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Potatoes are one of the most frequent guests of our dinner table. This is the main ingredient of the first courses, it is included in salads, casseroles, zrazy or potato pancakes. For the holidays, what would a table be without chiseled potatoes? It is actively used in folk medicine, and potato yeast is used for baking and beauty. Just for these reasons, potatoes are the most numerous plant in our garden. To obtain a high-quality potato harvest in autumn, it must be taken care of both in spring and summer. Effective care for him includes not only the destruction of pests, but also nutrition. There are several types of potato top dressing: foliar and root. In the first case, the fertilizer falls on the potato bush itself. In the second case, this is root care.
Read more about the types of dressings, the time of feeding potatoes and fertilizers later in the article.
Types of dressings
It is believed that this plant does not “perceive” top dressing too well, so they say that it is better to feed in the spring. By the time flowering begins, this crop absorbs only half of the feed provided to it, so potatoes should be “fed” after germination, at the beginning of budding.
As already mentioned, there are two types of potato feeding: foliar and root.
Foliar top dressing is nitrogen, manganese, phosphorus and microelements.
Nitrogen. Use urea (urea) for this vegetable planted in sandy or other light soil. Urea should be less concentrated than for root feeding. Make sure that the substance is well dissolved in water. Otherwise, the plants will get burned.
Scheme of penetration of fertilizers into the leaf
There is another “recipe” for feeding: 2 g of ammonium nitrate and 2 g of potassium chloride, 20 g of superphosphate, 0 g of copper sulfate. Mix all the ingredients, pour warm water, let it brew for 1 hours. Then strain and place in a sprayer. Such top dressing is useful at the beginning of flowering, it starts physiological and biochemical processes (for example, photosynthesis), increases resistance to fungal diseases.
Manganese and boron. The first serves to enhance the taste, the second – to prevent the appearance of voids in the tuber. You can use fertilizer Mag-Bor – 1 tbsp. spoon on a bucket of water.
Phosphorus. Well suited for growing late potato varieties. Use 400 g of superphosphate per hundred square meters. Thanks to this top dressing, the yield and starch content of tubers increases.
When foliar top dressing, it is important to know about the factors that affect the absorption of introduced substances by potatoes:
- temperature indicators of air and soil;
- the degree of soil acidity;
- the level of soil and air moisture;
- plant health and frequency of planting.
Root feeding method for potatoes. It is carried out with the help of cultivators-plant feeders, cultivators-hillers, herbicide-ammonia machines KRN-5,6, KRN-4,2, KRSh-8,1. Such top dressing is effective on sandy soil or waterlogged soils.
Root top dressing of potatoes is superficial and intrasoil. To work with this vegetable, intrasoil is just right: it is carried out by planting fertilizers in the root-accessible soil layer.
There is also another way to carry out root dressing. Its name is “under the stake.”
A stake is driven into the soil between the plants, with the help of which a recess of 20 cm is made. Top dressing is poured into this recess. It is best to make one recess for 3 bushes in a triangle. And then the potato will take the nutrients it needs from the fertilizer, and the roots will remain intact and will not burn.
When to Feed Potatoes
Usually potato growers feed potatoes in three stages.
- during the germination phase. The main symptom is a pale green leaf and poor development;
- in period buttoning;
- at the time of flowering potatoes.
Whether feeding is necessary can be checked by the weather. In dry weather, they are watered with top dressing during the budding (flowering) period – the moment of accumulation of the crop.
Fertilizers and application rates
Fertilizers are needed for foliar and root dressing. For each period of feeding a vegetable, specific fertilizers should be used.
- 1 period: for 10 liters of water, dilute 1 tbsp. a spoonful of urea, 0,5 liters of mushy mullein or 1 tbsp. a spoonful of bird (including chicken) droppings. One bush should take half a liter of solution.
- 2 period: 10 tbsp is diluted per 1 liters. a spoonful of potassium sulfate and 2-3 tbsp. spoons of wood ash and 1 cup of wood ash. This speeds up the flowering of potatoes.
- 3 period: for 10 liters of water diluted: 2 tbsp. spoons of superphosphate, 1 cup of mushy mullein (or chicken manure). Also half a liter under the bush.
If your plot is more than 100 m², top dressing is done only with dry fertilizers under a separate plant bush.
For prevention, humate should be used. It helps the plant to survive and give a good harvest, despite growing in extreme conditions. Such an anti-stress for the plant.
Thus, proper and early care of potatoes, proper and timely feeding of vegetables will bring you a good and tasty harvest.
Video “How to get a good potato harvest”
The video covers all aspects of growing potatoes and tells how to care for the plant, how to feed it in order to get a good harvest.
