How to get a good potato harvest

5 Ways to Boost Your Potato Yield

In the old days, summer residents planted potatoes in large quantities. Others had two or even three vegetable gardens set aside only for potatoes. He really helped out with a total shortage of products. Now other times, everything can be bought in the store and they began to refuse planting potatoes. But there are some simple tricks to get a good potato harvest with little effort.

Choose the right grades

Most varieties of potatoes, which are listed in the Register of Breeding Achievements, produce an average of 300-350 kg of tubers per hundred square meters. But there are also those whose yield is 2 times higher! We have selected varieties that can produce more than 500 kg per hundred square meters (1) – this is half a ton (see table below)!

Pour superphosphate into the wells

Norm – 1 tbsp. spoon in each well. This will kill two birds with one stone. Superphosphate will have a direct benefit as a fertilizer: phosphorus increases the number of tubers, and they ripen earlier, they accumulate more starch (2). That is, the harvest will be higher and of better quality. And most importantly, it will remain safe and sound, because this fertilizer helps to get rid of the wireworm, which can spoil almost all potatoes.

Sow peas

It was noticed: if 2-3 pea seeds are sown in each well with potatoes, the potato yield increases by 1,5 times! And without additional dressings.

The fact is that on the roots of peas there are nodules in which special bacteria live – they capture nitrogen from the atmosphere and make it available to other plants. That is, potatoes in the neighborhood with peas receive additional nutrition. And you are also a crop of pods.

A hole in loose soil is made to a depth of 7 cm, potatoes are placed, watered, sprinkled with wood ash, then loose fertile soil by 2–3 cm, and then peas of undersized, better early-ripening varieties are sown (Faith, Perfection).

Cut the tubers in the center

Not all sprouts usually wake up on tubers – some remain dormant. But the more shoots in the bush, the more potatoes can grow. Therefore, before planting, it is important to awaken all sleeping kidneys.

This is easy to do: in the middle part of the tuber, you need to make a deep incision in a circle so that a thin bridge with a diameter of 1–2 cm remains in the center of the potato.

Harvest three times

This is summer advice. The essence of the method is as follows: in July, when it is time to dig potatoes, the bush is carefully dug up on one side, without removing it from the ground, the largest tubers are selected, after which the bare roots are sprinkled with fertile soil.

Immediately after this, the plants are watered with an ash solution: 2 – 3 cups of ash per 10 liters of water (consumption rate 1 – 2 liters per bush). After 10 – 12 days, the bush is again dug up, the largest potatoes are again selected and the care is repeated again. And at the end of August, all the potatoes are already completely harvested. Thus, from one site you can collect as many as 3 crops!

Now very popular varieties of potatoes with colored pulp – pink and purple. They are good for health, they look original on the table, but their yield is usually low. So don’t count on them too much. It’s just pure enjoyment.

The most productive potato varieties

Popular questions and answers

We talked about growing potatoes with agronomist-breeder Svetlana Mikhailova.

Sources of

1. State Register of Breeding Achievements https://reestr.gossortrf.ru/
2. A group of authors, ed. Polyanskoy A.M. and Chulkova E.I. Tips for gardeners // Minsk, Harvest, 1970 – 208 p.