Proper planting and caring for potatoes in the open field

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Potatoes are called second bread. However, not everyone, including experienced gardeners, succeeds in harvesting a rich harvest in the fall. Weather conditions and soil conditions, potato varieties and crop rotation, pest and crop disease control affect yield. It is important that the agrotechnical process of planting in the spring and growing the plant, along with care in the open field, be observed.

Potato - planting in the open field

Preparatory work before planting potatoes

Landing material taken back in the fallwhen putting tuber crops in storage in the cellar or basement. Storage temperature - up to +4, relative humidity-60%. It is recommended to plant tubers of medium size, large roots are cut into two halves, so that each part has several eyes.

A maximum of one month before planting seeds are required to germinate in the light. Planting material is taken out of the cellar and placed in boxes or on a tarpaulin in one layer, giving access to natural light.

We sort and sort potatoes, reject rotten, sick and tubers without sprouts, as well as non-standard size. This procedure is carried out before landing.

When to plant

The golden rule of gardeners: planting potatoes after the leaves appeared on the birch and before the bird cherry blossoms. Potatoes are a heat-loving plant. If the temperature reaches 15 degrees in the root zone, they begin to grow.

The top layer of the soil is not warm enough, so the seeds are planted on half of the spade of a spade on sandy soils and to a depth of 10 cm on heavy soils.

Do not plant the tubers too deep., because in the end you get a trifle and a lot of tops.

If night frosts threaten, and shoots appear, roll up “with the head” so that the tops can be barely noticeable.

Soil requirements

The plot is prepared in the autumn: they dig up, they bring in organic matter. If the soil is acidic, use lime, chalk, dolomite flour. Peat and sand are added to heavy soil, peat and clay are added to sand along with manure and compost.

Distance between rows when landing

Width between rows is 70 cm for late varieties, for early varieties - 60 cm, the distance between the tubers in the holes - 30 cm (for seed potatoes - 20 cm). In narrow aisles, it is inconvenient to weed and spud.

When planting small tubers, the distance between them is reduced.

Landing methods

There is a traditional method of planting manually and mechanically using machinery (tractor or motoblock).

Growing culture under agrofibre

Using agrofibre (spunbond, agrotex, lutrasil) allows you to harvest potatoes 2 - 3 weeks earlier. This material helps to shift landing dates and protects against frost.

The yield of early potatoes is influenced by the following factors:

• planting material (with sprouted eyes);
• autumn cultivation with the introduction of organic fertilizers;
• pest control (wireworm, scoop, Colorado potato beetle) and diseases (phytophthora, fungal diseases).

Early potatoes under agrofibre are grown in the following ways:

• free shelter with white agrofibre early planted potatoes.Under it, seedlings are protected from sudden changes in temperature. When the potatoes reach a height of 20 cm and favorable weather conditions, the material is removed.
• Using black covering material that covers the beds. When warming up the soil, they make holes for planting seeds: one hole for one tuber.

Classic landing methods: on ridges, in the pit, smooth

The classic or traditional methods include planting potatoes on the ridges, in the ditches (trenches), smooth. Each option applies depending on local conditions.

• If at the site of excess moisture, you can plant on the ridgesto protect plants from getting wet. On heavy soils, this type of planting is also advisable. The height of the ridges reaches 20 cm, the tubers planted in them, rise above the soil.
• For landing in the pit or trenches are suitable sandy soil. Sounds like planting potatoes in the ridges, but it is planted in the trenches between the ridges.
• Smooth landing - This is the average between landing on the ridges and in the ditches. Seed material is laid out on the surface or in the grooves, then falling asleep from the edges of the ground.

The depth of planting depends on the type of soil:

• up to 12 cm - light soils;
• up to 10 cm - heavy and loamy;
• up to 5 cm - clay.

Features care after germination

Therefore, special care after the sprouting of potatoes is simply obliged to know every lover of planting vegetables. Consider how to properly care for the culture.

To potato seedlings could not freeze, you need to cover the first seedlings with earth. However, it should be remembered that the covered layer of earth should not exceed 5 cm. If this is not done, then of course there will be a harvest, because tubers will give new sprouts, but the yield will be significantly lower than after shelter.

Loosening

Superficial loosening is carried out by a rake until shoots appear. Further systematically repeated to remove weeds and prevent the formation of a hard crust after rain.

Watering

The need for watering - only in case of lack of moisture.

Hilling

It is held 2-3 times. It is required that stolons develop, and therefore tuber crops, in order to saturate root crops with oxygen and to destroy weeds.

Classic hilling

The earth is raked up on rows from inter-rows. Thanks to the first hilling, the tops are almost completely underground.

Fan hilling

In this case, the earth, on the contrary, is not littered from the sides, but turns out to be in the middle of a bush. Stems moving apart on the sides. Lighting access increases, competition for nutrients and light decreases. Fan hilling guarantees the possibility of increasing the crop by 2 times.

First hilling it is carried out when the appeared shoots reach height of 10 cm.

Second time spud potatoes 2 or 3 weeks after the first. First weed the beds, and then sprinkled with the soil of the plant.

Feedings

There are foliar and root dressings of culture, the latter are more often used in practice.

When planting potatoes used breeding method, when fertilizer is applied to each well. it the most economical way. Introduced mineral organic mixture consisting of humus and superphosphate, ash and ammonium nitrate.

Recommended 3 dressing for the growing season:

• after planting when shoots appear;
• in the budding stage;
• when flowering.

First feeding

On the bucket use half a liter mullein and urea (15 g), consumption - half a liter per plant.

An alternative to manure is bird droppings containing potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus (1.5 tablespoons per bucket). Urea can be replaced by nitrate.

The second

With the second feeding, you do not need to deposit nitrogen, as this is a period of active formation and growth of tubers. Phosphorus and potassium is introduced. To 10 liters of water, 15 g of double superphosphate and potassium sulfate, in addition to half a cup of ash. Consumption for 1 bush - half a liter.

Last

Last application 20 days before harvest. Apply mineral and organic fertilizers: a simple superphosphate (30 g) and slurry (1 cup) is added to a bucket of water, used in half a liter per 1 culture.

Treatment

To protect against viral diseases that adversely affect the crop, carry out prevention. For this purpose, planting only healthy seed. To prevent fungal diseases, spraying is carried out when plants bloom and when buds appear.

Late blight does not develop on soils saturated with copper. Bordeaux mixture - a reliable means by which the seeds are processed before planting in the soil. At the beginning of growth, it is used for spraying plants. If the leaves turn black, the tops must be cut and burned.

To protect the potato field from diseases, sow herbs, calendula, horseradish on the edges of the plot. Sunflower - not the best neighborhood for culture.

Cleaning

Root crops are harvested in late August - mid September. It depends on the potato variety, weather conditions. Should be cleaned when dry in the yard, so that the tubers are ventilated and dry.

Before digging, it is required to mow the tops with weeds, leaving the above-ground part 10 cm high.This will allow the transfer of nutrients from the above-ground part to the tuber crops, will accelerate the ripening of the skin, and increase the keeping quality of the potatoes. Favorable effect on the quality storage of seeds.

By harvesting, do not forget to destroy the tops and weeds - The source of many diseases of the potato.

Dried material with a layer of half a meter or in bags is left for several weeks for a healing period, the task of which, after re-bulkheading, is to reject damaged and diseased roots.

Lay in storage in the basement, underground, cellar at a temperature of + 2 to + 5 degrees.

A good neighbor of the potato during storage is beetwhich absorbs excess moisture.

Pest Protection

Folk remedies

• Wood ash. On 1 weave consumes about 10 kg. Sifted with ash sprinkled with tops in the early morning when it is wet, 1 time every two weeks before budding. Later monthly.
• Mustard. Spray the plants with a solution prepared from 1 kg of powder on a bucket of liquid with the addition of 9% vinegar (100 ml).
• Dusting cement. Gardeners agree that this method causes the death of the larvae.

Herbal infusions and decoctions

• Birch tar. On a bucket of water - 100 g of tar, spraying three times a week.
• Celandine: Chopped fresh or dried, filling the bucket with grass. Boil. For spraying plants use 500 ml of broth per 10 liters of liquid.
• Onion Husk: pour 300 g of husk with a bucket of water heated to 80 degrees. Press down with a load. In a day the infusion is ready.
• Bitter pepper: boil 100 g of dry pepper in a bucket of water. Having added 40 g of soap to warm broth, spray the tops.
• Tobacco: 0.5 kg of tobacco dust is drawn in 10 liters of water for two days. Diluted 1: 2, add 40 g of soap.

Plants - repellent against beetle

It does not tolerate the smell of marigold, calendula, night violet, coriander, borage. Since the Colorado potato beetle quickly adapts to stimuli, the means of dealing with it must be alternated regularly.

Know that an important role in harvesting good crops is correct crop rotation. When growing crops in one area, even innovative agronomic technologies will not bring the desired result.

So, following the technology of planting and caring for potatoes, you can get a good harvest.