Planting potatoes is it difficult or not? .. My simple observations, experiments, conclusions will help novice potato growers, and maybe even replenish the knowledge of more experienced ones. So ... For six years I have been engaged in a garden in the Kuban. I have been planting potatoes all these years. Now I can say that for me every year is experimental, the results are so different, the conditions are changing, I apply more and more new knowledge in practice.
The first two years are unsuccessful. Firstly, the weather was unlucky - dry spring, summer were then. Secondly, there was no experience, but my knowledge was at an elementary level - I dug a hole, threw a tuber there, dug it ... I’m waiting for the harvest ... And then the harvest “the cat wept”.
And the last two years, I think, are the most successful. I think that I finally found what brought me luck. I hope that my article will allow readers to achieve even higher results, since everything is based on my personal experience and observations.
How to choose the right variety for planting potatoes
The choice of variety, I think, is the most difficult for the gardener. For example, I will praise the varieties that brought me a good harvest, and many will be offended by listening to me, they “flew” with the harvest. Or, on the contrary, in the first years I asked friends who planted the same varieties, and received a deplorable result in my garden. You shouldn’t be offended by anyone ... We simply know gardeners, agronomy poorly or do not know at all. And when planting potatoes, growing them you need to know the composition of the soil, acidity, percentage of moisture, many other subtleties. Therefore, most often we experimentally choose one or another variety that will give us a good harvest.
I always plant several varieties, since the weather, which we cannot change at will, can destroy one variety, but contribute to the development of another.
When choosing a variety should be guided by the following considerations. It is imperative (but this is my opinion, my experience) that one variety should be early, and the other or others must be medium early, medium late or late. I advise you to choose late and medium-late varieties only when planting potatoes in the south, since the more severe the conditions, the greater the fear that they may not ripen. In the south, potatoes degenerate quickly - it is too hot in our country, and the conditions for its development are unfavorable.
Last year, planted 2 varieties - Adretto and Picasso. Delicious potatoes have grown.
The harvest of all two was simply magnificent, one-to-one tubers, even, full-bodied. It took about two hundred square meters for potatoes - enough for a family of three adults to get a new crop. Maybe for some it is not a very big crop, but the taste of potatoes is very important to me, as well as the realization that it is clean, because when growing it I use a minimum of mineral fertilizers, and from chemistry I used only remedies against the Colorado potato beetle .
Adretta is a mid-early variety, but in the Kuban during early planting (in mid-March), you can get a crop of young potatoes in May. This is a fairly old variety, but just because it tastes great, it has been popular with gardeners for so long.
Picasso is a medium-late variety. I grow it for the third year, while I’m not going to refuse. It is believed that Picasso contains only 10% starch, and therefore does not digest. But I’ll tell you so, this variety is ideal for soups or borscht - it really does not boil, does not spoil the appearance of the first courses. But boiled potatoes are also tasty, appetizing. After cooking, whole potatoes lie in a saucepan, but add a little finely chopped dill, shake it several times - the fragrant, steaming, crumbly potato on your table!
But I was a little distracted from the main issue - planting potatoes.
Powerful green bushes - good or bad for the crop
The most interesting observation when growing potatoes was this. The larger the bush, that is, the juicier the larger the stolons (stems), the leaves, the longer they remain green, the larger the potato grows. These data were slightly different from theoretical information, which says that potatoes are overfed with nitrogen, instead of tubers, they actively grow stems and leaves.
For a long time I was looking for the answer, why practice, theory contradict each other. Well, I decided that they contradict. In fact, there is no contradiction. I accidentally found the answer in one scientific article from the Internet (unfortunately, I didn’t put a bookmark, so I can’t tell you the author’s name, name). There were many calculations, comparisons, more understandable to agronomists, but I made the main (for me) conclusion.
The large green mass allows the potato to better absorb sunlight, which, through photosynthesis, is converted into energy, which contributes to better growth of tubers. At the same time, the bushes develop a powerful root system, which, with tripled strength, receives nutrients from the soil, moisture. All this contributes to better development, growth of tubers.
That is, the main conclusion that I made is to try to keep the potato bushes green for as long as possible, so that the green mass is well developed, powerful.
What did I do for this?
First, seed tubers must have a supply of nutrients before they even get nutrition from the soil. Therefore, before planting, I sprayed the tubers with a solution of nitrophoska and Epin. Nitrofoska is a mineral fertilizer. Epin is a growth regulator, a stimulator of the plant’s immune system. The solution was prepared as follows - 1 teaspoon of nitrophoska per three liters of water + 0.3 ml Epin. Epin measured this: in an ampoule of 1 ml, and I took 1/3 (this is 3 divisions) of the preparation from a small syringe.
And secondly, over the years I have come to the conclusion that it is not necessary to germinate tubers before planting, it is much more important to warm them well in the sun. I will write about this in more detail.
Experience in preparing potatoes for planting
I once brought only two buckets of potatoes from the cellar for germination. Not because there was no more, but just the circumstances. She laid everything out in plastic boxes for vegetables in 1.5-2 layers, sprayed with a solution of nitrophoska, Epina, left in the apartment for germination. Periodically, I sprayed tubers with water, as the air was dry. Spraying is necessary so that they remain dense, do not wrinkle, that is, so that the internal moisture supply does not decrease. This is very important for germination, to increase the number of hatching sprouts.
How to plant potatoes - with or without sprouts
When the time came to plant potatoes, I put 2-3 handfuls of compost into each well, about 1 matchbox of wood ash. As carefully as I did not lower the tuber with the sprouts, they often broke off, and this reduced the number of stolons, that is, the bush could be more powerful if all the sprouts remained intact.
Previously, I somehow did not pay attention to whether the method of planting potatoes sprouted or not affects the size of the potato bush. I tried to plant mainly sprouted, as seedlings appeared earlier, which means that young potatoes could treat themselves early.
But this year I again got an experimental one. Two buckets of sprouted potatoes are not enough for my family, so I had to plant the other two buckets without sprouts. Moreover, it so happened that I brought this potato to the country, but I didn’t have time to plant it that day, it stood in plastic crates in the open air for several days — the sun warmed it for about 5-6 hours a day. Sprouts hatch, but were tiny, greenish.
Before planting, I also treated the tubers with a solution of nitrofoska + Epina, and also added compost and ash when planting. The difference with sprouted potatoes was only in the absence of sprouts, as well as a rather long warming up in the sun. Perhaps there was another difference - a later planting allowed the cultivated, heated tubers to plant in warmer soil.
Conclusions
What are the advantages I got?
Firstly, the absence of sprouts affected the planting speed. I did not have to bow to every tuber, being afraid to break off the sprouts. I just threw the tuber without bending over.
And secondly, when the green mass on the potato formed, I noticed that the bushes of ungrown potatoes are much more magnificent, and the potatoes are larger, the number of tubers is greater.
Thirdly, I did not notice a big difference in the ripening dates. Yes, sprouted potatoes sprouted later, but quickly overtook the potato that was planted with sprouts in colder soil. I dug it at the same time.
And the last plus! I always tried to plant potatoes at the end of March, but, perhaps, a later planting in warm, warm land is only good for him. A month after planting, the sprouted and ungrown potatoes were equal in height. But more magnificent, powerful was the potato, warmed in the sun, planted with barely pecked sprouts, the harvest was also significantly larger - the tubers were larger, there were more.
Here is such an experimental experiment I have succeeded ... Now I try to be sure plus to the processing of tubers to warm them in the sun before planting.