potatoes. In the Kuban, the early harvest of young potatoes grown under cover can be obtained as early as May. Covering material protects the landing from sudden changes in temperature. The earth warmed up under shelter keeps the temperature better, it does not even drop to zero, so potato shoots will not suffer from frost.

Seed potatoes can of course be planted without germination. But there is no guarantee that not sprouted tubers will sprout. Or ascend, but the shoots may be too thin and weak - you can not wait for a good harvest. That is, you could select tubers with good, strong sprouts from germinated seed material by discarding tubers with flaws. And, not sprouting potatoes, not preparing them for planting, planting them, you will see empty places or bushes with weak shoots already in the field among shoots.

So, it is desirable to germinate seed tubers before planting. Pre-germination can reduce the time to harvest from 10 to 14 days. Different varieties germinate at different rates. But it will take about 4-6 weeks.

When to start sprouting potatoes? In the Kuban begin to plant it in the last decade of March( March 21-31).It means that for germination from the cellar, it is necessary to get and place the tubers in a warm room for 1-1.5 months( February 15-25).

Put the potatoes in a single layer in a warm place protected from the open sun. After some time, the eyes "wake up", sprouts appear. When the sprouts reach a length of 2-3 cm, the seeds are ready for planting. Sprouts should be thick, stocky. If among the germinated seeds, there are tubers with thin, filiform sprouts, then they should be rejected, since a good harvest cannot be obtained from such seed material. But it also happens that on one tuber there are both thick and thin shoots. If you have enough seed, I would advise you to discard such tubers. But, if you have a little potato for planting, I advise shortly before planting, remove all weak sprouts, except for 2-3 thick and healthy shoots. Large tubers can be cut into 2-3 pieces so that each piece has 1-2 shoots.

As I have already said, the germination process is not necessary, but it will give you several advantages. One of the advantages is getting an earlier harvest. This will allow planting to avoid summer heat( this is relevant for the southern regions), help save your crop from diseases, pests: the Colorado potato beetle is not so dangerous for weakened potato bushes. Germination also contributes to the earlier formation of tubers and increases yields.

Sprouts outgrown. ..

Look at the photo on the left. Tubers of this seed potato have very long sprouts. The shoots are quite thick, the tuber has a healthy appearance, but such shoots are very fragile, they will easily come off and may not withstand transportation to the landing site. And if they do, they will break off when you cover the tuber with the ground above.

Short, sprout shoots are quite tough, they will withstand transportation and preplant treatment.

If you notice that the tips of the shoots are black, this is a signal that the room in which you germinate the seed tubers is too cold.

Preparing seed potatoes for planting may require cutting the tubers.

Chopped pieces of seed tuber

Cut the tuber into several pieces, as in the photo on the right. When cutting, make sure all parts have good healthy shoots. It is necessary that the eyes were on each part of the tuber. These are growth points where new stems will appear. Pieces should not be too large. Strangely enough, the eyes on smaller pieces begin to germinate faster, stronger roots develop on them, i.e.they do not live off the stock of the seed part. Do not try to leave many eyes on one piece. From each eye will sprout several stems. If together, as if in a bundle, many stems grow, they will fight with each other for a place in the sun, for nutrients. Let the sliced ​​parts dry for a day. You can pre-dip each piece in the ashes. This will dry the cut, help it to resist diseases.

If you missed the optimal time for sprouting seed potatoes and no more than a month left before planting, place it where the temperature will not be lower than 25 ° C.Such a temperature regime will accelerate the germination process and sprouts will appear in 20-25 days.

Germination of seed potatoes in

sawdust Tubers will germinate much faster if after “pecking” of the holes, sprinkle 3-4 cm. Sawdust periodically( as needed) must be moistened. When they are moistened( as needed) and at a room temperature of no higher than + 12-14 ° C, after two weeks a well-developed root system will appear in the tubers.
Using another method of germination in sawdust, preparing potatoes for planting will take 5-6 days. This method is somewhat more complicated than the previous one. Prepare a solution: add 10 grams of superphosphate to 10 liters of boiling water, mix and allow to stand for two days. Drain the resulting solution into another container and add 30 grams of potassium chloride, 2 grams of copper sulphate, 2 grams of boric acid and 0.5 grams of potassium phosphate( potassium permanganate).Stir the resulting solution, wet them with sawdust. On these sawdust, place the tubers tops up. In a few days, good planting material is ready.& gt;

Planting potato tubers before planting

Greening should start 2-2.5 weeks before planting. It is produced simply. Tubers laid in rows in a crate are put out into the street, in the sun, on top they are covered with a film that retains heat and moisture. Emerged shoots will be only 3-5 mm long, but they do not break off when planted. The method of gardening accelerates the growth of the bush, increases tuberization, yield( 14-15%).

Potato sprouting is a procedure highly recommended by gardeners to increase yields. It is better to hold it late than not to do it at all.