How to plant and care for potatoes to reap a big harvest

When to plant potatoes

The soil for sowing potatoes in spring should warm up to at least 7 ° C. In the regions of the middle lane, this usually occurs in late April - early May. Experienced gardeners have a sign: if the birch trees began to produce the first leaves, then the soil is already warm enough.

However, you can plant potatoes all May and even in the middle June.

How to prepare a bed for potatoes

Choose a well-lit, sunny location. First, carefully dig the soil onto the bayonet of a shovel, breaking up earthen clods and throwing out stones.

Then, for each square meter of beds, add 8–10 kg of rotted manure or compost, 30 g of ammonium nitrate, 45 g of superphosphate and 25 g of potassium sulfate. If your site has heavy clay soil, add another 10‑liter bucket of sand.

After that, you need to dig up the bed again, but to a shallower depth - 12–15 cm, then loosen the surface with a rake.

How to prepare tubers for planting

The choice of planting material is an optional but important step.

Decide on a variety

They differ in maturity. You can harvest early varieties in 2-2.5 months, mid-season - in 3-3.5 months, late - in 4-4.5 months. It is better to eat early potatoes right away, but mid-ripening and late vegetables are stored better and are suitable for stocks for the winter.

When choosing a variety, focus on its yield, disease resistance and average tuber size. Each variety will have its own taste and its own degree of digestibility. You can first make inquiries on the Internet and find the varieties that suit you or trust the recommendations of the seller. Another option is to buy several types of potatoes to try, cook them and choose the one you like for sowing in your garden.

Sprout tubers

You can skip this step and plant potatoes without prior preparation. But germination accelerates the emergence of seedlings in the garden. In addition, this procedure helps to reject low-quality specimens - those that have rotted, released thin and weak shoots, or have not sprouted at all.

Arrange the tubers in one layer in boxes or boxes. Put them in a well-lit place in the house, protected from direct sunlight. You can skip the containers and put the potatoes directly on the floor.

The optimum temperature for germination in the first 10–12 days is 18–20 °C. Then it can be lowered to 10-14 ° C so that the sprouts do not stretch, and wait another two weeks.

After that, choose strong healthy tubers with strong shoots and start planting.

How to plant potatoes

There are three traditional ways. One thing unites them: water beds immediately after planting potatoes are not needed. The tubers contain enough moisture for the first time.

Landing under a shovel

Two people need to plant potatoes in this way. One person digs a hole 10 cm deep, the other puts a tuber in it with sprouts up. Then the next hole is dug, and the previous one is filled with soil from it. The distance between plantings in a row should be 30 cm, and the distance between rows - 70 cm.

Planting in the ridges

Using a shovel or rake, you need to collect the earth in long ridges 35 cm high at a distance of 70 cm from each other. It should turn out so that the rows for sowing will be on a hill, and the aisles will be in a recess.

On each ridge, make holes 10 cm deep in 30 cm increments. Put in each tuber sprouts up and cover with soil.

Planting in furrows

At a distance of 50-60 cm from each other, make furrows 20 cm wide and 15 cm deep. In the resulting trench, lay the tubers sprouts up, keeping a distance of 30 cm, and cover them with soil.

How to care for potatoes

To reap a good harvest, you have to work hard.

Water the potatoes

Do it early in the morning or in the evening after sunset sun. Water must be poured into the aisles, trying not to fall on the tops.

Once every 7–10 days, 3–4 liters of water should be sent under each bush. When buds appear, watering is increased up to twice a week and up to 12-15 liters per plant.

In dry weather, the beds will have to be moistened more often. Dip your palm into the soil and, if the ground is dry at finger level, water the plants.

When the tops on the potatoes completely dry out, water is no longer needed.

feed the potatoes

Fertilize under the root early in the morning or in the evening after sunset. Potatoes will need three feedings per season. The procedure can be completed with hilling.

• 2-3 weeks after sowing, take 20 g of ammonium nitrate or 1 tablespoon of urea per 10 liters of water. Under each plant, 0.5 l of solution is applied.
• When the buds appear on the bushes, feed potatoes with potassium sulfate at the rate of 30 g of the product per 10 liters of water. For 1 m² of beds, apply 1 liter of nutrient mixture.
• During the flowering period, dissolve 1 cup of cow dung and 2 tablespoons of superphosphate in 10 liters of water. One bush will need 0.5 liters of solution.

Spud potatoes

In the process of growth, the tubers may bulge out of the ground and turn green when exposed to light. Therefore, periodically you need to pour the soil from the aisles to the base of the bush with a chopper. Do it early in the morning or in the evening at sunset. And preferably on wet ground.

The first hilling is carried out when the stems grow to 6–8 cm. The soil level around the plant must be raised literally by 2 cm.

After 2-3 weeks, sprinkle the earth so that the pile around the potato bush rises 15-17 cm above the level of the bed.

When the shoots grow to 23–26 cm, raise the mounds around the bushes to 18–19 cm.

How to deal with diseases and pests

To do this, spray the tops and soil around the potatoes with special preparations. Start processing early in the morning, in the evening at sunset or on a cloudy but not rainy day. weather. Try to get the solution on both the top and bottom of the leaves.

How to get rid of the Colorado potato beetle

This is the most frequent guest in the potato garden. One of the effective, but labor-intensive ways to deal with it is the regular collection of beetles and their larvae from the bushes by hand. You can also spray the plants with biological preparations - twice, with an interval of 20 days. Fitoverm, BioKill or Bitoxibacillin are suitable, which are diluted in water according to the instructions on the package.

How to get rid of a wireworm

Chemical the drug "Aktara" will defeat not only the Colorado potato beetle, but also the wireworm. To do this, you need to spray the plants and spill the soil around each bush with a solution over wet soil. For 10 liters of water you will need 0.6 g of the product.

How to get rid of a bear

The preparations "Thunder" or "Medvetoks" will help here, which must be scattered around the bushes at the rate of 2-3 g per 1 m² and buried in the ground to a depth of 3-5 cm.

How to get rid of late blight

For the prevention and control of the most common potato disease - late blight - the Revus fungicide will help. You need to start spraying as soon as buds appear on the bushes, and then spend three more processing with an interval of 10-14 days. For 5 liters of water, take 6 ml of the drug.

When to harvest potatoes

Focus on the ripening time of the variety that you planted. A sure sign of the readiness of the tubers for harvesting is wilting and drying out of the tops. From now on, you have 3 weeks to dig up the potatoes.

How to harvest potatoes

Do this in dry, sunny weather.

Dig up a potato

At a distance of 15-20 cm from the bush, carefully insert the forks into the soil, turn the earth over and pick up the tubers. Take the plant by the base of the tops, remove the potatoes from it. Dig up the soil along the edges of the hole and make sure that there are no fruits left in it.

Dry the potatoes

Set aside damaged and cut tubers during the digging process - they cannot be stored for a long time, and it is better eat them in the first place. Spread the rest of the potatoes in one layer on a newspaper, cardboard or in boxes and send to a cool dark place with a temperature of 10-15 ° C for 1-2 weeks. During this time, the peel on the tubers will become thicker, and then the potatoes will be ready for long-term storage.