Planting Potatoes Using The Old-fashioned Method

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

Planting potatoes and other vegetables in the turf bed

Now many of my friends use this method, and I brought it from the Novgorod region. Having bought an old house there with a long-abandoned vegetable garden, for the first time in my life I came across red earth. Red earth is rich, but very heavy soils with an admixture of red pottery clay.

The composition of such clay includes a whole set of macro- and microelements (it is even used as a mineral supplement for animals), but it is very, very difficult to cut the turf on the red earth with a shovel. I'm used to processing our lightweight loams, and even better - cultivated peat bogs, from where even nasty roots can be pulled out with a simple hoe. The land of my Novgorod site seemed to have never known a shovel, but I wanted to plant potatoes, at least half a hundred, and cucumbers with zucchini - how would it all go well on a rested land …

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And so a local resident, the kindest soul old woman Katya, noticing how I, bent over with a hook, wander into the bathhouse to steam my aching back, advised the local method of developing new lands. I called it "planting in the formation circulation", and this method not only made my life much easier, but also helped to get a decent harvest in the first year.

When landing in this way, the earth is not dug up! The surface is freed from debris and last year's grass by a rake or by burning dead wood. Then the contours of the future garden or potato field are cut with a shovel to the entire depth of the turf. It should be said right away that this method is suitable for planting fruit vegetables, as well as potatoes (stachis and Jerusalem artichoke), but not suitable for root crops - they are not able to “tear the turf” so easily and either die or grow clumsy, crooked. Under the potatoes, the turf is cut with a shovel across the field with a distance of 60-70 cm between the cuts, then visually divide each strip in half - this will be a fold.

The sod along the entire length of the strip is folded towards itself (as if closing a book) so that its surface exactly coincides and the whole is covered. Freshly hatched potatoes are taken so that the heavy turf does not break the sprouts. The tubers are laid out in advance, directly on the sod along the entire length of the strip, after which the sod is carefully folded over. The tubers are in the center of rather high furrows.

I have improved this method: I wrap each tuber in sphagnum moss soaked in a growth stimulant solution. Sphagnum protects potatoes from a variety of rot (in case of cold and rainy weather), while the stimulant helps seedlings and roots to cope with the harsh conditions of compacted soil. The edges of the furrows can be trimmed with a shovel, making sure that the turf surface is covered everywhere.

The plantings in the turnover of the seam do not huddle and do not loosen in order to prevent sod germination. The yield is not a record one, of course, but it is quite comparable to that of early potatoes. It is removed at the usual time - at the end of August.

Most likely, you will find that the roots of such a malicious weed, such as wheatgrass, seem to have died, but not rotted - they should be combed out of the soil with a rake or pitchfork. Surprisingly, such a seemingly delicate vegetable like potatoes perfectly loosens the soil. In autumn, "virgin land" is simply unrecognizable: what seemed like concrete slabs in spring, turns into loose soil at the end of summer. The ridges along the edges of the potato field are created according to the same principle, only in this case the turf is folded from both sides to the center along its entire length so that its edges are tightly joined in the center.

It is more convenient to make the beds no wider than 60 cm and bend 30 cm of sod on both sides. This will create 30 cm clean paths around the garden bed. For pumpkin crops, you can fill the ridges with manure. Manure is laid out along the entire length of the bed in a layer of 10 cm, and then the sod is wrapped. Of course, cutting, and especially the process of wrapping the layer itself, is also not an easy job. Long layers of turf can be cut across into lengths that can be lifted by weight. The main thing is to make sure that the entire surface of the turf is covered with earth, so that all layers are joined as tightly as possible. Only then the sod will not germinate, but on the contrary, rotting, will enrich the soil even more.

What did I plant on the reverse bed? Zucchini and pumpkins - with seeds, two seeds per hole, followed by thinning. The result is excellent! Peas and beans: punching holes with a crowbar and planting soaked seeds. The result is good. Interestingly, the legumes required less irrigation on the back of the seam than on conventional beds. White cabbage: I also stuck a crowbar into the circulation of the layer and made a funnel in a circular motion. She planted 30-day seedlings, deepening to the first true leaves. The harvest was great, but, unfortunately, the goats of the same woman Katya were the first to appreciate it …

Looking at the effectiveness of this old-fashioned method, you clearly understand: progress, of course, is good, but the experience of old people will still serve, sometimes it helps a lot.