Proper planting of potatoes is the key to a bountiful harvest! How to plant potatoes for a good harvest.

Potatoes are a vegetable crop, without which it is impossible to imagine the life of a Russian person. The roots of this plant contain many nutrients (starch, protein...), which is why they are also called “second bread”. In gardening, this crop is a favorite; as a rule, most of the garden is devoted to it. Many people believe that to get a good harvest, you don’t need to make any effort at all - potatoes grow on their own and require virtually no care. This is far from true. This culture, like many others, needs attention at certain stages of development. This article will tell you which one.

Planting potatoes: deciding on the timing

Potatoes are planted when the soil warms up thoroughly. This period occurs at different times in different latitudes.

• Southern regions of Russia (for example, Krasnodar region). Here potatoes can be planted in the last ten days of March. True, this applies only to early varieties. Mid-season planting occurs a little later - around the beginning of April.
• Central Russia (for example, Moscow region). The deadline for planting potatoes for this area is the end of April.
• Ural and Siberia. Warmth reaches these regions the latest, so potatoes are planted only in early May.

Potatoes must be planted within the strictly designated time frame. If you are ahead of your time and in unheated soil, there is a high probability that the tubers will develop poorly - they will germinate slowly. You also need to pay attention to soil moisture. If the indicator is quite high, the root crop may rot and be sick for a long time .

How to plant potatoes: diagram, planting time

Landing scheme. Potatoes are planted in rows. The distance between them should be approximately 70 cm, and 50 cm is the indicator that should be between the bushes. If the root crops are closer to each other, then the potatoes will not have enough space to develop and they will grow too small.

Boarding time. You can plant potatoes at any time. Only correct option No. Gardeners usually plant in morning hours. However, this can also be done in the evening.

The main stages of potato care: fertilizing, hilling, watering

Potato feeding occurs in three stages:

Hilling potatoes is perhaps the most important stage in growing this crop. The essence of the process is to rake the soil to the potato bush. It is recommended to carry out hilling twice a season. The first treatment occurs when the plant reaches 5-10 cm in height. This procedure can be carried out both in the evening and in the morning. However, many gardeners have noticed that it is best to hill up potatoes after rain. The second stage occurs during the formation of buds. This period usually occurs at the end of May (depending on the region). Hilling allows you to increase the yield by at least 30 percent. This happens because the stems of the bush, due to the addition of soil, send out new shoots, which subsequently form additional tubers.

We must not forget about potatoes. Without it, this crop is sometimes very difficult to grow. In particular, the most difficult thing is southern regions Russia (for example, Crimea). Here, due to the hot climate, potatoes need to be watered at least once a week. If we talk about central and northern regions Russian Federation, then here, as a rule, there is enough atmospheric precipitation for root crops. However, this does not mean that you should completely abandon watering. Still, plants will need water three times during the season: when shoots appear, buds appear and flowering begins.

How to deal with the Colorado potato beetle

Sometimes pests interfere with getting a good potato harvest. The main enemy is the Colorado potato beetle. This insect lives in the ground and attacks root crops from the inside. If no measures are taken, then, according to researchers, it can destroy up to 2 hectares of plantings per season. There are several methods that gardeners use to combat this pest:

1. Chemical. The name implies the use of special chemicals. Among the most common: “Decis”, “Fastak”, “Ratibor”, “Arrivo”, “Bankol”. All these drugs show good results. However, it is not worth using them often, despite all the assurances from the manufacturers.
2. Traditional methods. They are not as effective, but they are 100% safe. Lingonberry leaves (dried) are widely distributed among gardeners. They are sprinkled (the leaves must be ground) on top of the entire potato bush. This method is believed to have a deterrent effect. True, it is effective against young individuals (larvae).

Last chemical treatment potatoes should be carried out at least 20 days before harvest. Otherwise, you can easily get poisoned.

Grow potatoes in your dacha or personal plot not difficult at all. The main thing is to know when to carry out hilling and do not forget to water the bushes of the plant from time to time.

Potatoes are a popular and widely used crop that remains in demand. It is not surprising that many people are wondering how to grow this crop on their own plot, spending a minimum of time and effort and ultimately getting good results.

Getting ready to land

Before moving on to the nuances of growing, you need to make sure that the prepared area is suitable for planting - otherwise you risk wasting effort and time. Before planting, you need to pay attention to several important factors:

1. Clay soil or sandy soil. It’s not difficult to figure out this nuance: we moisten a small lump of earth with water and try to mold something out of it. If the wet soil is plastic and easy to mold, it is probably clay; if it crumbles in your hands, it is sandy. Both are suitable for growing potatoes, but each will require different planting and management schemes.
2. Soil acid. Pay attention to which weeds prefer to grow in the plot. If there is a buttercup or plantain, the soil has an acidic reaction, if there is bindweed or sow thistle, it is neutral. To improve the structure of acidic soil, bringing it closer to neutral, you can add ash, chalk or lime (1–2 kg per square meter) to the soil.
3. What crops was this area used for last year? Potatoes cannot be constantly planted in the same place, so it is necessary to alternate them with other plants so that the crop is less affected by diseases and pests, and the soil is not depleted. It is better to plant potatoes after beets, pumpkins, cucumbers, legumes, sunflower, lupine or corn. We avoid planting it in the area where garden strawberries previously grew, and do not return it to the same place earlier than four years later.

Try to plant sprouted tubers in the ground - this will speed up the appearance of sprouts and increase the final yield

The most common planting schemes

Both the schemes and methods of planting potatoes can differ significantly from each other - this is due to the composition of the soil and the climatic conditions of a particular region. So, in northern and rainy areas, in areas where groundwater are in close proximity to the soil surface or in excessively heavy soil, it is more advisable to plant potatoes on ridges. In arid conditions, smooth planting is used, and in the middle zone it is alternated with ridge planting.

The mechanical composition of the soil also affects the depth of planting. The lighter the soil and the warmer and drier the climate, the more planting material buried in the soil, and vice versa. When planting smoothly on loams, the potatoes are buried to a depth of 6–8 cm, when planted on a ridge, by 8–10 cm. On sandy and sandy loam soil, it is more advisable to plant smoothly to a depth of 8–10 cm or ridge planting, in which the tubers are covered with soil to a depth of 10–12 cm. In the southern regions and the chernozem zone, the depth increases to 10–14 cm.

Choose a planting scheme based on the mechanical composition of the soil and climatic conditions

The standard row spacing is 70 cm and varies depending on the chosen planting method. Between tubers, 25 to 40 cm of free space is usually left, depending on their size: large potatoes are planted after 40 cm, medium ones - after 35 cm, and 25–30 cm is enough for small ones.

When planting potatoes, always place the beds from north to south so that the plants do not lack sunlight.

Basically, gardeners are guided by the planting schemes listed below.

Row spacing:

• 70 cm - for varieties with late ripening;
• 60 cm - for early potatoes.

Distance between standard size tubers:

• 30–35 cm - for late potatoes;
• 25–30 cm - for early varieties.

Planting depth:

• 4–5 cm - on heavy clay soil, as well as on moist soils;
• 8–10 cm - on loams;
• 10–12 cm - on light, well-warmed soil.

Conservative planting methods

When deciding on the most suitable method, remember that each of them will give good results only if the soil composition and climatic conditions are suitable for growing potatoes in this particular way. Thus, an excessively shallow planting depth is not suitable for sandy soil, and an excessively deep planting depth is contraindicated for clay soils. For all traditional growing methods, only the basic requirements remain the same.

Landing under a shovel

The main and most common method, most often referred to as the “old-fashioned” method, is justified on light and loose soils where the groundwater is quite deep. A significant disadvantage of such planting is the dependence of the tubers on the vagaries of the weather: for example, if the beginning of the season was rainy, due to excess dampness, the roots of the plants begin to die, which has an extremely negative effect on their development. If it rains shortly before digging potatoes, the tubers can become saturated with moisture, resulting in poor shelf life. In clayey, excessively wet and heavy soil, the use of this method is inappropriate, since there is a high probability of developing fusarium and potato rotting.

It is much faster and more convenient to plant with two people: the first will dig holes, and the second will follow on his heels and lay out the tubers. You can also involve a third assistant in the event - he will level the ground with a rake in the already planted rows.

To ensure that the holes run in a straight line and are equidistant from each other, string a string across the area to provide a guide.

The principle of this planting method is as follows: rows of holes are dug in the area at a certain interval into which planting material is placed. In this case, the soil from the holes of the next rows buries the previous ones.

To make the rows of holes as even as possible, drive a peg from two opposite ends of the plot and stretch a rope between them.

With this planting, beds can be formed in three ways:

1. Square-nested. The area is conventionally divided into squares, and a hole (nest) is placed in each, keeping a gap of 50–70 cm between the nests.
2. Chess. The holes of adjacent rows are placed in checkerboard pattern relative to each other.
3. Two-line. Two rows of holes (lines) are located almost closely. The gap between holes is approximately 30 cm, between double rows - up to a meter. The holes themselves are arranged in a checkerboard pattern.

When planting, add a handful of ash and humus to each hole.

Pour a handful of humus and ash into each hole, and then place a potato tuber on top. During the season, be sure to carry out at least one (or preferably two) hilling. Plants should be watered once a week (twice in dry periods), the first watering is carried out after the sprouts appear. Two weeks before digging potatoes, watering is completely stopped.

Planting in ridges

This type of landing is similar to the previous one. The difference is that potatoes are planted not in holes, but in shallow grooves.

1. Two pegs are driven in along the edges of the pre-prepared area and a rope is pulled between them.
2. A groove is formed under the rope, into which the tubers are laid out at intervals of 30 cm and each of them is sprinkled with a tablespoon of ash.
3. Then, using a rake (or a hoe, whichever is more convenient), cover the grooves with earth on both sides so as to cover the planting material by 6 cm.
4. They retreat 65 cm from the newly planted row and then proceed according to the same pattern.

According to experienced agronomists, when planting in ridges it is better to use the double row method

Some agronomists argue that it is best to use the double row method for such planting, that is, reduce the gap between two adjacent rows to 30 cm, expanding the row spacing to 110 cm. The tubers are laid out in grooves in a checkerboard pattern, maintaining a gap of 35 cm. In the future, the double bed is cared for as if it were one row.

Like planting under a shovel, this method is not suitable for heavy clay soils, since it increases the likelihood of tubers rotting and plant infection with fungal diseases. But on soils of light mechanical composition it will be completely justified.

Landing in trenches

The main advantage of this method is that it increases soil fertility. This method protects the tubers from overheating and drying out in hot climates, and is most appropriate in areas with loose soil that does not retain water well.

Trench planting has been successful since the beginning of the last century. This method is considered one of the most productive - provided the weather is good, you can get up to a ton of potatoes from one hundred square meters. At the same time, the tubers receive proper nutrition without chemical fertilizers.

Planting potatoes in trenches increases soil fertility

The site should be prepared for this method in the fall.

1. At the site, they pull a rope and dig a trench under it with the depth and width of a shovel bayonet (35–40 cm), laying the excavated earth along the left edge. Row spacing is 60–80 cm.
2. The bottom of the trenches is covered with plant remains and food waste - weeds, squash and cucumber tops, onion peels, flower stems, etc. Leaves that have fallen from the trees are placed on top, sprinkled with earth and left until spring.
3. Planting begins simultaneously with the beginning of lilac flowering. First, add a little earth from the tops of the ridges into the trenches, then, every 30 cm, lay out a tablespoon of ash, a handful of chicken manure and onion peels.
4. Planting material is placed on top of the fertilizers and covered with soil.
5. To protect the sprouts from frost, they are earthed up as they appear. If there is no severe drought, the plants are watered once - during the flowering period.

Potatoes planted in trenches can be fertilized with a solution table salt at the rate of 800 grams per 12 liters of water. Fertilizing is carried out only once a year, combining it with watering.

According to some gardeners, the trench method gives good results on well-aerated soils with a high peat content. True, planting will have to be done 1-2 weeks later than the standard time, since peat tends to take a long time to thaw in the spring. And when such planting is used on loam, both the quality and quantity of the harvest are significantly reduced.

Landing on ridges

If you own an area with heavy, overly moist soil or groundwater is very close to the surface, feel free to choose the ridge method. It is especially good if it is possible to use equipment to cultivate the soil - for example, a tractor or a motor cultivator.

Choose ridge planting if you have the opportunity to cultivate the soil with a tractor or motor cultivator

1. The selected area is prepared in the fall by digging it up and adding the necessary fertilizers.
2. In the spring, ridges about 15 cm high are formed on the plot at a distance of 70 cm from each other and planted in them. As a result, the tubers will be protected from excessive soaking and well warmed by the sun's rays.

Ridge planting is justified exclusively on structured and moisture-absorbing soils. Since loose and light soil tends to crumble under the influence of precipitation, exposing potato tubers, and the sun and wind quickly dry out the ridges, in arid areas climatic conditions The plants will need additional watering.

Deep landing (American way)

So-called American method Suitable for light soils that dry out quickly. Planting is carried out according to a 22x22 cm pattern, while the planting material is buried 22 cm into the soil. When the first shoots appear on the surface, the soil near the plants begins to be periodically loosened, but hilling is not carried out. The rest of the care is standard - watering as the soil dries, preventative treatments and timely treatment if necessary.

American planting causes potatoes to form very long stems, which increases the final yield.

The peculiarity of the American method is as follows: in order to reach the soil surface, plants are forced to form a very long stem. And since the tubers can be located along the entire length of this very stem, the final yield increases significantly.

Many experimenters claim that the American planting method is indeed effective, but it cannot be used on heavy clay soils.

New planting methods

Of course, conservative planting methods have many advantages, but many gardeners are wondering how to minimize the physical and time costs of planting potatoes and further care. Therefore, craftsmen never tire of inventing original methods that require as little time and effort as possible. These methods can be useful for busy people, as well as for those who like experimenting, who will not be too upset even if the experience of growing potatoes in a new way turns out to be unsuccessful.

Planting in bags

The main advantage of this method is that it allows you to get a potato harvest in absolutely any area, even where it is impossible to grow it using traditional methods, since for planting it is not the soil from the plot that is used, but a certain soil mixture. However, in dry and hot climates, plants will require very frequent and abundant watering.

The method described below is suitable for tiny areas where there is no room for traditional planting:

1. You need to take a regular bag and pour drainage into it, and place potato tubers on top.
2. As soon as sprouts appear on the potatoes, they are covered with a mixture of soil and compost (1:1). When the tops become taller, add more soil, repeating this procedure if necessary.
3. Watering is carried out as the soil dries out; fertilizing is carried out regularly with complex fertilizers according to the instructions.

Planting potatoes in bags is a great option for small areas

Planting in barrels

The method is very similar to the one described above, but in in this case It is not bags that are used, but metal or plastic barrels without a bottom.

1. Holes are made around the perimeter of each container (so that the soil is better supplied with air and water does not stagnate in it) and a mixture of compost and earth is poured into them.
2. Potatoes are placed on top of it and covered with the same soil mixture.
3. Subsequently, soil is added to the young bushes as they grow until the barrel is filled to a meter.
4. Plants are regularly watered and fertilized.

If you provide the potatoes with proper care, you can get about a bag of harvest from each barrel.

To plant potatoes in barrels, use metal or plastic containers without a bottom.

Planting in barrels can be done on any site, since the land from the plot is not involved in cultivation, however, if the summer is very hot or in a dry climate, barrels with potatoes will have to be watered more often.

Planting in boxes

Like the two previous methods, planting in a box is quite justified on an area with any soil composition. In drought conditions, plants will also need more frequent and abundant watering.

The principle of cultivation in this case is similar to the American one, that is, it is based on the fact that potatoes can form tubers along the entire length of the stem placed in the soil (accordingly, the longer the stem, the better). A special feature of the design is to build up the walls of the box and fill them with soil as the young bushes grow. To do this, you can drive stakes into the ground and attach walls made of boards to them with wire, or simply stack boxes without a bottom of the same size on top of each other.

Planting in boxes is carried out as follows:

1. We place the box on bricks so that the bottom does not touch the ground and is well ventilated.
2. We cover the bottom of the structure with a layer of paper and cover it with a layer of light soil (ideally, expanded clay screenings with humus in a 1:1 ratio).
3. Place the sprouted tubers on top and cover them with soil. If planting is done early, cover the box with polyethylene.
4. When the potato sprouts begin to rise above the box, we add a second floor to the structure and again fill the plants with soil. We repeat the manipulations until the buds appear. To prevent budding from starting too early, water the potatoes with manure compost and protect the container from excessive heat.
5. Having noticed the appearance of buds, we stop building the container and take care of the crop in the standard way (water, feed, carry out preventive measures, etc.). The easiest way to water is through pipes with holes.
6. After the tops have completely withered, when the crop is fully ripe, you need to disassemble the structure and select the tubers.

To avoid rotting of the boards, with inside drawers can be lined with film.

Original and unconventional methods of planting potatoes

As a rule, non-standard planting methods are invented by gardeners to facilitate a specific task. For example, the area for potatoes is completely overgrown with grass, and there is neither the strength nor the desire to dig it up. Thus, the problem gives an opportunity to come up with an original and inexpensive way to solve it.

Planting potatoes without digging

There are quite a few options for such planting, but they all boil down to one principle: the soil should absolutely not be dug up. In particular, weeds should not be removed from the soil - shortly before planting, they are simply mowed down, leaving the roots in the ground.

There are no specific requirements for the composition of the soil for such planting, so you can experiment in almost any conditions, starting from the planting schemes and basic growing rules described at the beginning. But on heavy, overly compacted soils, the quality and quantity of the final harvest will be much lower.

Planting potatoes without digging does not require pre-treatment soil

One method of planting without digging the soil looks like this:

1. Carefully remove the soil with a shovel to a depth of about 10 cm.
2. We place the prepared planting material in the ditch and sprinkle it 5 cm with soil or compost.
3. Throughout the growing season, we dump various plant debris - leaves, weeds, etc. - under the bushes. At the same time, we try to ensure that the stems of the bush are not collected together, but, on the contrary, fall apart as far from each other as possible. We don't spud.
4. We water very rarely, only in severe drought. If desired, you can carry out preventive treatments, and if necessary, you need to spray the potatoes with drugs against diseases and pests.

Planting in the grass

With this method, you also won't need to dig up the area. The potatoes are simply laid out on the ground, directly on the grown grass, in two rows. The gap between the tubers is 25 cm, the row spacing is 40–50 cm. To ensure that the tops are well illuminated by the sun in the future, it is better to lay out the potatoes in a checkerboard pattern.

When planting in grass, the beds are mulched with hay, leaves or dry sedge.

After planting, the area is mulched with hay, dry sedge or leaves. Some gardeners even cover the tubers with torn black and white newspapers. To prevent the mulch layer from being damaged by the wind, you can cover it on top with lutrasil.

A significant disadvantage of growing under mulch is that a lot of it is required, which means that it is unlikely that you will be able to plant a large area using this method. Mulch prevents moisture evaporation, so this method of cultivation should not be used on overly moist soils in order to avoid rotting of tubers and fungal infection of plants.

Do not use cereal crops for mulching, otherwise mice and rats will appear in the garden bed.

During the entire growing season of the plants, pull out weeds, grass and hay are added to the bed, making sure that the tubers are well covered, since when overheated, the layer of mulch will settle. No fertilizers can be applied. There is also no need to water - when the plants overheat, the moisture from them will go into the soil, providing the plants with everything they need. When the potatoes bloom, pick off all the flowers, leaving them on only one bush - this way you can determine the time of harvesting. When the flowers on the control bush wither, rake the compost and remove the tubers.

Planting in sawdust

This method is similar in principle to the previous two. Planting material is distributed over the site, maintaining a distance of about 25 cm, and sprinkled on top with a layer of sawdust mixed with peat, ash and plant waste so that the sawdust completely covers the tubers.

For planting, use old, half-rotted sawdust rather than fresh sawdust, since fresh sawdust has high acidity and can significantly worsen the final harvest.

There is another option for such planting: dig grooves about 10 cm deep in the area, fill them with a layer of sawdust mixed with organic matter, lay sprouted tubers on top of them and sprinkle them with sawdust.

Do not use for planting fresh sawdust- this may have a negative impact on the harvest

During the growing season, add sawdust as needed to prevent bare potatoes. There is no need for watering or fertilizing. After the tops wilt, rake the mulch layer and select the crop. The sawdust left on the site can be used for next year.

Many gardeners note that with this method there is a high probability of tubers freezing, so planting should be done only after the threat late frosts completely passes. On excessively moist soils and in very rainy summer conditions, potatoes may rot and their shelf life may decrease.

Planting under cardboard

This method greatly facilitates not only the planting itself, but also the process of preparing the soil, since before laying the cardboard on the ground there is no need to remove weeds from it - they will subsequently die off on their own from lack of air and sunlight. Also, preliminary digging of the soil is not necessary. The only thing you will need is a large number of cardboard Make sure the soil is moist before laying the cardboard on the soil. If the soil is dry, be sure to water it.

It is better to use large cardboard sheets, like those that are thrown away furniture stores or hardware stores.

Planting under cardboard has an extremely beneficial effect on soil fertility, since the weeds that remain under it, decomposing, act as fertilizer. The soil under the cardboard retains moisture well; there are many earthworms in it, which make the soil looser.

Of course, this method is unlikely to be suitable for a large area, since quite a lot of cardboard will be required. In addition, you will need to constantly ensure that the covering material is not blown away by the wind. Cardboard tends to decompose and is therefore not suitable for repeated use. However, there are quite a lot of advantages to such planting: the gardener will not need to remove weeds and waste time digging the soil, the soil structure will improve, and, accordingly, the final yield. And you will only have to water the plants during a very severe drought.

This planting method involves two options.

Cardboard bed

The main advantage of this planting is that the ridges formed above the bed well protect the tubers from freezing. Therefore, this method is most often used when growing potatoes in cold climates, as well as when planting early varieties. Cardboard prevents weeds from germinating, and filling the trenches serves as an excellent fertilizer for plants. In addition, potatoes planted this way are much easier to dig up, since the cardboard bottom of the trenches prevents the roots from going too deep into the ground. This method is justified on almost all types of soil, with the exception of sandy and excessively moist clay soils: in the first case, the ridges above the trenches will very quickly collapse under the influence of external factors, and in the second case, rotting is possible seed material.

1. In the fall, cover the soil with a layer of cardboard without any pre-treatment (that is, digging or removing weeds) and press it down to the ground so that it does not blow away with the wind.
2. In the spring, the cardboard is removed and a trench is made in the area, the depth and width of a shovel.
3. Take used cardboard and place it at the bottom of the recesses, sprinkling it with a layer of humus and half-rotted grass on top.
4. Prepared planting material is placed on top of it at a short distance from each other and the trenches are filled in so that the distance between them is 60–70 cm, and high ridges are formed above them.
5. Water the beds as needed.
6. After the tops have completely withered, the crop is dug up.

Garden bed under cardboard

In this case, the area is completely covered with cardboard before planting. This method can be used on almost all types of soils (except for overly moist ones, since cardboard prevents moisture evaporation), however, there is a high probability that when planted in heavy soil, the quality and quantity of the final harvest will decrease. Avoid making beds under cardboard in rainy climates - excessive rainfall will cause the covering material to become wet, which will negate your efforts.

When planting under cardboard, you can cover the soil both in the fall and immediately before planting

1. Approximately every 30 cm, X-shaped holes are made in the cardboard and holes fifteen centimeters deep are dug under them.
2. A potato tuber is placed in each of them and sprinkled with soil. When weeds appear, they are removed immediately.
3. Watering is carried out in very dry times and only under the bushes (to avoid the cardboard getting wet).
4. After the tops die, the cardboard is removed and harvesting begins.

Since planting potatoes in an area covered with cardboard is not very convenient, you can resort to an alternative planting method: first dig holes, place the tubers in them and sprinkle with soil, and after that place covering material on top and make holes for future bushes.

Planting with a walk-behind tractor "Cascade"

When planting potatoes with a walk-behind tractor, gardeners mainly pursue the goal of making their own work easier, so they think little about such nuances as climatic conditions or the mechanical composition of the soil. In principle, this is true, since this method is successfully used on all types of soils, although planting methods may vary somewhat.

Using a walk-behind tractor, you can plant potatoes in several ways:

• hiller,
• mounted potato planter,
• plow
• into the ridges.

The first three are used on light soils, and the last is suitable for clay soils, where groundwater is in close proximity to the surface. Planting with a potato planter is justified only when working with a very large planting area, since its purchase requires considerable financial expenditure. True, some agronomists get out of the situation by constructing this unit with their own hands.

It is more convenient to plant with a walk-behind tractor using a potato planter

This method requires pre-treatment of the soil - the soil must be dug up in advance with the introduction of all necessary fertilizers. If a potato planter is used, the entire procedure is carried out in one pass, since this unit is equipped with a furrow maker, a hopper for planting material and a disk hiller for filling furrows. Instead of wheels, lugs are put on the walk-behind tractor and the parameters of the potato planter are adjusted in accordance with the instructions.

When planting with a hiller, lugs are also installed instead of wheels. The width of the hiller's wings is kept to a minimum, and the track width is 55–65 cm. Using a walk-behind tractor, furrows are made along the width of the track and potato tubers are laid out, keeping a gap of 20–30 cm. After this, the lugs are replaced with ordinary wheels and the furrows are filled.

Planting with a plow involves installing lugs and the plow itself. It is much easier and faster if two people participate in the event: one operates the unit, and the other lays out the tubers. The plow is inserted into the soil to the depth of a spade bayonet: thus, furrows for potatoes are formed. After placing the seed material, the previous furrow is covered with soil from the next one.

Ridge planting is only suitable for well-moistened soils. Using a walk-behind tractor, make ridges 15–20 cm high in the area and plant potato tubers in them.

Planting in a greenhouse

This growing method has several advantages. Firstly, if you provide the greenhouse with proper heating, you can almost enjoy the young tubers. all year round. Secondly, planting in closed ground allows you to get more yield, and the plants will be less damaged by pests. And it’s much easier to weed out weeds in a greenhouse than in an open area.

Potatoes planted in a greenhouse are less damaged by pests than those growing in an open area

To grow good potatoes in a greenhouse, you will need to carry out the following manipulations:

1. In the fall, the soil in the greenhouse is prepared by filling it with manure or humus and digging it thoroughly.
2. Select medium-sized potatoes and germinate the tubers in a well-lit and warm (13–17 °C) room, turning them over periodically. To speed up germination, you can put the potatoes in a basket and sprinkle them with damp peat or sawdust.
3. In the greenhouse, they draw even rows every 20–40 cm, dig holes 5–7 cm deep, lay out the sprouted potatoes in them and cover them with a layer of manure. After a week, the manure layer is increased.
4. The first feeding is carried out after the sprouts reach a height of 5–7 cm.

Potatoes planted in a greenhouse need very frequent fertilization. Water it abundantly, once every 10–12 days. Be sure to loosen the row spacing, carry out the hilling procedure and remove pests from the leaves.

Abundant watering of potatoes in a greenhouse increases the yield several times.

Planting under film and agrofibre

Growing under covering materials pays off on any soil and helps to obtain stable high yield, protect the tubers from late frosts, and, if desired, make good money selling young potatoes. At the same time, there is nothing complicated in agricultural technology, and even beginning gardeners can easily master it. The use of covering materials increases productivity by 15–20%.

Regardless of which material is chosen, you will need to prepare the area in advance. To do this, in the fall it is dug up to a depth of 22–25 cm with the addition of organic matter and ready-made complex fertilizers. After the snow has completely melted, you can cover the area with polyethylene and leave it like that until planting.

To help the snow on your property melt faster, create raised beds in the fall.

For planting, medium-sized tubers (70–80 grams) are selected and germinated at 10–15 °C. To enjoy young potatoes early, choose early or extra-early varieties.

Features of growing under film

Potatoes are planted in the ground, maintaining a gap of 20–25 cm between the tubers. The row spacing is 60–70 cm. The planted area is covered with thick polyethylene on top and its edges are fixed with earth, bricks or water bottles to protect from gusts of wind.

Cover the plantings with polyethylene and secure its edges so that the material does not blow away with the wind.

Before sprouts appear, potatoes do not need ventilation, but young shoots already need fresh air. Therefore, after their appearance, the film is lifted from time to time, and when the bushes reach 10–15 cm in height, ventilation holes are made in a checkerboard pattern every 15 cm.

Control the temperature under the film - if it is too high, the growth of young shoots will stop.

Alternatively, you can install a frame 30–35 cm high above the bed and stretch the film over it - then the plants will receive more air. The rest of the agricultural technology does not differ from traditional ones: water as needed, fertilize and ensure that pests do not appear on the bushes.

Growing under polyethylene will help protect the tubers from frost, so it is advisable to use it in cold climates.

Growing under agrofibre

Agrofibre, or spunbond - non-woven material, widely used for covering plants. Its main advantage is that it is moisture- and breathable. In addition, good quality light agrofibre is washable and can be used repeatedly.

For covering potato beds spunbond with a density of 20–30 grams per square meter is suitable. Cover the plot with it in the same way as with polyethylene, fixing the edges. You can also stretch agrofibre onto the frame to make the bushes more spacious in the future. Since this material is highly aerated, it will not need to be removed periodically.

If you use black agrofibre, make cross-shaped holes for each bush

Depending on what goal you are pursuing, you can use either light or dark spunbond. White is usually wide and suitable for multiple uses. The black one is disposable, and it does not allow light to pass through, since it is intended to protect against weeds. If you use black agrofibre, after covering it, make cross-shaped cuts in it for each bush.

When planting under agrofibre, keep in mind that it will not be able to properly protect the plants from frost. Therefore, if the temperature drops to -6 °C, cover the top of the beds with polyethylene. The polyethylene film and light agrofibre are removed after the weather is consistently warm outside. The dark spunbond is left until harvest.

Hilling begins when the sprouts reach 15–20 cm in height, and watering is carried out once a week. Two weeks after planting, fertilize the potatoes with urea (15 grams per square meter), and before budding, add potash fertilizers. The first harvest can be done as early as May (depending on planting dates), and the main harvest is carried out from the end of June to July.

A few more ways to get a good harvest

In addition to those described above, there are several more original planting methods that allow you to get good result. These methods are not suitable for everyone, but some gardeners really like them.

Method of P. Balabanov

The method was developed by potato grower Pyotr Romanovich Balabanov, and its essence is to carry out two hillings even before the emergence of shoots so that in the end the tuber is covered with soil by 20–25 cm. Balabanov argued that this method significantly facilitates the work of the gardener and increases productivity.

The maximum quantity of potatoes obtained by Balabanov's method is 119 from one bush.

Planting is carried out as follows:

1. In the prepared area in autumn or early spring, ridges 15–20 cm high are formed and sown with green manure. A couple of days before planting potatoes, the plants are pruned, leaving the root part in the ground. Neither organic matter nor any mineral fertilizers are applied.
2. Only large tubers weighing at least 100 grams are suitable for planting. The planting material must be germinated, dipped for 10–15 minutes in a protective solution (1 teaspoon of potassium permanganate, boric acid And copper sulfate per 10 liters of water) and dusted with ash.
3. A shovel is stuck into the center of a previously prepared ridge, tilted slightly and the potatoes are carefully placed in this gap so that a 6 cm layer of soil remains above it. The gap between the tubers is 30–40 cm, the row spacing is up to 120 cm.

Planting activities are carried out after the soil has warmed to 8–10 °C. After a week (but always before the first shoots), the potatoes are covered with a 6 cm layer of soil, and this procedure is repeated after 7 days. During the growing season, the plants will need to be earthed twice more. Watering is carried out at least three times - at the beginning and end of budding, and then at the beginning of flowering. According to Balabanov, planting using this method will allow you to get up to a ton of potatoes from one hundred square meters, and the harvest will please you even in the driest years.

Gardeners who planted potatoes using the method described above claim that it is justified only if the summer is not too hot and dry. Otherwise, the tubers turn out to be very small.

When planting using the Balabanov method, there is no need to dig holes for potatoes.

Please note that only loose, fertile and slightly acidic (pH 5.5-5.8) soil is suitable for using the technology described above. For heavy soil, this method is absolutely unacceptable.

Folk method

This method was developed by one of the residents of the Tula region. It consists of carrying out the following manipulations:

1. In the fall, the soil is dug up onto the bayonet of a shovel. At the same time, manure is added to the soil.
2. In the spring, the site is dug up again - this time 15 cm deep, while introducing Nitroammofoska.
3. The plot is delimited alternately into strips 20 and 80 cm wide. Sprouted potatoes are laid out along the edges of the strips every 30 cm. The soil is raked from wide strips onto the tubers, covering them by 2 cm.
4. High hilling is carried out three times a season (if there is a threat of late frosts, the sprouts are hilled high).
5. When good weather stabilizes outside, the first fertilization with Nitroammophos is carried out. Then two more feedings are carried out with an interval of 10 days.
6. The stems of two adjacent rows are laid on top of each other and hilled up so that a flat mound is formed, and a couple of days before harvesting they are mowed at a height of 15 cm from the ground surface. This is done so that the stems take on new roots and produce more yield.

Gülich method

This method of planting is suitable for owners of large plots, since its point is that each bush receives maximum free space.

1. The plot prepared for planting is divided into squares measuring one meter by one meter.
2. In the center of each square, a roller of rotted manure is built in a circle, covered with loose soil and large potatoes are planted upside down.
3. When shoots begin to emerge from the tuber, pour soil into the center of the ring formed by them.
4. As soon as the first leaves appear on the sprouts, add more soil.
5. These manipulations are repeated until a multi-tiered bush is formed.
6. Water as needed and fertilize several times.

According to agronomists, if all instructions are correctly followed, one such bush can produce up to 16 kg of potatoes.

Growing the crop using the Gülich method allows you to get up to 16 kg of potatoes per bush

Potatoes from skins

A very original method that allows you to get a harvest without actually using seed material.

1. In the spring, potato peelings are collected and placed in open paper bags.
2. As soon as the temperature outside approaches zero, they take the collected material to the greenhouse and spill it in it. hot water a small corner, laid out on top of the cleaning, covered with soil or several layers of newspapers and covered with snow.
3. When the soil warms up to 12 °C, sprouts will appear from the peel. They will need to be planted instead of regular seed, a handful in each hole. Further care standard.

An experiment with growing potatoes from peels can be carried out on any soil and in any climate, allocating for it small area vegetable garden Since this method requires virtually no costs, you are unlikely to regret it even if it does not pay off.

If you do not have a greenhouse, germinate the peelings in the area, covering them on top with plastic film.

Video: effective methods of planting potatoes

There are a great many methods of planting potatoes - both quite conservative and original new ones, and it is simply impossible to list them all. Each gardener will be able to choose from this list the most suitable method for him, and, providing potatoes necessary care, boast of an excellent harvest.

Have you been growing the same variety for years from your own “seeds”? If seed tubers are meticulously taken only from the most the best bushes, then this is acceptable. In other cases, the variety will degenerate. High-quality new potatoes for planting will give a completely different result.

Reference

Early ripening (early) varieties – harvest 60–65 days after planting; mid-early – after 70–75 days; mid-season - after 80–85 days; mid-late and late-ripening - after 90–100 days or more..

Where can I buy?

We recommend purchasing seed potatoes only from reliable places and not looking for them at the market, grocery store or on the side of the road. Take a closer look at the varieties recommended for your region (zoned). Be sure to pay attention to their ripening dates. Typically, summer residents need early and mid-early varieties - they allow young potatoes to be served to the table as early as possible. For winter supplies, you will need mid-season, and in the southern regions, also mid-late and late varieties. Having decided on the variety, carefully inspect the tubers: they should look healthy, without dark spots, spots or other defects.

When to plant?

Seed potatoes should lie in loose soil, warmed up at a depth of 8–10 cm to a temperature of at least +10 ˚С. Birch trees near your dacha can give an approximate signal to plant potatoes - leaves no smaller than the size of a 50-kopeck coin should appear on them. In the Non-Chernozem Zone optimal time usually occurs May 8–12. Rain is a reason to postpone planting until the soil dries.

Preparation

Seed potatoes should have been removed from storage a month before planting, “awakened” in a warm room and kept in a cool place with diffused lighting. The ideal tuber, ready for planting, is dark green in color and has strong shoots.

Those who focus on one little thing for landing are wrong: size seed potatoes should be no less than a chicken egg. Planting larger tubers is not prohibited. If there is not enough planting material and the potatoes are large, then it is permissible to cut them into two halves a day before planting in the direction from the top to the base. In this case, both parts should remain with sprouts.

Before planting, potatoes are soaked for half an hour in a solution of one of the following preparations: Maxim, Copper Oxide or Bordeaux mixture.

6 landing rules

Rule 1. Doesn't like potatoes acidic soils. Land overgrown with horse sorrel or horsetail is not suitable for potatoes without prior liming.

Rule 2. Grow potatoes in one place no more than once every 3-4 years. Divide the garden into 3-4 plots and use only one of them as a “second bread” each year. Move it to the next compartment every year.

Rule 3. Potato is a light-loving crop. It needs to be grown in the brightest place. Do not plant potatoes in the shade or under trees. The furrows should be oriented from south to north, but not from east to west, so as not to provoke competition between plants.

Rule 4. The soil for potatoes should be dug up to a depth of 22–28 cm. But this depends on the type of soil: it is enough to dig up heavy soil to a depth of 18–20 cm, without turning out the layer of clay under the fertile layer.

Rule 5. When digging up a potato field before planting, it is advisable to add rotted compost or humus (up to 4 kg per 1 sq. m). Fresh manure is not recommended, as it provokes scab infestation of young tubers and is also a breeding ground for weeds. To the humus add one of the complex mineral fertilizers(azofoska, or nitrophoska, or nitroammofoska) - about 30 g per square meter.

Rule 6. The depth of planting tubers is chosen depending on the type of soil. On heavy soils it should be no more than 7–8 cm, on light soils - 10–12 cm, on peaty soils - 13–14 cm. In low areas with close groundwater, it is better to plant potatoes on ridges or beds about 25 cm high.

The average planting pattern is 70×(25-30) cm. Large tubers are placed less frequently: the spacing in the row is increased to 35–40 cm.

Questions and answers

Unusual technologies

I read about original ways of growing potatoes. Some plant it without digging - lay it directly on the ground and cover it with straw. Others plant the tubers not in a garden bed, but in a bag, barrel or can with holes for water drainage, then instead of hilling, they pour soil into the container. How do experts feel about these inventions?

L. Kryshkina, St. Petersburg

Potatoes can be grown in a variety of ways- both on different nutrient substrates and in containers. But keep in mind an important detail: the leaves and stems of plants need plenty of light (do not place them in the shade), while the underground parts must be reliably darkened. Without taking this circumstance into account, the tubers may turn green and become unsuitable for food.

Under protection

Is it possible to protect potatoes from Colorado potato beetle and late blight without toxic sprays?

T. Solovyova, Dmitrov

Getting rid of the Colorado potato beetle using natural methods is not easy. You will have to regularly remove pests and their eggs manually (carefully inspect the leaves from below). Folk remedies can be relatively effective only until the first rain. At the same time, there are many effective chemical means of combating the Colorado potato beetle in private farms: Aivenhoe, Tsunami, Inta-Vir, Shar Pei, Prestige and others.

It is impossible to defeat potato late blight with home remedies, but there are non-toxic biological preparations (Fitosporin, Sporobacterin, Alirin-B, Albit). You can also protect plants with fungicides (Bordeaux mixture, HOM, Homoxil and others). If 25–30% of the tops are affected by late blight, they need to be mowed.

Flowers - away?

Is it true that potato flowers take away the harvest from plants and need to be picked off?

V. Plotnikova, Myshkin

Flowers do not affect the potato harvest at all! At the same time, if people want to breathe air and move around, let them remove the inflorescences, it won’t get any worse.

Zola and more

Is it true that adding ash causes scab on potatoes? If so, what should I feed her with?

A. Chashchina, Smolensk

Ash has nothing to do with scab: it is an infectious disease whose pathogens are found in the soil. It can intensify with the simultaneous application of fresh manure and liming of the soil. Ash is a valuable source of potassium necessary for potatoes, and it should be added to the soil when digging or planting hole(in addition to organic and mineral fertilizers) is not only possible, but even necessary. As the potatoes grow, they will need additional nutrition. It is rational to fertilize with one of the complex mineral fertilizers: they “powder” the soil with it (according to the instructions) before the second hilling. Foliar feeding with a weak solution of fertilizer with microelements is also useful - this promotes good plant development and, accordingly, increased yield.

By the way

Many foreign gardeners have long been keen on ornamental potatoes. It blooms very beautifully and smells nice - just like French perfume! These plants are used to decorate flower beds and sometimes even balconies. It is difficult to grow. To get seedlings, you need a greenhouse. But you can’t eat these potatoes: the nodules are bitter and contain a lot of toxic substance – solanine.

New items

Tell us about new potato products - ours and foreign ones. Which ones do you recommend trying?

G. Lipkina, Serpukhov

In 2015–2016 In the State Register of Breeding Achievements approved for use, there are new potato varieties - foreign and Russian. Pay attention to those created in your area. For the Central region these are the Vympel and Grand varieties. But “foreigners” are poorly adapted to our conditions.

New purple potato varieties Northern Lights, Amethyst and Lekar are currently undergoing state testing. Let's wait: their tubers are very good for health.

Does it make sense to take up space on a potato plot? And if so, how to get a harvest without extra effort? What varieties should you choose, how to prepare the tubers? Stepan Kiru, Doctor of Biological Sciences, will answer these and other questions.

Once, while in the USA, I told the salesman in the store that I grow potatoes myself. He was surprised and asked: don’t you really have it in stores? When I answered that it was available and at an affordable price, he was even more surprised and wanted to know what the point was in starting this fuss.

But really: why do I grow potatoes? Firstly, I want to get a safe and healthy product. Now the whole world is moving towards growing organic vegetables and potatoes. Such products are sold separately from regular ones and cost 1.5–2 times more expensive (I myself saw this in Germany).

And secondly, I want delicious potatoes. The fact that tubers from your own garden are tastier than store-bought ones is not self-hypnosis, but the truth! The taste really varies like night and day. And this applies not only to potatoes, but to any vegetable.

Complete benefit?

Potatoes are not only delicious food! I'm sure being around his plants is beneficial too. They release physiologically into the environment active substances in small doses, which has a positive effect on human health (if he is not allergic). By the way, they are the ones who protect the potatoes themselves from many diseases - maybe people too?

True, every medal has two sides. It has long been known that greened tubers are not affected by diseases and do not rot. This is because potatoes, when exposed to light, produce solanine, an antiseptic that protects it from “ill-wishers.” At the same time, tubers “with greens” cannot be eaten. They are poisonous, and the toxin is not removed or destroyed by cooking or other types of cooking. There are known cases of severe potato poisoning, one even fatal (paradoxically, in South America). Therefore, even slightly green potatoes should be thrown away. It is not enough to simply cut off the green barrel, because solanine is easily spread with the juice throughout the entire tuber.

This is interesting

Scientists from the Department of Potato Genetic Resources of the All-Russian Institute of Plant Growing named after. N.I. Vavilova always spend a lot of time among potato plantings. It is interesting that among them there were many long-livers - many employees worked successfully until they were 85–90 years old, and one scientist lived until he was 97 years old. It’s the same story with foreign specialists. The most famous potato grower in the world (English scientist Jacks Hawks) lived to be 92 years old. Peruvian specialists working with potatoes are all long-livers. Possibly recipes traditional medicine with potatoes - not an accident?

Difficult or simple?

Growing potatoes is not that difficult if you know how to handle them. First of all, it is advisable not to fall under the power of common misconceptions.

Misconception 1: There are varieties of potatoes that do not require care - you just need to plant them, and then come and dig them up.

In fact, few living organisms can be grown without doing anything to them. Any plant or animal during its growth period requires nutrition and care. If your resources (health, free time) are limited, then you need to plant as many potatoes as you can handle.

Misconception 2: there are no storage conditions - there is no point in growing potatoes at all.

In an ordinary closet or pantry in an apartment, you can keep a bag or two of potatoes (mid-season variety) until the New Year.

Misconception 3: To feed a family for a year, you need to occupy an entire field with potatoes and spend a mountain of seed material on planting.

Good variety and competent agricultural technology make it possible to easily obtain 200 kg of potatoes from one hundred square meters. This harvest is enough for two people for a whole year. For planting you will need 400 tubers.

By the way

An interesting pattern: while in Western Europe they like potatoes with yellow flesh, in Eastern Europe they still prefer white ones. Poland is divided in half: those living in the west of the country love yellow, those in the east love white. In Germany it’s the same: lovers of white pulp come from the GDR, and lovers of yellow pulp come from Germany. But now this situation is changing. People found out that yellow potatoes contain more carotene and vitamin C - they began to eat them more often, tried them and got used to them.

Three secrets of success

Potatoes are not the simplest, but also far from the most complex crop. The main thing is to know only three secrets of success: a correctly selected variety, optimal nutrition (soil) and competent agricultural technology (which includes protection). If one of the points is not fulfilled, nothing will work. You can do whatever you want with a bad variety - the result will still not please you. Against the backdrop of poor nutrition, not a single variety will demonstrate its capabilities. A good variety, good nutrition and excellent soil mean little if you do not follow agricultural practices.

Seed potatoes

It is very important to know: If you yourself reproduce the same potato variety from year to year, then its quality and yield properties decrease. The main reason is the accumulation of tubers infected with pathogens of fungal, bacterial and viral diseases.

In this regard, there are two ways to obtain a stable annual harvest:

Every year, select seed tubers only from the most productive and healthy bushes. This is within the capabilities of anyone who loves to grow this crop and has conditions for storing seed potatoes.

Renew potato “seeds”. Purchase elite material from a variety you have already tested (if you are used to it) or a new, more promising variety that has complex resistance to diseases and pests, combined with high yield and good taste.

Where can I buy? Do not purchase potato planting material from markets, grocery stores, from cars, on the sides of roads or in villages! The fact is that in the last decade, due to the weakening of quarantine control, the most dangerous pest potato plantings – golden potato nematode.

Alas, going to a store or to a farm that produces seed potatoes is also not always a guarantee of quality. When purchasing, do not hesitate to request a certificate (or certificate) for seeds or a tuber analysis report issued by a city or regional (district) seed inspection. Visually evaluate the tubers: they should look healthy, without dark spots, scab spots or other defects.

How many seeds will you need? Before you go shopping for seed potatoes, you need to decide: how much harvest does your family need and what will it be used for? If you grow potatoes not only for food, but also for seeds for next year and have the conditions for storing them, you need to take this fact into account in your calculations. Having decided on the quantity, carefully study the descriptions of the varieties.

Variety decides the success of a business

Over the entire history of potato breeding, more than 11,000 varieties have been created in the world, including more than 400 in our country (since 1924).

The timing of ripening is important. If you plan to serve your own young potatoes from mid-summer, then you cannot do without early and mid-early varieties. Mid-season, mid-late and late varieties are suitable for stocks for the whole winter. Their tubers, as a rule, accumulate more nutrients, vitamins, amino acids, starch and protein and are better than young ones taste qualities. In the garden, it is advisable to have two or three varieties of different ripening periods (their ratio is determined according to the needs of the family).

True, northerners have less choice. For gardeners in the Far North, where the growing season does not exceed 70–75 days, it makes sense to grow only early-ripening potatoes, or at least mid-early ones. In the North-West region you can grow varieties from early to mid-season, but for the Black Earth Region all options are suitable.

Zoned = tested in a given region. The entire territory of Russia is divided into 12 soil and climatic regions of zoning of crop varieties. Breeders try to create varieties for specific soil and climatic conditions. You have found new variety, recently recommended by the State Register of Breeding Achievements of the current year for use in your region? This means that it has successfully passed two-year state tests in the conditions of your area.

"Cosmopolitans". The varieties that perform well in different climatic conditions can be counted on one hand. There is a “record holder” - the Nevsky potato. It is already about 40 years old, but it still remains the leader of our country in terms of area occupied (it grows from Kaliningrad to Far East). There is no such “station wagon” in any foreign country. In terms of taste, Nevsky is inferior to many varieties, but in terms of yield stability and unpretentiousness to growing conditions, it has no equal yet. Its closest rival is the early variety Udacha, which shows excellent results in many regions of the country and has field resistance to late blight.

Potatoes love light

Reference

Potato varieties are divided into five groups according to ripening time:

early ripening (early) with growing season 60–65 days (from planting);
mid-early – 70–75 days;
mid-season – 80–85 days;
medium-late 90-100 days;
late – more than 105 days

Carefully!

According to the latest data, today more than 30% of arable land and garden plots in Russian Federation inhabited by the golden potato nematode. The trouble affected both large agricultural firms and garden plots.

It is very difficult to combat this pest. Once it enters the garden (with planting material, on wheels or on shoes that have been in an infected area), the damage will become noticeable in the second year. But it will be possible to get rid of this pest only after 10 years - and only on the condition that during this time there will be no potatoes on the site! To protect your garden from quiet uninvited guests, we advise you to pay attention to nematode-resistant varieties.

Where is the ideal?

Most often, most amateur gardeners want to have a universal variety: productive, tasty, resistant to diseases and pests, and not too late. However, you need to know: the more positive qualities variety, the more difficult it is to create and the less durable it is.

Don't grow potatoes in the same place

Preparing for landing

It is advisable to lay out the tubers for germination a month before planting. If you do this earlier, the potatoes will lose too much moisture and will sprout less vigorously.

First of all, the seed material should be carefully checked for the presence of disease symptoms. You cannot plant tubers with atypical of this variety shape - pear-shaped or elongated. Such material, as a rule, gives a low yield. If you remove potatoes from cold storage with sprouts 4–5 cm or more long, these sprouts must be broken off. Don’t worry: if you follow the rules of germination, new sprouts will definitely appear on the tubers.

To “wake up” the tubers, they are placed for a couple of days in a bright room with a temperature of 20–22 °C, and then transferred to a well-lit but cooler place (10–14 °C) - on a veranda or on a windowsill in a place that is not too hot. room.

The ideal tuber, ready for planting, is dark green in color and has strong shoots. If the tubers are large, it is permissible to cut them into two halves a day before planting, from the top to the base. In this case, both parts should remain with sprouts.

Another important point– pre-planting treatment of tubers. They are soaked for half an hour in a solution of one of the following drugs: Maxim, Copper oxychloride, Bordeaux mixture, diluted in accordance with the instructions.

Landing rules

It is undesirable to grow potatoes in the same place - pests and pathogens accumulate in the soil. Divide the plot into 3-4 sectors and occupy only one of them with potatoes. Move the plantings annually to the next sector.

Potatoes do not like acidic soils. The acidity should be at least pH 4.5–5, otherwise you won’t expect a good harvest. One of the external signs of very acidic soil is the abundance of horse sorrel or horsetail. Other soil requirements depend very much on the variety. Some grow well on light sandy soils, others are capable of producing good harvest even on clay soils, for still others, only black soil is needed. Therefore, carefully read the characteristics of the variety.

Potatoes are very light-loving and do not tolerate shade. Therefore, under no circumstances place it under trees, otherwise everything will go into the tops and not into the tubers. Furrows should be placed from south to north, but not from east to west. Otherwise, you will provoke competition between plants, a fight for the sun, and in this case, a rich harvest is also not expected.

Old and new

Not all varieties have long life. Only a few stay afloat for up to 100-130 years (Russet Burbank, Early Rose), others - 20-40 years, and many - no more than 2-3 years after their approval in the State Register. The most durable varieties are those that are resistant to numerous diseases (especially viral ones, which contribute to the degeneration of potatoes).
How to deal with wireworm?

Many summer residents complain: they would be happy to grow more potatoes, but the wireworm gets in the way. To defeat this pest, you must first get rid of weeds, especially perennials, and most importantly, wheatgrass.

In addition, it is necessary to lim the soil and add phosphate rock to it, but it is not advisable to do this before planting potatoes, as it may affect the quality of the tubers. In the fall, it is useful to add ash (up to 1 l/m2) when digging the soil.

It is impossible to get rid of wireworms without digging and loosening the rows in the fall and spring.

If wireworms are in charge of the garden, strict adherence to crop rotation is necessary: ​​it is advisable to plant annual legumes before potatoes and root crops. Growing white mustard or rye with green manure (green manure) helps to defeat this pest. Rye suppresses the development of weeds, especially wheatgrass, which attracts wireworms like a magnet.

Sometimes you have to select the larvae by hand. To do this, they use bait made from pieces of potatoes, carrots or beets, into which twigs must be inserted and buried to a depth of 10–12 cm. After a day or two, maximum three, the bait must be inspected and the pests gathered there must be destroyed. After destroying the wireworm, you need to renew the bait sections again, sprinkle them with water and bury them in other places to the same depth. In early spring You can also lay out small bunches of straw and leaves on the site. The beetles gathered there should be caught and destroyed.

Are colored ones better?

Exactly 20 years ago - in 1995 - American breeders, together with biologists and nutrition scientists, drew attention to potatoes with colored pulp, which North American Indians had been eating for centuries. Analyzes have shown that the antioxidant properties of such potatoes are not inferior to those of the healthiest vegetables - broccoli, peppers, tomatoes, or even exceed them! Pigments that give potato flesh its purple, red, orange or yellow, have high value for the human body.

But the healthiest potatoes turned out to be those with purple flesh. By the way, these are not transgenic plants at all. There is evidence that colored varieties appeared at least 2,000 years ago among people living in the Andes around Lake Titicaca (Bolivia and Peru), while potatoes were introduced into cultivation there more than 9,000 years ago. After the discovery of America, colored tubers were brought as exotic to the courts of the kings of England and France, but they were appreciated throughout the world relatively recently - after scientific research.

American scientists conducted clinical studies on numerous volunteers - people with the initial stages of cardiovascular diseases, cancer diagnoses in the early stages and eye diseases. For two years, all of these patients regularly ate purple potatoes.

Without prejudice

I regularly treat my guests to cauliflower potatoes. I often hear the phrase: “I prefer white potatoes.” I persuade you to try it. If guests refuse, I suggest trying this dish with your eyes closed. After this, everyone is usually surprised: “What, does it taste like regular potatoes!” Let's think about it: should we give up useful new products just because of habits or conservatism? Remember: after all, about 20 years ago, you and I had never seen kiwi or avocado, but then we tried it and began to eat these healthy fruits more often. Is it bad?

The results were amazing. Oncological diseases of the first stage stopped their development. The condition of the cardiovascular system and eyes improved significantly.

After this was discovered, the US Congress allocated large funds for research and creation of varieties with colored pulp - about $200 million. Within 2–3 years – in 1998–1999 – such varieties were created and entered the consumer market.

I must say that the population really liked the new potatoes - they were literally swept off the shelves. True, such a demand did not arise out of nowhere: the general public was first introduced to the results of scientific research. Currently, 5-6 new varieties are grown in the USA, plus there are also old ones brought from South America(actually, such potatoes were known 100 years ago, they just didn’t pay much attention to them before). The area under colored potatoes in the world is constantly increasing.

Our country also did not remain aloof from global trends. So far, one variety has been included in the State Register, medium-yielding, but with purple flesh - Violet. It is also on sale, but so far the demand does not correspond to the merits of this potato. Many have not tried it yet or experience visual antipathy - and completely in vain!

Potatoes are planted in various ways. You need to choose a method that is suitable for the region and convenient for the grower himself. Determine the right time to plant a vegetable, know how to properly cultivate the land so that weeds do not appear. In this case, the potatoes will delight you with their quantity and quality.

You need to plant potatoes in your dacha according to all the rules. Potatoes are unpretentious to soil. It grows well both in chernozem and in loamy, sandy soils. It is best to choose flat areas of land where light can flow freely. Fertilizers will help replenish the lack of microelements in the soil.

If groundwater flows close to the surface of the earth, it is recommended to make ridges. In the raised area, holes are made into which the prepared germinated tubers are planted.

Tubers are usually planted in mid-spring, but can be planted in summer. Agronomists say that there are only positive aspects to planting potatoes in summer.

Potatoes can be grown from tubers or sprouts. As soon as the sprouts hatch from the eyes, they begin to plant in open ground. 4–5 healthy sprouts are placed in one recess at a distance of 15 cm. The interval between such groups of sprouts should be at least 20 cm.

High-quality potato seeds are the key to a good harvest

There are different types of potatoes, which differ in different ripening periods, color and size of the tuber. Which varieties are suitable for a particular region depends largely on climatic conditions.

Early varieties begin to ripen after 65 days. Mid-early varieties will allow you to harvest in 75 days. Medium-late and late potato varieties ripen only after 100–120 days. In Russia, for example, it is best to plant potatoes of early and mid-early varieties.

When choosing seed potatoes, you need to study the characteristics of the tubers where it is recommended to grow the vegetable. The size of the seed material should be approximately 5–6 cm. The tubers should be dense, smooth, and dry. The tubers should not have any rotten spots, cracks, or cuts.

Getting ready to plant potatoes

A rich harvest is obtained only if you know the exact time when you can plant potatoes in the ground.

If you plant potatoes too early, in unheated soil, they will germinate poorly and develop slowly. This reduces immunity and increases the risk of infection.

You can't miss it favorable timing landings. Otherwise, all the moisture that the soil absorbed during the melting of the snow will evaporate. And it is very useful for plant growth.

The best period is considered to be when the top layer of soil (about 10 cm) warms up to +8. It is at this depth that the tubers are planted. Most often they start planting on May 10th. By this time, the morning severe frosts usually disappear.

Rows for planting potatoes are best placed from north to south. The distance between the rows should be about 70 cm. In each row, the distance between the holes with planting material should be at least 30–40 cm for early varieties and 45–50 cm for mid-early and late-ripening species.

Soil and its preparation

The land is prepared in advance for planting vegetables. To enrich the soil with oxygen, the soil is dug up in autumn and spring. During autumn digging no need to level the area with a rake. In the fall, after digging up the ground, it is recommended to apply fertilizer. In the spring, the soil is dug up and loosened again.

Traditionally, potatoes are planted in the spring, around the beginning of May. But Lately, vegetable growers began planting even later, at the end of July, to obtain a double harvest.

The rate of potatoes intended for cultivation per hectare per hectare depends mainly on the size of the tubers. If their average weight is 50–80 g, then about 2.5 thousand tubers per 1 hectare will be required.

By mid-summer, areas are already cleared of growing early vegetables (for example, onions, lettuce), so the fertilized area is already ready. By this time, the peak activity of the Colorado potato beetle and other pests is minimized. The soil warms up well, and the development of tubers is more active, and seedlings appear faster.

Late planting of vegetables is widespread in the southern regions. To grow late harvest in the moderate and middle zones you need to make a number of efforts. Be sure to select suitable variety, ensure timely and sufficient watering. Features play an important role weather conditions.

Warm, not too much hot weather with periodic rains, will allow you to harvest a large harvest from potatoes planted in July. But most often in the middle of summer the weather is hot, so the vegetable will need to be protected from overheating of the tubers. The ideal way to combat heat is to mulch the soil.

Early varieties are best suited for summer planting of potatoes; they ripen within 50–70 days. In this case, it will be possible to harvest the crop before frost. The main thing is that the air temperature does not drop below +8 degrees.

How to prepare seed potatoes for planting?

Seed potatoes must be prepared for planting; they must be processed and germinated. Without sprouts, potatoes may not sprout. During winter storage The tubers may spoil, so they need to be sorted out. For sowing, leave smooth, dense tubers without damage or deformation. It is also useful to sort by size.

Selected tubers are placed in boxes with holes for ventilation and moved to a warm, bright room (air temperature about +11 degrees).

You can roughly calculate the amount of planting material. To do this, gardeners need to multiply the length of the row by their number. Then divide the resulting number by the number of eyes that predominate on the tubers selected for planting. The answer received is considered an indicator of the norm for planting potatoes per hundred square meters.

The planting rate depends on the quality of planting material and soil composition, variety, and level of agrotechnical practices. For example, for northern regions where chernozem soil is rare, the planting density is approximately 50 thousand bushes per 1 hectare. For central regions - 45–50 thousand.

What to do if the earth has not warmed up?

In the middle zone, potatoes begin to be planted at the end of April, beginning of May. You can warm up the soil yourself:

• In the spring, the beds are marked out and covered with a light-colored film.
• To speed up the melting of snow, you can scatter coal dust, which will attract the sun's rays.
• All beds can be raised by 5–7 cm. In this case, the bed dries out faster.
• Eco-friendly and in an economical way warming up the soil is considered compost. Compost warms and nourishes the soil with useful microelements.

If the ground is not warmed up, the seed material may freeze, rot, and then there will definitely be no harvest.

It's time to board

Any of the selected potato planting schemes involves marking on a plot of land.

You can plant potatoes in the usual way under a shovel. The soil is dug up in the fall and it is advisable to add fertilizer. In the spring, all that remains is to level the area and loosen large clods of earth.

Potatoes are planted in early May. By this time the earth is warming up quite well. On the prepared plot of land, rows are made at a distance of 70 cm. In each row, shallow holes (about 10 cm) are made with a shovel and one potato is planted with the sprout facing up. It will be useful to sprinkle compost on top of the planting material and wood ash. The soil from the next dug hole is used to bury the previous potatoes. The distance between planted tubers is about 30 cm.

Can be planted in previously prepared furrows. Dig a furrow about 19 cm wide and up to 14 cm deep. Then the tubers are distributed at a distance of 30 cm and lightly covered with earth. As you grow potato tops earth is added and as a result a mound is formed near each bush.

The Dutch method of planting potatoes involves making ridges up to 36 cm high. The distance between the ridges is about 70 cm. Dig holes and distribute the tuber.

On average, the potato sowing rate per hundred square meters is about 3-4 buckets of seed material, which is approximately 30-35 kg.

How and when is the best time to plant?

You can plant potatoes not only in spring. Summer planting of potatoes can be done in two main ways. The first of them is planting vegetables with tubers from last year (so that the tubers do not germinate ahead of time, they are placed in a cold place). But you can also use freshly dug tubers.

A special method has been invented for the lazy. Using this method of planting potatoes, you can reap a good harvest. There is practically no digging of soil for planting vegetables. Planting begins in early May, it is better to take early varieties. Compost is poured into the prepared rows (layer thickness is about 5 cm), tubers are placed and covered with earth.

As soon as the shoots appear, hilling is carried out, during which the shoots are again covered with earth. This will prevent frost. The second hilling is carried out when the bush reaches 20 cm. It is recommended to cover the soil with a layer of straw.

How to properly cut tubers for planting?

From the lobes of a potato tuber you can grow a full-fledged crop, rich in nutrients. Potato yield will be no different from a whole planted tuber. It doesn’t matter what size it is, the main thing is that there is room for a kidney on it. Ideally there should be two of them.

The only disadvantage of planting cut potatoes is their high susceptibility to rotting during rainy weather. To prevent this, the cuts can be treated with wood ash.

It is best to cut the planting crop in advance. Approximately 5 days before planting in the ground. Store with the cut side up in a warm room. During this time, the area will become weathered and roughened, and the buds will begin to sprout.

The work will take a lot manual labor, but if you have a couple of buckets to plant, you can try.

Disembarkation scheme

With any method of growing potatoes, you must follow all recommendations. The distance at which potatoes should be planted depends on the growing method. Most often, the distance should not be less than 70 cm. Planting material is laid out in a row every 30 cm.

A new method is to plant potatoes smoothly under film. The place allocated for planting vegetables is dug up, fertilized in the fall and covered with black film. At a distance of 30 cm, holes are made in the film into which planting material is placed. There is no need for weeding; there is no need to hill up or water too often.

The smooth landing has similar rules to the shovel method. The only difference is that the rows are made even using markings (pegs and twine will help). Potatoes are laid out in holes and covered with soil.

The method of growing potatoes in trapezoid beds is becoming widespread. Tubers are planted on the ridge in two rows, staggered. As the bushes grow, 2–3 hillings are carried out.

In the garden you can grow the most diverse cultures, but the most popular is potatoes. But in order to achieve a good harvest from it, you need to work hard and correctly perform all the necessary agrotechnical manipulations. This article will tell you how to plant potatoes correctly.

The most important point in growing potatoes is choosing the right seed. The future harvest depends on how correctly the seeds were selected and prepared. After all, even if the planting care was correct, it is difficult to get excellent root crops from bad seeds.

Preparing seeds for planting should begin in the fall, when the harvest occurs. Seed preparation is carried out as follows:

• First, the vegetables need to be sorted. For planting, you need to select smaller root crops, and leave large ones for eating;
• Seeds should be selected from those bushes that produced the maximum amount of potatoes;
• the optimal size of tubers for sowing should be 4-5 cm. This size is equivalent to chicken egg. A few tubers are allowed bigger size. They will ripen a little earlier and also produce a slightly larger harvest;
• Very big potatoes can also be used as seed material. It is worth noting here that some varieties in this case will produce many small root crops. This will result in significant cost overruns.

You can find information that potatoes cut into several parts can be used as planting material. This option is possible, but only if there is a shortage of small-diameter seeds.

To get a good harvest from pieces of tubers, they should be dried in the sun before planting. The weather should be warm and dry.

In addition, parts of the potatoes must be sprinkled with ash. Remember that such planting material may deteriorate in a rainy spring. This is because the skinless surface is more susceptible to negative influence pathogenic microorganisms (viruses, fungi). As a result, such seeds will rot in the spring.

It is worth remembering that when planting sliced ​​potatoes, the weather should be dry and warm. If it rains, there is a risk that the chopped tubers will simply rot in the ground, not yielding any harvest or forming weak shoots.

Planting material can be bought in special stores or retail outlets. In this case, you should not give preference to super-elite varieties. The point is that they will give excellent harvest only when all agricultural technology is correctly recreated. At the same time, the elite varieties are the most productive.

When buying seeds in a store, be sure to ask the seller for a quality certificate. This document should always be accompanied by varietal potatoes. If there is no quality certificate, then there is a risk of purchasing contaminated planting material. As a result, the harvest will be disgusting. In this case, you will also have to carry out a soil disinfection procedure in order to get rid of diseases and pests.

Some gardeners claim that sprouted seed eyes can be used as planting material.

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Before boarding

Prepared before landing in the right way planting material must be “awakened”. This procedure means that the tubers should be greened before planting. To do this, root vegetables are placed in a bright place. For example, they can be placed in the shade of trees or under various canopies.

This procedure will cause the seeds to begin to produce corned beef poison. Thanks to it, potato tubers can be stored much longer.

When gardening root crops, you should avoid exposing them to direct sunlight. In this case, they will be oversaturated with poison and eating them will be dangerous to health.

After this, you can begin the process of sprouting potatoes. It should be carried out about a month (in some sources 20 days) before planting in the ground. Germination of tubers is carried out according to the following scheme:

• first they must be washed in a weak solution of potassium permanganate;
• after this, the planting material should be spread out in one layer (maximum two layers) into containers. For these purposes, you can take wooden boxes;
• containers must be placed in a bright room where the air temperature is 20–22 O C. The boxes must be placed in such a way that they are not exposed to direct sunlight;
• in such a room the boxes should last 2-3 weeks;
• then they are transferred to a cooler room with a temperature of approximately 10-14 O C. A glazed balcony is perfect for these purposes.

Some gardeners say that you need to start sprouting potatoes in the dark. But in this case, weak and long sprouts form on the tubers, which can be easily injured or even broken off during planting. To ensure a good harvest, germination of planting material should be carried out in a bright room. As a result, the sprouts will be strong, green and not very long (no more than 1-1.5 cm).

When sprouting potatoes, they need to be moistened. To do this, the tubers are periodically turned over on different sides and sprayed with water. Moreover, it is necessary to spray root crops every other day. For spraying, experts recommend alternating plain water, a solution of mineral fertilizers and a solution of ash. This alternation helps minimize the risk of pathogenic microflora appearing on tubers. At the same time, the process of their germination is stimulated. Remember that spray solutions should be prepared immediately before use.

An excellent place for germinating potato tubers is a greenhouse. Planting material here should be laid out on a straw bed. Root vegetables must be covered on top plastic film. As a result, seeds will be created necessary conditions for fast and high-quality germination: sufficient humidity and warmth.

Preparing the site

Before growing this crop in your garden, you need to not only know how to plant potatoes, but also what place will be optimal for it.

Sandy loam and medium to light loamy soils are best suited for potatoes. It will also grow well on forest and dried peat soils. At the same time, acidic and heavy soils are not the most best choice for potatoes. In this case, it is worth adding manure to the soil to improve its characteristics.

When choosing a site for this garden crop, it is necessary to take into account crop rotation. Potatoes can only be planted in the same place after three years. The following vegetables are excellent precursors for it:

• beet;
• cabbage;
• leafy vegetables;
• carrot.

In this case, you need to prepare the soil itself. This will improve productivity in the future. To do this, fertilizers should be added to the soil. Usually they are applied for the first time in the fall, when all the crops from the fields have been collected and the vegetation has been removed. The most the best way soil fertilization is the introduction into it natural fertilizers, especially humus.

To prepare the land for planting potatoes, you need to add 10 liters of rotted manure per square meter. When digging, you can add about 50 g of potassium-phosphorus fertilizers.

It is worth noting that in the presence of acidic soils, in order to achieve excellent fruiting, it is necessary to lime. To do this, 400-500 g of dolomite flour or lime should be added to the soil per square meter.

If fertilizers were not applied to the soil in autumn, then this procedure can be carried out immediately before planting planting material. This procedure will be part of the site preparation.

Thus, preparing a place for planting potatoes is carried out according to the following scheme:

note that Special attention When it comes to preparing the landing site, attention should be paid to low-lying areas. In lowlands it is necessary to provide drainage through which excess water will drain.

But it is also necessary to remember that preparation of the planting site should be carried out immediately before planting the planting material:

• beds and holes are formed at the selected location;
• Fertilizers must be added to the bottom of each hole in order to enrich the soil with the necessary beneficial microelements, as well as to protect root crops from pests. To increase productivity, it is recommended to add wood ash and humus (one handful each) to the holes. You can apply any other fertilizers;
• In addition to fertilizers, you can place onion peels at the bottom of the holes. Its smell will repel pests such as two-tailed grass, wireworms and mole crickets from your plantings;
• After adding all the components to the well, they need to be mixed well.

It is worth noting that some gardeners advise putting black beans in the holes. However, in reality, such manipulations do not always bring clear and positive results. Therefore, few people know and use this method in practice.

When the planting material is prepared for planting, and the location has been chosen correctly, you can begin directly planting the seeds in the holes. However, here you need to choose the right time.

When to plant

One of the most important points Growing potatoes is the choice of planting dates. Even if all the preparations were carried out correctly, an incorrectly chosen disembarkation time can ruin all your efforts.

It is worth noting that the choice of planting dates directly depends on both the potato variety and the weather conditions of the area. However, there is no need to rush. It is better to wait until the weather is warm outside. But you shouldn’t wait too long, since the ground shouldn’t dry out too much. Here, as elsewhere, a golden mean is needed. According to folk wisdom, tubers should be planted in the ground when small leaves appear on birch and poplar.

Professional gardeners say that the ideal time for planting is when the soil at a depth of 10 cm has warmed up to 10 degrees. At the same time, at night the temperature should also not fall below 10 o C.

You can find information that tubers are planted after strong shoots have formed on them and the soil has warmed up to 6 o C. Although potato growers can argue with this statement. In this case, the planted tuber will not always germinate.

Landing technology

In order to plant potatoes correctly and get a good harvest, you must adhere to a specific technology for planting planting material. The key to success in this situation will be the correctly chosen planting pattern, which should be 80x35. This space between the rows will be quite enough for the bushes to be comfortable. With more frequent planting, the bushes will shade each other. At the same time, they will be poorly ventilated, which can lead to late blight. In such a situation, there can be no question of any high-quality hilling.

Reducing the gap between plants is allowed only in a situation where the area has small sizes, as well as when growing early ripening varieties on black soil. In this case, the bushes do not form very tall and powerful greenery, which does not affect their productivity. In this case, the distance between the rows may be not 80 cm, but 60 cm.

Variations are also possible with the distance between neighboring plants. If the planting material consists of small tubers, then the distance of 35 cm can be reduced to 20 cm. For early varieties, this parameter can be 26 cm (about one and a half spade bayonets). Late varieties will produce a good harvest with a distance between tubers of 30 cm.

It is worth noting that when growing potatoes on heavy soils, the tubers are planted at a distance of 45 cm from each other.

The depth of planting root crops is also important. Their optimal depth should be 7-10 cm. This parameter depends on the characteristics of the soil and the size of the planting material:

• large tubers should be planted deeper;
• small potatoes are planted closer to the surface.
• for light soils, a depth of 10 cm will be normal;
• for clayey and dense soils, the holes should have a depth of no more than 5 cm.

Tubers should be planted in the prepared holes with their sprouts facing down. The ground underneath them should be loose. When potatoes are planted in holes, they are covered with earth on top and the soil is leveled using a rake.

As you can see, growing potatoes is not so difficult.

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