Potato is the main vegetable on the table. If the family is large, then it needs to be grown a lot to last until the new crop. This is a laborious job. The fruiting of a vegetable largely depends on the variety of culture, weather, care. But there is another factor affecting productivity, these are the methods of planting potatoes, as well as the timing of its implementation.
Tuber preparation
Planting material must first be sprouted. This is called preparing potatoes for planting. If this is not done, the plants will grow longer by approximately 21 days. For certain areas, this is considered impermissible luxury. Germination methods are different:
- Light - a simple and very effective way. Planting potatoes are removed from the cellar or basement and placed in a bright, warm room with an air temperature of 20-22 ° C. They are laid out in one layer so that the tubers receive natural light. But they should not be exposed to direct rays of the sun. You immediately need to sort the tubers, remove all damaged and ugly ones. Germination will begin after 10-15 days.
- Greenhouse - it is often used if there is no free space for germination. The bottom line is this: bags made of polyethylene are filled with planting potatoes, but half the volume, tied and hung in a bright, warm place. As you can see, additional space is not required. Inside the bag, as in a greenhouse, tubers will sprout in 10 days. In the same container, they can be transported to the potato planting site.
- Watering - this method is unusual, but very effective. It is used by gardeners who do not have time to wait for sprouts to germinate. The day before planting the tubers are poured with water, it should be rainy and warm. Potatoes are planted immediately, no more processing is needed if the tubers are not cut in half or in pieces. If this is done to increase the amount of planting material, the sections should be sprinkled with ash. Sprouts will ripen in the soil within two weeks.
Choosing a site for landing
This garden culture is unpretentious to the soil. It grows well in chernozem, sandy, loamy soil. Most varieties respond to top dressing with organic and mineral complexes. For potatoes, you should choose even beds with good lighting. Shadow from tall trees or buildings should not fall on them. If the garden is located in a low place, because of which water accumulates in the aisles, and there is no garden bed with a flat surface, drainage should be done. The site must be plowed in the fall or spring. At the same time, fertilizers are applied and all weeds are removed. When planted in the wells, wood ash is added to prevent diseases and stimulate the growth of tubers.
Landing time
Of great importance is the choice of site, soil preparation. But no less important are the timing of planting potatoes. The crop yield indicator and the quality of tubers largely depend on them. The planting period is influenced by the region where the crop grows and its variety. But there is a landmark in nature, which is a signal for planting tubers - a birch and fragrant bird cherry. When the bird cherry blossoms, and on the birch leaves begin to bloom, the time has come to plant potatoes. This is explained very simply. One tree blooms, and on the other leaves bloom in the case when the soil warms up to a temperature of 8-10 C. This is just the necessary condition for the growth of tubers. Vegetables need three months for full ripening, which means that planting should be carried out in mid-May.
Sowing seeds
The methods for planting potatoes are different. But this method is rarely used. This business is very troublesome. However, if someone wants to plant potatoes with seeds, they need to be harvested after a flowering period. They look like small tomatoes, which should be removed from the bushes after full maturity. It is easy to recognize by color, it will turn black. Seeds are stored all winter, in the spring they are planted on a garden bed. By the end of this season, tubers grown from seed are harvested, which are planting stock.
Landing under the straw
This method is becoming popular among gardeners, since using it takes less effort to further grow vegetables. The essence of planting potatoes under the straw is that the tubers are not covered with soil, but with straw, the layer of which should be thick. Moreover, it needs to be constantly added, as the shoots are intensively developing. The potato grows large, clean, easy to harvest.
Some people think that with such a planting it will be necessary to water vegetables more often, since straw does not hold moisture well enough, and it is needed for the formation and growth of tubers. In addition, the settlement of mice under the straw is not excluded. But this is just talk. To verify this or refute the prevailing opinion of skeptics, you just need to plant potatoes under the straw.
This method is ideal for virgin land: you do not need to dig anything, and then weed. Weeds will not be able to germinate through the straw, and next year the site will be suitable for further processing. It is advisable to carry out such a landing on heavy soils. As in the case of virgin soil, the site does not need to be dug, and the straw after harvesting is repaired in the soil, due to which its structure will improve, it will become more loose.
Tubers can be laid out not on the soil surface, but in the holes. To fill them not with straw, but with mowed grass. Planting potatoes in this way can still be diversified. When hilling, the tops do not need to be collected in a heap, but rather, they are laid out in a bed, and covered with mowed grass from above. In this case, there is no need to add additional straw. Although space is needed more, but less trouble.
Black Film Landing
The method is very simple. The potato area must first be dug up, organic fertilizers applied, for example, humus. Then spread the black film and fix the edges so that it does not blow off when the wind is strong. Make markings, and along them cross-shaped incisions in rows or in the order of chess.
Soil is selected in the designated places, tubers are laid out in the obtained holes and sprinkled with it. Further technology does not provide for weeding, hilling, loosening. The method is good for planting potatoes with early ripening. Indeed, there are many advantages: tubers appear early, their number in the bushes increases, and the quality improves. But, unfortunately, the method can not be used in every region. In areas with a hot climate, the film will overheat in the sun, the tubers will “bake”.
Landing in the box
The method requires careful preparation, but it is worth it, since almost no care is required in the future. First on the site you need to build boxes or containers, as they are also called. Any material at hand will do. The design should have a height of 30 cm, a width of one meter, and length according to capabilities and desire. You can take your own sizes. The beds between each other are at a distance of 50-80 cm. First, they are filled with organic fertilizer, mixed with soil, only then tubers are planted at a distance of 30 cm according to the principle of chess arrangement.
Those gardeners who have already tried this planting method say that productivity increases several times, there is no need to weed, loosen the soil, and potatoes do not need to grow. In addition, the beds are used for several years, it is enough to add organic matter, and after harvesting, sow green manure in the boxes.
Shovel Landing
This is the traditional way, it is called "under the shovel" or smooth, it is the simplest and most common. Potatoes are planted with holes, the depth of which is 20-25 cm. A mixture of rotted manure, humus and ash is poured into them. Row from row is at a distance of 50 cm. Free space is necessary for caring for the bushes. Germinated tubers are placed in holes and sprinkled with soil. The surface of the plot is leveled with a rake.
This method has advantages and disadvantages. The first includes simplicity, the absence of the need to buy technical devices and additional materials. Disadvantages are: high physical costs, insecurity of plantings from bad weather, the inability to use areas with heavy clay soils, and low yields.
Mitlider Way
Suitable for soils of any composition. This is a new method with its advantages and disadvantages. Planting is done on narrow beds, 70-80 cm wide, the distance between which, on the contrary, is large - not less than one meter. Dig the beds and clean the weeds should be in the autumn.
Aisles do not need loosening, but weeds need to be removed, because they grow quickly, and thanks to a branched root system, they spread to beds with potatoes. They take food from tubers and often germinate through them. Weeds must be controlled: treat them with herbicides, weed manually, mow the grass.
The depth of the holes for planting is 30 cm, they are dug at a distance of 40 cm from one another and placed according to the principle of chess. The tubers are lowered into the pits and covered with earth, which they immediately mulch. Simple care: timely watering, processing bushes from pests. This method has many advantages:
- There is no need for hilling and weeding.
- Virtually no damage to the roots.
- Productivity is high.
- Ability to use a small plot.
- The only drawback is that you need to equip the beds.
Chinese landing
This is also a new method, in which methods that stimulate productivity are simultaneously used. Chinese landing has the following advantages:
- Potato yield is high.
- Significantly saved space.
- The variety multiplies rapidly.
- Heat does not cause suffering to plants.
- Any soil for planting is used.
The method has disadvantages:
- High costs of physical labor.
- The method is not applicable in regions with a cold climate.
- The level of agricultural technology should be high.
- Not used in areas with strong moisture.
Pits 100x100 cm are dug in the fall. Compost with ash is placed at the bottom. In spring, a large tuber, weighing up to 200 g, is placed in the pit, on which a transverse incision is previously made. This stimulates the formation of a large number of sprouts. The tuber is covered with fertile soil with a thickness of 25 cm. It will germinate after 14 days. The emerged sprouts are fed with fertilizer containing potassium and again covered with soil. So do a few layers. This method requires the introduction of a large number of fertilizers. But such top dressing does not increase the quality of tubers, but only the quantity.
Landing in the crests
This method is used on beds with clay soil, as well as in the case of close occurrence of groundwater to the surface. The ridges have a height of 15 cm and are made at a distance of 70 cm from one another. To plant tubers, holes located 30 cm apart are used. They are made on top of each ridge. Potato care includes watering, hilling, top dressing, weeding, spraying. Although the vegetable needs these procedures, regardless of the method of planting. The advantages include:
- The possibility of using mechanized labor.
- Potatoes will not rot even in moist soil, as they grow on ridges that need less time to dry than row spacing.
Disadvantages:
- Not every soil is suitable for this method. In the sandy soil, the ridges will quickly dry out, so you will often have to water the plants.
- Since weeding, hilling are done with a walk-behind tractor, tubers are often damaged.
- The likelihood of plant damage by diseases increases, as the tubers are densely planted.
Planting potatoes with a walk-behind tractor
This method is suitable for soils with any composition. Mechanized means are used, in particular the Cascade walk-behind tractor. With its help, planting is performed by a hiller, a plow, and a potato planter, which is justified for use on large areas, since its cost is considerable. But you can get out of the situation if you yourself make the unit. When using a potato planter, all operations are carried out at one time: furrows are made, tubers are laid out, covered with soil. In this case, the wheels are removed from the walk-behind tractor, the lugs are put on.
When planting potatoes with a hiller, a mechanized tool is also prepared. The wings are set to a minimum width of 55-65 cm. When planting potatoes, furrows are made by the walk-behind tractor. They coincide in width with the track. The tubers are laid out with an interval of 20-30 cm. Then the lugs are removed, the wheels are reinstalled and the furrows are filled up.
Landing in the trench
The method is used when the soil in the garden is sandy and dries quickly. Trenches up to 30 cm are dug in the autumn at a distance of no more than a meter. The bottom is covered with hay, but raw. The thickness of the layer is up to 15 cm. A little manure and ash are poured on top. It will be compost. If you lay the husks of onions in it, the wireworms will leave. Urea can be added.
Compost will overheat all winter, compact, its layer in the spring will be three to five centimeters. When the soil thaws and warms up, potatoes are planted. Tubers are laid in trenches and covered with soil. If planting is carried out in the early stages, the garden bed should be covered with a film in order to exclude the possibility of freezing of planting material in case of spring frost return. Before the onset of flowering, tubers need hilling.
If it was not possible to prepare trenches in the fall, this can be done in the spring. Just lay in them you need rotted compost, the layer thickness is three to five centimeters. The advantages of the method are:
- Tubers develop faster and easily cope with frosts due to the fact that they are heated with compost.
- Moisture is retained in the soil; watering is practically unnecessary.
- Tubers do not need to be fed, since all the necessary nutrition is contained in compost.
- High fruiting.
There are few disadvantages:
- If the soil is moist, the tubers will rot.
- To dig trenches and prepare hay, you need to spend time and energy.
The method of Dutch technology
For planting potatoes with this method, beds of great height are needed. But their width is small - 30-45 cm, the distance between the rows - 70 cm. Simultaneously with the tubers need to be laid in the fertilizer wells. They spud with earth from the aisles, so the roots are not damaged. The advantage of the method is the obtaining of high yields and ease of processing due to the rare plantings of tubers. There are no shortcomings, except that the arrangement of the beds, but the labor costs are small. This method is one of the best planting potatoes.
Vegetables in bags, barrels, boxes
When using this method, potatoes are planted in containers without a bottom, filled with earth with compost. They are placed in open ground in a designated area. Holes for ventilating plants are cut through the walls. When seedlings appear, they are sprinkled with soil to form powerful roots. The method is used in small areas, but not suitable for vegetable growers living far from the garden.