A New Way Of Permanent Potato Cultivation

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

The use of green manure in the permanent cultivation of potatoes increases the yield and heals the soil

One of the main problems of private farms is the limited land plots, leading to the forced long-term permanent cultivation of potatoes in the same place.

Because of this, causative agents of various potato diseases, pests accumulate, and the soil is depleted in nutrients necessary for potatoes. Scientists' recommendations regarding crop rotation in summer cottages and household plots are practically impracticable.

It is difficult to imagine how it is possible to return potatoes to their original place on such limited land plots in 4-6 years. Those crops that are good predecessors of potatoes (cucumbers, onions, legumes, lettuce, radishes, pumpkin) take up very little space on the plots of private owners and gardeners. The rest of the area is usually used for permanent potato planting every year. I think that amateur potato growers will be interested in the following information:

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As a result of the research, the scientists of the Penza Research Institute of Agriculture and other scientific institutions have selected crops or their mixtures that have a set of specific qualities that allow them to be used as intermediate ones; or even summer planting and getting good yields.

A new method of permanent potato cultivation has been developed and patented (RF Patent No. 2212123) in the potato laboratory of the Penza Research Institute of Agriculture. It is quite easy to master it in the personal subsidiary plots of the population. It is only necessary to divide the field or plot of land on which potatoes are constantly grown every year, regardless of its size, into four parts, and at the same time on each of them begin to alternate annually potato varieties and catch crops in accordance with the proposed crop rotation scheme:

- FIELD No. 1. Potatoes (mid-early variety) + winter stubble mix (rye + furry vetch);

- FIELD № 2. Regrown winter rye + furry winter vetch for green forage or green manure (green fertilizer) + summer planting of potatoes (early variety);

- FIELD No. 3. Early potatoes + stubble mustard or oil radish for green manure;

- FIELD No. 4. Potatoes are mid-season or mid-late.

Potato varieties are planted in the spring at the optimal agrotechnical terms for the regions of cultivation (for the Middle Volga region - from April 20 to May 15).

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In the first field, after harvesting mid-early potatoes and preparing the soil, consisting of removing plant residues and one shallow (5-6 cm) loosening, a mixture is sown composed of (kg per hundred square meters): winter rye - 1.3-1.5 and vetch furry winter - 0.8-1. This mixture is sown to a depth of 4-5 cm from August 15 to September 5.

In the second field, in the first year of the development of crop rotation, an early potato variety is planted in the spring at the optimal time along with other varieties; from the second year of crop rotation - in one of three terms: 1 - with good growth of the winter mixture in the year of sowing and embedding it on green fertilizer in the fall - potatoes are planted in early spring; 2 - after the growth of the winter mixture and plowing it on green fertilizer in the spring - potatoes are planted in the second half of May; 3 - after harvesting the winter mixture in the first ten days of June for green forage or plowing it for green fertilizer - potatoes are planted in summer until June 15-16, and in wet years and later (in the Middle Volga region - 70-90 days before the first frost).

In the third field, after harvesting early potatoes in the third decade of July or at the beginning of August, avoiding a gap in the timing, after removing plant residues and loosening the soil to a depth of 4-5 cm, stubble crops are sown (kg per hundred square meters): white mustard (0.25- 0.3) to a depth of 2-3 cm or oil radish (0.35-0.40) by 4-5 cm. When the average daily air temperature drops to 50C or in the phase of mass formation of green pods, the green mass of white mustard or oil radish is ground and buried to a depth of 15-16 cm. In the fourth field, after harvesting mid-season or mid-late varieties of potatoes, the soil is plowed or dug up to the depth of the arable layer (on chernozems by 25-27 cm).

The effectiveness of the introduction of this method of potato production lies in the stability of the crop in years with different climatic conditions. This is achieved by the correct placement in the crop rotation system of varieties of different ripeness and green manure crops. The use of potato varieties of different maturity dates is a necessary condition for the design of green manure crops to increase productivity and maintain the optimal structure of the potato field.

The percentage of varieties of different ripeness groups may vary depending on the conditions of the region. However, it should be taken into account that in this crop rotation it is unacceptable to completely replace the early varieties with later ones, since this will make it impossible to sow green manure crops or their productivity will be too low.

Read the next part. Crop rotation of potatoes in a summer cottage →