Contents
How to determine landing dates in your area
Everything is simple with potatoes – they are planted with tubers immediately in open ground and the planting period for it is standard throughout Central Our Country – from May 1 to May 10.
The sprouts of the tubers appear from the ground on about the 20th day, at the very end of May – at this time frosts are already unlikely. But even if the temperature drops below 0 ° C, potatoes are easy to save – just spud them up with their heads. And when it warms up – unwind.
In the southern regions, potatoes can be planted after April 25th. And the latest date for planting potatoes is June 10. But in this case, only early varieties can be planted – mid-ripening and late ones will not have time to ripen.
How to prepare tubers for planting
Many summer residents do not bother with the preliminary preparation of tubers – they take them out of the cellar and immediately plant them. But the result is always sad – the harvest is small, the tubers are small, and the potatoes get sick during the summer. Therefore, preliminary preparation should not be neglected.
What does it include?
Rejection. Rotting, scab-affected, too long or pear-shaped, cracked, discolored tubers – all this is not suitable for planting. Ideal tubers should be even, weighing 50 – 80 g (the size of a chicken egg).
Germination. It is necessary for the seedlings to be friendly and strong. There are several ways to germinate tubers, but the easiest is to take potatoes out of the cellar 40 to 50 days (1) before planting and put them in a warm, bright room. At the same time, the tubers turn green, solanine accumulates in them, and it protects them from diseases.
Disease treatment. It is useful to treat germinated potato tubers before planting with a solution of boric acid and copper sulfate (1 g per 10 liters of water). Consumption: 1,5 – 1,8 liters of solution per 100 kg of tubers. Then the tubers are dusted with ash at the rate of 0,5 kg per 100 kg of planting material.
How to grow potatoes seedlings
This method is used to propagate valuable and expensive varieties, the seed tubers of which are sold by the piece.
Sprouted tubers in late April – early May are tightly laid out in boxes in one row and covered with a layer of wet peat or humus 3 – 4 cm thick. The boxes are placed in a bright place with a temperature of 18 – 20 ° C.
At the end of May, the tubers are removed from the boxes, the sprouts with roots are separated, they are immediately planted on the beds and watered well. Single sprouts will eventually produce fewer tubers from the bush, but in general there will be more from the seed potato plot.
Favorable days for planting potatoes for seedlings according to the lunar calendar: April 25 – 26, 30, May 1 – 15.
How to plant potatoes
Potato planting pattern – 50 x 50 cm or 60 x 30 – 35 cm (2). Holes are dug on a spade bayonet. 1 tuber is placed in each, being careful not to break the sprouts. The holes are then covered with soil. After all the potatoes are planted, the plot is harrowed with a rake.
A little trick: if you put 1 tbsp. in each hole before planting. a spoonful of double superphosphate, there will be no wireworm.
The best predecessors for potatoes are cabbage and table root crops. But after tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and other plants of the Solanaceae family, potatoes cannot be planted – they have common diseases (3).
Favorable days for planting potatoes according to the lunar calendar: 25 – 26, 30 April, 1 – 15. 23 – 24, 27 – 28 May, 1 – 12 June.
Potato Care Tips
Caring for potatoes is not difficult, all he needs is watering and hilling.
Watering. Potatoes are watered only 2 times during the summer: immediately after germination and during flowering. This is more than enough to form a good harvest even in arid regions. Additional watering will not bring benefits, on the contrary, they can cause the tubers to start to hurt and be poorly stored. If they don’t rot at all.
Hilling. It is necessary, because in many varieties, as they grow, the tubers crawl out. And they turn green, accumulating toxic solanine in themselves.
The first hilling is done when the plants reach a height of 15 – 20 cm – the ground is poured to the shoots to the first leaves. Then over the summer they make another 2 – 3 hilling. As a result, the comb should be 15 – 20 cm.
Hilling is best after rain, when the soil is moist – at the same time you will break the soil crust.
Popular questions and answers
We talked about planting potatoes with agronomist-breeder Svetlana Mikhailova – she answered the most frequent questions of summer residents.
Is it possible to plant cut potato tubers?
But it is still better to plant whole tubers the size of a chicken egg.
Should potatoes be greened before planting?
Can potatoes be grown from seeds?
The taco method is good in that it will allow you to get clean, uninfected planting material.
Sources of
- Fisenko A.N., Serpukhovitina K.A., Stolyarov A.I. Garden. Handbook // Rostov-on-Don, Rostov University Press, 1994 – 416 p.
- Yakubovskaya L.D., Yakubovsky V.N., Rozhkova L.N. ABC of a summer resident // Minsk, OOO “Orakul”, OOO Lazurak, IPKA “Publicity”, 1994 – 415 p.
- A group of authors, ed. Polyanskoy A.M. and Chulkova E.I. Tips for gardeners // Minsk, Harvest, 1970 – 208 p.