Potato is one of the most popular vegetables in many gardens, moreover, it is a very affordable and healthy product, without which it is impossible to imagine a dining table. And how many various dishes can be prepared from potatoes!
But to had a good harvest of potatoes, you should know how to plant potatoes correctly, how to care for a vegetable and what tricks to apply to enjoy selected potatoes all year round! Indeed, besides the fact that you can be content with potatoes in the season, you can also leave it for storage for the winter period.
Choose seeds for planting
In the question of how to plant potatoes in order to have a good harvest, it is important to responsibly approach the selection of seeds of this vegetable. After all, it is with the choice of seeds that the whole process of growing and caring for potatoes begins, this is the basis of the basics, without which it is impossible to achieve a good result.
You can cut large seeds in half, sprinkle the place of the slice with an evil one and leave the seeds in a warm sunny place. If the weather outside is rainy, then there is a chance that all the billets will simply rot. Therefore, in order to dry the seeds, it is better to choose warm, steady weather, or to abandon this procedure altogether and plant large tubers.
Seed selection is the first and very important point on the way to a plentiful potato harvest. Having selected the seeds, we can proceed to the question of how to plant potatoes in order to have a good harvest.
Preparatory work
The second thing to do after seed selection is to prepare the ground for planting potatoes. Lunar Calendar Dates for this year for planting potatoes.
If earlier potatoes grew on the ground, then before planting new seeds, it is necessary to collect the entire crop from the ground, then clean the beds of weeds, leaves and garbage. After the land is cleared, it must be carefully dug up.
The more carefully the land is dug up, the better the conditions for the growth of a new potato crop will be.
The next step in preparing the land for planting is fertilizing. As a rule, lime is best for growing potatoes. Two glasses of lime are used per square meter. The process of applying fertilizer is quite simple - you just need to sprinkle the earth with lime in the specified amount.
Preparatory work related to land cultivation is carried out in the fall, and left in this form until spring. With the advent of spring, it is advisable to again fertilize, this time only mineral and organic mixtures should be used.
Landing time
How to plant potatoes so that there is a good harvest? In this case, there is another nuance that many often ignore. Namely - this is the timing of planting potatoes.
The potato planting dates must be selected so that the earth has already warmed up to 7-8 degrees with a plus sign at a depth of 13 centimeters. If you do not wait until the earth heats up to the indicated temperature, then all tubers harvested for planting may die.
You should focus on landing dates not on any dates, but on the weather and climatic conditions of the region. As practice shows, the best time to plant potatoes in the CIS countries is the end of May.
Potato Planting Tips
Despite the fact that the choice of seeds and the timing of their planting are two important points, the question of how to plant potatoes correctly so that there is a good harvest remains no less important than the two previous points.
Planting and caring for potatoes is not a difficult thing, the main thing is to follow all the tips and recommendations. To begin with, you need to dig up the land intended for planting crops, so that you get even rows.
Tip: Every year, for planting potatoes, you need to choose a new plot of land, as over time there are less and less nutrients that are so necessary for the full growth of potatoes. If you do not change the place of planting potatoes, then there will be no rich crop.
When the land for planting is ready, dug up and fertilized, it is necessary to place potato tubers into it to a depth of 10 centimeters. For better growth of potatoes, it is necessary to pour ash and humus into each hole. You should also take into account the distance between the holes, which should be 80-90 centimeters, so the potato tubers will develop better, and their care will be much easier.
After all the seeds are in the ground, the soil must be leveled, while making sure that the top layer of the soil is not too thick, otherwise it will be difficult for the sprouts to break through it, which means that the growth of the vegetable will slow down and the harvest may be late.
It is also important to consider that potatoes love light and warm areas and do not tolerate tight growth conditions, so do not regret the distance between the holes and plant one tuber on the other.
Planting potatoes under the straw
Besides standard way of planting potatoes, there is another option, how to plant potatoes in order to have a good harvest (video). This option includes planting potatoes under the straw. Before proceeding to how to plant potatoes in this way, we can note the advantages of this method of planting:
- It is not necessary to dig the earth in the fall and in the spring;
- There is no need to make fertilizer, since rotten straw acts just as fertilizing the soil;
- Instead of loosening and hilling the soil, you can simply throw straw from time to time;
- Under straw, potatoes are less vulnerable to various diseases and pests characteristic of this crop;
- Harvesting can be done manually, without using a shovel;
- By the end of the harvest, the soil is ready for the next planting;
To plant potatoes under a straw, just lay the prepared potato seeds in the ground and fill it with straw. Periodically, the straw needs to be planted and watered. If the weather is warm and drought, the straw, instead of starting to decay, can simply burn out, and with it the whole crop will burn out. Regular watering of potatoes under a straw will help to quickly get humus and necessary fertilizers for full growth and a rich harvest.
Some tricks
Using some tricks on how to plant potatoes in order to get a good harvest, you can greatly simplify your life.
Firstly, each gardener should try different planting methods to determine which one is best for his region. If the weather conditions in one region allow you to get a rich harvest of potatoes with one planting method, then in another region potatoes planted in the same way may not come up at all. Therefore, only through trial and error can you determine how to plant potatoes in order to have a good harvest.
When planting potatoes, it is important to look at the weather conditions, follow all the tips, do not forget about proper care, and then in the fall you can collect a rich harvest of tasty and healthy potatoes!
Good luck in the beds!
Description and description of varieties in Belarus with a photo
Do I need to pick flowers from potatoes: why do they do it
When to dig potatoes: timing and availability of new potatoes
How to grow a good potato crop: various methods and methods, planting and care
Nedarina
It is important, when planting under the straw, not to miss the moment and pour so that the sprouts do not dry out under the straw (I plant on the turf), the potatoes will ripen clean, without sores, but the mice will eat. If you do not plant hay (weathered grass) during flowering, the potatoes will be green. It is necessary to plant from a turn of a leaf of birch to a turn of a leaf of oak. If there is a lot of hay, it has not ripened over the winter, it is better to plant it by prying it with a stick, without turning, on sandy and rocky soils. In deeply plowed land, potatoes grow, cannot be reached with forks, crops are lost, so it’s better to dig the garden in the autumn with the formation of ridges, under which lay the potatoes in the spring and level them with a chopper.
Good harvest