Potato Harvest In June Is Real

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

Growing early potatoes

… I suppose we all respect potatoes,

When we mash it with salt!

V. Vysotsky

The words of respect for potatoes are well known to most people in Russia. And not only out of love for the famous poet and bard who wrote them, but also because the "second bread" in our history was sometimes the first and even the only one. Well, today you can even buy it in a rural store, not to mention metropolitan areas.

What are potatoes? It would seem like a stupid question. But just think … A cure for all diseases and poison, stain remover and decorative flower, universal fertilizer and food raw materials from which powder and bread, starch and butter, wine and chocolate, coffee, yeast are prepared - and this is all one product … Tempting? But such a stunning advertisement was made by Russian journalists at the end of the 18th century to popularize potatoes.

It is hard to believe that only two centuries ago the majority of the inhabitants of the Old World did not know about the potato, and in Russia a little earlier "potato riots" thundered, and it was introduced by the decree of the tsar.

How much has changed today? But not very. We all know to know about potatoes, but only the most meticulous gardeners know how to grow a good harvest.

Gardener's guide

Plant nurseries Stores of goods for summer cottages Landscape design studios

But let's start in order. We have already written many times that the yield of "second bread" for villagers and summer residents is 100-200 kg per hundred square meters. So they have to shovel the extra areas, although a family of three can easily be provided with a hundred or even half a hundred of our poor land, giving birth to a crop of 500-1000 kg. Or, say, who of you, living in a village or in the summer at a dacha, would not like to have your own fresh early potatoes? But this is quite real. Traveling around Finland in 1995, I was not only surprised - amazed: on June 11, Finnish peasants were digging potatoes! Looking closely, I realized: there is nothing special and impossible here.

In 2005 (with the cold first half of summer), advising the mother of my friend, one of the leaders of the Youth Theater on Fontanka, I presented her with seed material of Snegir potatoes and told about the "new" method … And in June (!) I was invited to a tasting … My friend, seeing young potatoes in burst uniforms in a steaming saucepan, did not believe his mother. Indeed, at this time, near the village of Roshchino, on a peat bog, the potatoes planted in the usual way were just making their way into the light of day, and those grown at my prompting bloomed violently and turned green with half-meter tops. Now my good friends have reduced the area to a minimum, and they plant potatoes only "in my" way.

Notice board

Kittens for sale Puppies for sale Horses for sale

Selection of potato planting material and preparation of tubers

First of all, you need healthy planting material: the first reproduction, elite, superelite, super-super-elite, etc., that is, planting material free from viruses and the most dangerous diseases and pests.

And what does our gardener plant? Anything, up to and including ware potatoes from a grocery store. Even with good "feeding" such planting material does not have to expect high yields. Moreover, with such material, you can bring to the site, for example, a nematode, which is almost impossible to get rid of. But virus-free material only due to "health" gives an increase in yield for about five years, gradually accumulating viruses and diseases. After that, you need to acquire healthy material again.

Now, about no less important - about the preparation of tubers. For 100 m², 500-1000 seed tubers are required - 20-40 kg (tuber weight 20-30 and 50-70 g, respectively). Large tubers (100-200 g) can be cut into pieces after germination so that each piece (weighing at least 20-40 g) has at least 2-3 sprouts. Sections should not be sprinkled with lime or ash, it is better to dry them slightly. To disinfect the knife, use a 2% formalin solution, 3-5% lysol solution, a dark solution of potassium permanganate, or ignite the knife on the flame of an alcohol lamp for 10-15 seconds after each tuber. It is better to cut the tubers to a depth of 0.5-1 cm around the circumference. If ring rot is found on the cuts of tubers, darkening of the pulp, they are discarded.

Tubers of medium early varieties begin to germinate after 10-12 days, shoots appear in 15-17 days; it means that from planting to germination usually takes 25-27 days, and in cold spring up to 35-40 days. In cold soil (peat bogs) in such a spring, unprepared tubers rot and do not germinate. To avoid the death of seeds for high yields, tubers are vernalized, as a result of which seedlings appear 10-12 days earlier, harvesting is carried out 15-20 days earlier, before the rainy season. The yield increase is 40-60%, and in a cold year it grows 2-3 times.

Potato vernalization methods

1. In the light - in any room where there is diffused natural light and the temperature can be maintained from 12 to 20 ° C - a veranda, a garden house, a greenhouse (preferably with biofuel), etc. At the end of March - beginning of April, the potatoes are taken out of the cellar, sorted, healthy tubers are laid out in 2-3 layers on the floor, window sills (not near heating batteries), tables, under cabinets, etc. Place about 40-60 kg per 1 m²; 1 hundred square meters will require 0.5-0.7 m2 of germination area.

Before vernalization, it is useful to treat tubers with trace elements or ash. Before treatment with microelements, it is advisable to thoroughly rinse the tubers in water at a temperature of about 45-50 ° C to decontaminate them from the possible presence of potato nematode cysts. Complex fertilizer with microelements such as Soluble, Kristalon, Kemira-Lux is diluted in water according to the instructions (up to 0.01-0.05%). Tubers in nets are dipped in a solution of complex fertilizers with microelements for a period of several minutes to 1 hour, then dried. Instead of soaking, the tubers can be sprinkled with a solution from a watering can (1 l / kg) and covered with foil for a while. Or dust it with ash. Instead of unfolding, tubers can be placed in plastic bags (perforated with a hole punch) 25-30 x 50-60 cm, tied in pairs, or use long bags (120-140 cm), half-filled,which are hung indoors on a rope, wire, not far from the window.

Before planting, the tubers must be placed in a dark place for 7-10 days.

Duration of germination at a temperature of 12-17 ° C is 35-40 days, with a higher temperature - up to 30 days. If the temperature is 5-7 ° C, then germination slows down, and if it is above 20 ° C, then the sprouts become stiff and the tubers dry out.

2. In a humid environment. Wet (70-85%) peat, humus, sawdust, chaff, fire, etc. are used as a medium. Or use a container where the tubers are kept moist, occasionally spraying. A temperature of 12-15 is required, but not higher than 25 ° C. Tubers are placed at a distance of 2-3 cm from each other in boxes, baskets, etc., or on the floor of a heated room in the form of a pile, layered with one of the above materials in layers of 2-3 cm - 3-4 rows.

The germination period is 15-20 days, at 25 ° C it can be limited to a week. After the danger of severe frosts has passed, you can germinate the tubers in this way in a pit in the garden. It is better if there is manure heating at the bottom of the pit. In all cases, the potatoes are covered on top with a layer of 3-5 cm with the organic material that is used for germination (peat, humus, sawdust, etc.).

3. The combined method - the tubers are germinated in the light for 27-30 days, and after the formation of strong thick sprouts 2-5 cm long on them, they are transferred to boxes with a bedding of moist organic material 10-15 cm high, as in the previous method: do 3-5 rows of tubers, separating each with a layer of 3-5 cm of organic matter. Before the roots appear (2-3 days), the temperature in the room should be 20-22 ° C (do this at home or, for example, when you arrive at the dacha, immediately put the tubers in boxes and raise the temperature in the room). When the roots appear, leaving the dacha on Sunday, they feed the tubers by watering the boxes with a solution of complex fertilizer with microelements.

After a week, it is advisable to repeat the feeding. Germination in a humid environment in the combined version (the most effective) lasts 7-10 days. From the time the roots appear (2-3 days, Sunday), the room temperature is reduced to 12-14 ° C. Such preparation is sufficient for the substances that inhibit growth to collapse in the sprouts, and good roots appear. Such tubers give early friendly shoots, provide a good harvest. They are not afraid of the return of cold weather, they do not rot.

Growing potato seedlings

Seed potatoes of high reproductions are expensive. And it's a pity, it is unwise to use it for food purposes. However, from the 10-15 tubers you bought, you can get planting material for 0.5-1 hundred parts. For this, the tubers, after washing in hot (up to 50 ° C) water and keeping them in a fertilizer solution, are laid out in a damp cardboard box (in the dark) in a warm place. After a week, sprouts with roots will appear on them, which must be separated and planted in pots for seedlings. Put the tubers in the fertilizer solution again for a few minutes and return to the same box. So the procedure can be repeated several times until the shoots stop appearing. An average of about 30 sprouts are obtained from one tuber. However, some amateurs managed to get a hundred or more sprouts from the tubers.

After planting in pots, caring for seedlings is identical to caring for tomato seedlings. Plants obtained from the first shoots will outgrow by May. They can be cut into cuttings, dipped in a solution of heteroauxin, root, etc., planted in a greenhouse or greenhouse, covered with a film. In this way, you can get quite a lot of planting material.

When the danger of frost has passed - after mid-May - the resulting seedlings are planted in the ridges so that only the top of the plant is on the surface.

Now about the main thing. To obtain an "off-season" early harvest, ultra-early crops are needed - Spring, Spring white, Timo, Skala, Fresco; the early ones - Bullfinch, Snow Maiden, Red Scarlet, Latona, Luck, Condor, Pushkinets, etc.; mid-early - In memory of Osipova, Elizaveta, Charodey, Romano and other varieties.

If you use mid-season varieties - Russian Beauty, Inspiration, Skarb, Naiada, Petersburg, then the harvest will be received 7-10 days later.

If your site is infected with a golden potato nematode, there is only one way out: use resistant varieties - Pushkinets, Prigozhiy 2, Santa, Fresco, Latona, Symphony, Skala, Naiad, etc.

How much fertilizer do potatoes need

Each housewife plans a budget, each gardener - one way or another - the future harvest. How to solve this problem correctly with potatoes? Let's try to figure it out: a family of 3 people uses up to 500 kg of potatoes a year (taking into account the seed fund of the next year). The average yield for gardeners in the North-West of the Russian Federation is 100-200 kg / 100 m². So what: give the entire area for potatoes? You won't wait! For this, 50-100 m² is enough. Don't believe me? Let's calculate: scientists have spent years breeding varieties that potentially yield 300-1000 kg / m3 or more.

To correctly calculate the amount of fertilizers, one must remember that 500 kg of potato crop "take out" about 2.5 kg of nitrogen, 1 kg of phosphorus, 3.5-5 kg of potassium from the soil. Now we will recalculate these quantities for finished fertilizers. For example, we take urea from nitrogen (46% of the active substance). If 46% is the required 2.5 kg of nitrogen, then 100% will already be 5.4 kg, i.e. so much urea should be bought in the store.

Double superphosphate (50% ae) will require 2 kg, and potassium salt (60% ae) - 5.8-8.3 kg. At the same time, one must not forget that phosphorus fertilizers can be applied for future use in the fall, for digging, potash fertilizers on heavy soils - also in autumn, and on light soils - both potash, phosphorus, and nitrogen - in spring, during soil cultivation. These are the minimum quantities calculated for 100% assimilation by plants, in fact, it is 30-50%. If you did not apply fertilizer in the fall, you will have to do it in the spring. Only the use of potassium chloride is not recommended.

Very good results were obtained on potatoes with the use of Kemira-Potato fertilizers and OMU (organo-mineral fertilizer). It is also important to place ridges on the site from north to south, if possible, this is even up to 10-20% increase in yield.

Planting potatoes

To obtain an early harvest, the tubers are planted in pre-prepared ridges when the soil temperature is at least 10-15 ° C. To speed up the warming up of the soil after the snow melts, the site can be covered with a black film, which is removed before planting. If fertilizers have not been applied to the soil since autumn, it will have to be done in the spring. WMD can be applied directly with the tubers, and combined fertilizers (Kemira, ekofoska, azofoska …) can be added to the hole, lightly sprinkling them so that there are no burns to the tubers.

The area of the site is calculated based on the width and length of the covering material, taking into account the digging of its edges. The planting scheme is traditional - from 50-70 cm between rows, from 15-20 cm in a row. Then the plantings are covered. The denser the spunbond (lutrasil, agrotex, etc.) - 42, 60 g / m², the earlier you can plant. If the tubers are not planted in the ridges, then the planting is spud 2-3 times before flowering, the soil is kept moist. 1-2 foliar dressings with complex fertilizers such as Kemira Lux, Solution will not be superfluous.

For those who want to have fresh potatoes only for consumption while living at the dacha (June-September), it is enough to have a pair of combs 10-20 m long, depending on the number of "eaters".

The covering material is not removed until flowering. From the moment of flowering on loose soils with your hands (on heavy ones you will have to dig in the bushes), large tubers are separated and used for food. Depending on the location, the timing of planting, the type of covering material, the first "digging" can begin from June 10-15, and then you will be with fresh potatoes all summer. Full harvesting is carried out at the usual time for the planted variety.

Good health and good harvests to you!