How to plant potatoes correctly

Any plant requires careful study of its growing conditions and methods of care. It is logical that by spending efforts on its cultivation, we want to get not withered sprouts, but strong, strong shoots, developed plants that can then give a decent harvest.

Content:

• How to get a rich harvest?
• We plant correctly
• Cut or not?
• Seedling care

Many gardeners, despite the rather laborious process potato care, still prefer to grow it on their own. Commercial potatoes cultivated on an industrial scale, in most cases, do not have a good taste, unlike home-grown potatoes.

How to get a rich harvest?

In order to get a rich crop of tubers, you need to know how to plant potatoes correctly. Listen to the following tips:

- it is best to plant potatoes at a time when the soil temperature at a depth of about 10 cm will not be lower than + 8 ... + 9 degrees. As a rule, the optimal dates for planting are the last days of April - early May. If you plant potatoes in cold ground, then the culture will spend a lot of energy on germination;

- not all potatoes are suitable for planting. The planting material should have small eyes, while the potato should be medium in size and should not be soft (lethargic). In order for the crop yield to increase, you need to pay attention to which varieties grow better on a particular type of soil. It is better to select tubers from those bushes that gave the maximum yield in the current year for planting next season;

- good results can be achieved if you plant potatoes from another region, or at least exchange planting material with a neighbor;

- potatoes of different varieties should be planted, while they should have a different ripening period. This contributes to the long-term storage of the crop, since early maturing varieties usually deteriorate quickly enough. Therefore, first of all, you need to eat early potatoes, and later you can save for the winter.

A prerequisite for a good harvest is crop rotation.

Potatoes are best planted in areas where legumes, cucumbers, squash or squash, pumpkin, cabbage or onions grew in the previous year. But in place of potatoes next year, it is better to plant pumpkin crops, that is, pumpkin, zucchini or cucumbers.

We plant correctly

Two weeks before disembarkation, bring the planting material into a warm room with good lighting. So by the time of planting, sprouts will appear on the tubers. Before planting, you need to disinfect the tubers, for which you should place the potatoes in a boric acid solution. Keep the tubers in the solution for at least half an hour. This will prevent the development of pests that can spoil the crop. You can also increase the yield if the planting material is soaked in diluted manure. To obtain a good result in such a solution, the potatoes must be left for two days.

How to plant potatoes:

• arrange the ridges in the direction from north to south and plant tubers according to the 80x35 scheme to a depth of about 10 cm;
• under each tuber can be additionally poured fertilizer, wood ash and humus;
• cover with a layer of earth or sawdust;
• level the soil with a rake.

Potatoes should be planted in a sunny and open area.You should not plant this crop in the shade, as well as in lowlands, where there is a high probability of stagnant water and the formation of fog.

When planting potatoes in areas with closely spaced groundwater, the tubers should be planted in ridges. If planting is carried out in a dry area, then it should be planted in trenches.

Cut or not?

Should you cut a potato? This is the right of choice for every gardener. Some people believe that if you cut a tuber, it will lose a lot of nutrients. In fact, this is not the case, because in every potato there is a so-called "vershok", in which all the strongest sprouts are concentrated. Therefore, you can save planting material while saving some of the potatoes for food.

The disadvantage of cutting tubers is the high probability of contamination of healthy potatoes. This can significantly reduce the yield. Therefore, if you cut off the spoiled part of the potato, periodically disinfect the knife in a solution of potassium permanganate or in copper sulfate.

If you plan to cut the tuber and plant both halves, then cut lengthwise. Otherwise, you will cut off the "vershok" of the potato, which will bring you a harvest in the future, and the other half will either yield a small number of tubers or will not bear fruit at all.

Seedling care

An indispensable point in the care of potato seedlings is hilling bushes. The change in day and night temperatures can be quite abrupt, which adversely affects the potato root system and can negatively affect the yield. Therefore, the sprouted potato bushes need to be huddled so that only the top of the head, 2-3 cm in size, remains on the surface.