Cultivation of potatoes is a process familiar to many owners of summer cottages. There are several methods of cultivation: some summer residents practice unusual technologies using shelter, the most patient try to grow potatoes with seeds.
Preparation of potatoes for planting
Any seed will germinate faster and give a good harvest, if a little help him. The help from the summer resident consists in the prevention of diseases and filling with nutrients. Growing potatoes at the dacha will require a lot of effort to make the tubers grow large and the crop is pleased with the quantity. Not the last point will be the germination of planting material.
Than to process a potato before landing?
The treatment of potato tubers before planting is aimed at preventing diseases and the appearance of pests, stimulating growth and additional fertilizing of planting material.
- Germination of eyes is the most important point in the preparation of tubers, and growth stimulants help to do this qualitatively. Among the innumerable names on the packages in the store, attention should be paid to the product "Potitein." In addition to feed the tubers with zinc and manganese, the "Micon" agent will help, it enjoys no less demand.
- Traditionally, summer residents treat seeds with copper sulfate, diluting a teaspoon of powder in a three-liter bottle. You should immerse the seeds in the solution, but do not spray them. The treatment is carried out three to four days before disembarkation.
- Saturate the seeds with nutrients will help the "Nitrofoska" and "Solvent". Work begins long before landing: every ten days, you should prepare the seeds with a solution three times.
- For the cultivation of potatoes, "Prestige" has well established itself as a defender of the Colorado beetle. Maximally secure the harvest will help tandem preparations "Prestige" and "Maxim", experienced summer residents resort to this method is not the first year. From the crunches is good "Force", works fine with the wireworm.
How to grow potatoes for planting?
- Germination in the light. Potatoes are stacked in one layer in wooden or plastic boxes, which stack on top of each other. All this is put in place without direct sunlight, covering the top layer of seeds with gauze. The process takes about a month. The temperature gradually drops from 20 ° C to 12 ° C, so that the tubers are hardened.
- Potatoes before planting keep sawdust or peat. Everything will happen faster, with minimal energy consumption. In the boxes stacked film, on it in one layer of tubers. All this is poured over a moist substrate, from time to time moisturize. In 20 days there will be shoots.
- The combined method gives the maximum result and allows to correct the shortcomings. After light germination, the tubers are sent to a moist substrate for a week.
- Spraying is the solution for summer residents, who can not engage in the first three ways of preparing seeds. Attic, shed or similar room is covered with a film and scattered seeds already prepared by the preparations on the floor. Before planting, it is a good idea to treat the tubers with nitrogen fertilizers .
Ways of planting potatoes
There are several technologies for disembarking this crop. Progressive summer residents often use the latest potato cultivation, the seasoned do not want to depart from the traditional tuber planting. All methods of planting potatoes are in demand, each of them has its advantages, which made it popular among gardeners. In addition to the classic planting in the open ground potatoes can be placed under a film or straw.
Growing potatoes in open ground
For many years the technology of planting potatoes has not changed, it remains relevant for modern truck farmers:
- beds are prepared from autumn, marking out a trench of 30 cm every 45 cm, there after the harvest, the remains of plants are poured out, kitchen waste after salads, all this is seasoned with a layer of fallen leaves (it is important not to compact the layers tightly);
- In the spring, in the prepared trenches, ashes, add manure and superphosphates;
- tubers are placed on a depth of about 8 cm, sprinkled with earth;
- when on the beds the stems grow to 15 cm, they begin to hoe, the procedure is repeated several times;
- watering is largely dependent on weather conditions: in dry summer it will often be watered, during the rainy season watering is significantly reduced, and a month before harvesting is stopped.
Planting potatoes under the straw
Shelter of straw removes from the list of necessary measures hilling, digging up the soil (it is enough for usual loosening), it simplifies watering due to good moisture retention. However, the cultivation of potatoes under the straw assumes a good layer of shelter, otherwise all efforts will be in vain. Otherwise, there are no difficulties:
- simplify the preparation of the soil will help shelter beds with cardboard, because all the weeds will simply cope under it and turn into a fertilizer;
- Potato cultivation begins from the end of May to the beginning of June: shallow grooves every 40 cm are made in loosened ground;
- Add a little ash before the tubers are planted to prevent the appearance of slugs;
- seeds only slightly sprinkled with earth, then covered with hay by a layer of about 45 cm;
- so that in the dry hay there are no unwanted slugs, row spacing is peppered with crushed eggshell;
- water only in the dry period;
- especially will please harvest, because you just need to shovel the hay and pull the potatoes from the surface, it will not be with the clinging earth clod.
Cultivation of potatoes under a film
The film in modern agrarian business is an indispensable assistant. Its popularity is growing every year, as it is possible to grow potatoes under cover quickly and without effort. This method is good for early varieties:
- tubers are looking for large, they better tolerate the conditions under the film;
- We choose the place for planting oriented to the south, where the soil quickly dries out after the cold;
- early potatoes like light loam and dried peat bogs, excellent response to the introduction of a mixture of 30 g of potassium chloride and 1 g of copper sulfate, diluted in a ten-liter capacity;
- the standard width of the film is about 120-180 cm, when growing potatoes this is equal to three trenches for planting, deepen the planting by 8 cm;
- The film is stretched on the frame or laid directly on the ground;
- wait 20 ° C and the first shoots to start daily ventilation, as soon as the thermometer is stably hot and the bushes have reached 25 cm, holes are made in a staggered pattern in the film;
- the first top dressing falls on the third week after seeding, take urea and ammonium sulfate in standard dosages;
- the second time they make potassium nitrate and potassium sulfate before budding, liquid or dry form of application is allowed;
- in the rainy season, watering is not needed, the watering rate for the dry interval is 50 liters per square.
Ways of cultivation of a potato
Most summer residents who have the opportunity to place boxes on their windowsills with seedlings, are successfully preparing for the season and sprouting seeds of tomatoes, cucumbers or eggplants. But it is quite real to grow potatoes by seed method. Yes, and the classic tuber version has many original options. The conditions for planting potatoes largely depend on the size of the plot, the goals and the desired harvest.
How to grow potatoes from seeds?
Places for germination need fewer times, potatoes are not infected with diseases, are not exposed to late blight, this is a good option for obtaining quality planting material through the season. But even the most correct planting of potatoes will not save you from some difficulties, you will have to constantly use all kinds of drugs to preserve fragile and capricious shoots:
- the preparation of the seeds consists in hardening, soaking in water, or stimulating growth;
- at the end of March they begin to land in boxes: a mixture of part of the earth and four parts of peat is supplemented with fertilizers and moisturized;
- the seeded seeds are planted on 5 cm beds every 10 cm and sprinkled with sand (the sand is slightly compacted so as not to wash off during watering);
- for most regions it is convenient to drive potatoes in greenhouses, growing seedlings after the appearance of a pair of leaves continue in peat pots;
- The end of May is quite warm for transplanting into the open ground.
Planting potatoes with tubers
Although the tuber method is considered classical, it has a number of interesting solutions. The characteristics of growing potatoes always come from the conditions of growth and the possibilities of the summer resident:
- In addition to the already familiar methods under the straw or film, planting in the ridges is used, when tubers are planted not in excavated trenches, but in beds filled with slides (there the soil warms up more quickly, it does not need to be poured and excess moisture always flows into the furrows);
- when there are very few places on the site, cultivate potatoes in bags or on narrow beds;
- Some summer residents managed to master the method of growing in organic trenches.
Secrets of growing potatoes
A competent and thoughtful approach to business will always yield results. Together with the famous methods of planting and caring for potatoes, it is worth trying such tricks:
- a deep transverse incision awakens not only the upper eyes, but also the middle and lower ones, and this is a strong and productive shrub in the future;
- planting is better in the direction from north to south;
- if two weeks after flowering to break the stems of the bush at a height of 10 cm, the nutrients will return back to the roots and work for the benefit of the crop;
- early varieties can be made to give a double crop: after digging, only the largest tubers are torn off and the bush is brought back to its place, having poured a bucket of water into the pit before the fall, the bush will give the second crop.
Potato planting time
Strangely enough, but the planting of early potatoes under the film is carried out at certain times, falling at the end of March and early April. Under the frost film, the tubers are not terrible. If it is a matter of planting in the open ground by the classical method, then it will be necessary to wait for the soil to warm up to 8 ° C. For each region is their date. Recognize the arrival of the desired period can be on such grounds:
- the appearance of leaflets on the birch tree and the opening of the bird cherry tree - the right signal for starting work, here also include the opening of dandelions;
- it's good to see weather forecasts for the next two weeks in several sources.
Fertilizer for potatoes when planting
The root system of culture is poorly developed, therefore, the tubers should be fed immediately during the landing, thus giving a good start. Growing and caring for potatoes will be greatly simplified by the following fertilizers thrown directly into the hole:
- woody ashes are loved and respected by summer residents-beginners and seasoned landowners, because it is a storehouse of potassium, phosphorus and manganese, it also loosens the soil;
- make the soil breathable and make an uncountable amount of useful can be, throwing in the hole manure (quite enough for half a liter of can);
- an ideal and always topical solution - adding during planting humus, the amount is the same.