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Every gardener dreams of a rich harvest of vegetable crops on his plot. To obtain it, you need to take care of high-quality planting material. Potato is considered the main crop, it occupies a large area of all plantings. Just take the tubers out of the cellar and plant them in the ground – you won’t get positive results, even if you pick up the most productive varieties.
How to prepare potatoes for planting will be discussed further. Let’s talk about the methods of germination and dressing of planting material, soil preparation. Each reader can choose the option of preparing potato seeds for planting that is suitable for him.
First steps
As a rule, to obtain strong sprouts, potatoes are taken out of storage 20-30 days before planting. It has been proven in practice that just such a time is enough. Preparatory work does not require any material costs. To obtain early potatoes, the appropriate varieties are used. Under favorable climatic conditions, it is planted in early May, so the preparation of tubers begins at the end of March.
Sorting
First of all, the seed material is carefully inspected for damage. During the bulkhead, tubers with the slightest hint of disease are removed. Most often, dry or wet rot, scab is found on tubers. Substandard potatoes smaller than a chicken egg, with signs of deformity, will go to waste. If the tuber is more than 90 grams, it is also discarded.
Calibration
What does it have to do with:
- Small tubers are not able to produce a sufficient number of stems, therefore, a large crop cannot be obtained.
- Large planting material will quickly form the aerial part of the plant, it will take all the nutrients contained in the uterus. The development of roots at the initial stage is blocked. In the future, the root system will develop slowly, time for the creation of the rudiments of tubers will be lost.
When preparing potato seeds for spring planting, calibration should be done. In the first pile there will be tubers weighing from 30 to 50 grams. In the second – from 50 to 75 grams. In the third – from 76 to 90.
Sometimes vegetable growers use nodules less than 30 grams to obtain planting material of an interested potato variety. But the selection must be done in the fall. You need to take tubers from the most developed and healthy plant of a certain variety.
Many novice vegetable growers will probably wonder why fractional selection of potatoes is needed in the preparation of seed material. It’s simple: tubers of the same size are planted separately. Then shoots will appear on each site at the same time, which will greatly facilitate further work.
Landscaping
The question of how to properly prepare potatoes for planting includes landscaping. During the initial examination of the material, tubers with emerging sprouts were selected. Green potatoes are less attacked by pests because they contain the poison solanine. These tubers should not be eaten either.
The room should be warm, 10 to 12 degrees, and sunny with good ventilation. The sun should directly hit the potatoes. Planting material is laid out in one layer. From time to time it needs to be turned over so that the landscaping takes place evenly. After 25-30 days, the tubers become green.
What is the best way to plant potatoes? Containers should be transparent, plastic containers, cakes, plastic bags are suitable. If bags are used, they are tied from above, holes are made for air circulation.
Express method
This method is acceptable in cases where it was not possible to start preparing planting material in a timely manner. And deadlines are running out. We’ll have to do the drying of the tubers. Potatoes are placed in a warm, dry room with a temperature of 14-16 degrees. The tubers are laid out in one row horizontally. The presence of light is optional. You can use a dark room. The method is effective, after 10 days the potatoes are ready for planting.
Other sprouting methods
Gardeners are very original people. They come up with various techniques for preparing potatoes before planting.
Wet method
Many vegetable growers use wet germination in the preparation of tubers. Light is not needed with this method, and high-quality sprouts appear in half a month.
The containers are filled with wet sawdust, sand, peat. It is better to take sawdust from deciduous trees, since there is too much resin in conifers. Before laying, they are poured twice with boiling water to “wash” the resins. River sand is thoroughly washed.
According to experienced vegetable growers, this method of preparing potatoes for planting allows you to save nutrients in the tubers. Shoots are friendly.
Warming up
The warming method allows to reduce the preparation of seed material to a minimum. Sometimes, after a long germination, the eyes for some reason do not hatch, although the tubers look healthy.
If there is no other material, and the deadlines are already running out, you can try to warm the tubers at high temperatures: from 35 to 40 degrees. The buds get a push, sprouts appear in 5 days. You can plant, the planting material is ready.
Garlands
String sorted potatoes on twine or thick wire, hang in front of a sunny window. From time to time, the tubers need to be sprayed with a spray bottle.
We use transparent bags
Preparing potato tubers for planting is an important point in obtaining high-quality planting material.
If there is not enough space in the apartment to install containers for germinating tubers, you can take ordinary plastic bags. They need to make holes for circulation. The bags should not be overfilled so that the tubers do not overripe, the sprouts do not intertwine with each other.
The bags must be tied with a strong string and hung in front of the window. Enough light enters the tubers through the film, the sprouts do not stretch, do not outgrow.
In any container, sprouts on potatoes do not break off.
Tips from experienced vegetable growers on preparing potatoes for planting on video:
How to stimulate germination
Stimulation of potato tubers is carried out when the terms of normal germination are missed. One liter of water is poured into a small container and a solution is prepared, which includes:
- furnace ash in any quantity;
- trace elements on the tip of a knife;
- copper sulfate ¼ teaspoon.
The tubers are placed in boxes and sprayed with a solution. Repeat the procedure every other day. You can prepare a large amount of the solution, keeping the proportion of ingredients, put potatoes in it.
Such germination of potatoes before planting with the use of copper sulfate not only stimulates the vitality of tubers, saturates them with nutrients, but also destroys fungal diseases.
Stimulation can be carried out using other drugs:
- Nitrophoska;
- Effecton;
- Urea.
Tuber disinfection
Preparing potatoes for planting in the spring does not preclude the treatment of tubers. There are many remedies to help prevent the spread of rhizoctonia and scab. Among the most common means is formalin.
A solution is prepared in advance in the following proportion: one part of 200% formalin is taken for 40 parts of water. The tubers are dipped in the solution for 5 minutes, removed, covered with burlap and left for 2 hours.
You can not soak, but spray the planting material. For 100 kg of tubers, three liters of solution are prepared, the proportions are the same. Potatoes are first sprayed with clean water, and then with a formalin solution. To kill pests, it is enough to hold the tubers under the burlap for about 6 hours.
Preparing the soil
You can get a rich potato harvest only on fertile soils. It can be sandy, clay or chernozem, but light. In the spring, you need to start preparing the soil before planting potatoes. If the soil is clay, then sand is added to it.
In autumn, after harvesting potatoes, experienced vegetable growers prepare the soil for planting potatoes – they sow the area with siderites. And in the spring they mow and plow the land. Overheating, plant residues increase soil fertility in a natural way. Experts believe that potatoes should be planted in a new place every year. Grows well after legumes, corn, cucumbers, strawberries and raspberries.
As soon as the soil warms up to 10 degrees, the preparation of potatoes for early planting is completed, you can proceed to work on the site.
Before plowing or digging the land, humus or ammophos are added – up to 3 kg per hundred square meters. After that, the lumps are broken, the roots of the weeds are selected. You can’t start planting right away: the soil should settle and warm up. After all, below the soil before plowing was colder than the upper layer.
Before planting potatoes, the site is leveled, marking is carried out. A row from a row should be at a distance of up to 75 cm. It will be easier to weed and spud. A day after digging the site, you can plant potatoes. You can’t wait longer, the soil will lose moisture. Hole from hole 25-30 cm, depending on the variety.
Conclusion
We told you about how to prepare seed and soil for planting potatoes. Of course, each person decides for himself whether to use the acquired knowledge or not. But I would like to note that our climatic conditions do not allow potatoes to stay in the field for a long time in autumn. If you plant unprepared potatoes in the spring, then they will lie in the ground for a long time. The tubers will spend energy on germination, thereby reducing productivity.
