Ways to germinate potatoes before planting – plodovie.ru

Germination

If many years ago the germination of potatoes was not considered a necessary measure to prepare a vegetable crop for planting, today the experience of many gardeners shows that it is extremely necessary. Since the planting material is not getting better, you still want to get a high-quality and rich harvest. In order to germinate potatoes (which is now much more convenient than getting seedlings from seeds), you need to choose only large specimens from bushes that have given a good harvest this season. Germination should begin about 30 to 40 days before planting. Then you can see the first shoots 8-10 days earlier, and you will harvest the first crop of your favorite root crop a couple of weeks earlier than the generally accepted dates.

Video “How to prepare potatoes for planting”

In the world

In order to properly germinate your favorite root crop in the light, you will need it directly, high-quality soil, as well as oxygen and a temperature of about 10 – 15 degrees. The place should be well lit, it is necessary to lay out the tubers in one layer. It is permissible to place them in several rows, but in this case, when a couple of weeks pass, it is advised to swap the layers. Tubers that were stacked in one row will also need to be turned over. There should be a good air circulation system in the room, and it is recommended to alternate the germination of the root crop in the light with darkening.

How many days will this method of germination help to win? It can speed up the emergence of seedlings for several days, and after a month you will see new shoots. Potatoes can be laid out both indoors and outdoors. The main thing is that the sun’s rays do not fall directly on it. It takes about 12-16 days to germinate tubers in this way, while there is an excellent opportunity to reject diseased units, as well as weak ones with filamentous processes, in order to leave only the most viable ones.

in polyethylene

Another way to germinate planting material (again, more convenient than planting seeds and waiting for seedlings to appear, as it used to be) is to place potatoes in ordinary transparent bags, which can be done even in an apartment. For this case, even T-shirt bags are suitable, in which it is imperative to make holes with a diameter of about 1 cm at a distance of about 5 cm from each other so that the planting material can breathe. About 10 potatoes must be placed inside, after which the bag is tied and hung in a dry and bright room. Thus, the greenhouse effect takes place, and the first shoots can appear on the tubers quite quickly.

The main thing to remember is that, as with germination in the light, in this case it is also worth avoiding direct sunlight on the bags. It is also necessary to ensure good ventilation in the room where the potatoes will be hung in polyethylene. It is also recommended to periodically turn over the bags with planting material so that the lighting falls on them equally. And be careful when you begin to remove the tubers from the bag into the ground – if you do not do this carefully, you can damage the fragile sprouts.

A more solid version of this method can be called germination in plastic bags. This method is often used by experienced gardeners, for this, tubers are placed in a bag with holes, a layer of compost or peat is covered. When all these manipulations are done, the bag is placed in a warm room. What should be the temperature in it? Experts say that about 14 – 20 degrees. The maturation of planting material with this method is about 15 – 18 days.

You can also enrich the plastic bag filler with complex top dressing at the rate of 30 grams of ammonium nitrate, 60 grams of superphosphate and 30 grams of potassium salt per 10 liters. A minor disadvantage of this method is that if low-quality tubers are found in the bag, they are not so easy to remove, so most often this procedure is left on the day when the tubers will be planted in the ground.

In the boxes

Good and fast germination can also be carried out in boxes. In this case, not only the room itself is used in the case, where they will be located, but damage to new shoots can also be avoided when the boxes are transported to the landing site. In order to accommodate the tubers, flat boxes are best suited. About 3-4 cm of wet peat will need to be placed on their bottom, after which the potatoes should be laid so that they are close to each other. It is best to lay it in one row, placing up on the side on which you will see more eyes. It is permissible not to use peat, for this the tubers must be laid out in flat boxes in several layers. In this case, the first layer of potatoes should be laid more densely, the second one can be less, in order to provide the planting material with good access to light.

When all this is done, the boxes can be placed more compactly – on top of each other. Since all modern drawers have handles of about 10 – 12 cm, there will definitely be some space between them. This is very good, because air can penetrate to the tubers. Every five days, the boxes should be swapped in order to obtain evenly germinated tubers as a result.

They do the same with tubers for which peat was not used, simultaneously selecting and removing diseased and damaged specimens. Quality viable tubers should ideally have short and fairly thick shoots. To achieve this, germination is carried out indoors at a temperature of about 12 – 15 degrees.

How long does it take to germinate potatoes using this method? Approximately 6 weeks, which is why the tubers begin to be laid in boxes in late February – early March. A few days after the first roots are visible on the tubers, the box should be shed with a mixture consisting of 10 g of ammonium nitrate of the same amount of potassium chloride, 50 g of superphosphate, and dilute all these components in a bucket of clean, plain water. Instead of such top dressing, it is permissible to use a glass of wood ash in a bucket of water. Experts advise along with this to dissolve several grams of boron and copper in a given volume of water. Two days after such a manipulation, another one is carried out. But if at the first watering a bucket of the mixture is used for 50 kg of tubers, then at the second – for 80 kg.

in pots

This method is not particularly popular, but is also sometimes used by summer residents and experienced gardeners. A feature of this method is the germination period, which begins about a month before planting. If once seedlings were grown in pots and cups from seeds, then modern gardeners, instead of seeds, quite successfully germinate potatoes in convenient containers. First, the tubers are placed in sawdust, which must be moist, and after 10 days – in a clay pot, which already contains a layer of humus, along with garden soil. Usually this germination method is used in the first half of March.

In the soil, do not forget to add a special “vegetable mixture”, which is rich in many vitamins and minerals. Pots must be installed near windows. Roots may appear somewhere in mid-April, after which the planting material in pots should be hardened – during the day they need to be taken out into the air, and brought back into the room at night. But in cases where the temperature outside drops below +10, this is not recommended. Using this method, you can get good healthy planting material, from which you can get a quality crop in the future.

Video “Light germination of potatoes before planting”

How to perform light germination of seed potatoes? Everything is explained very simply in this video.