Influence Of Planting Density On Potato Yield

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

Read the previous part. ← Technique of planting potatoes with tuber shares

About yield

Harvest of Bars potato bushes

Again a question from the mail: “We cut the tuber into two parts. From each half sprouts sprouted. That is, both from the upper part and from the lower part (where there should not be sprouts), the eyes turned on and went into growth!

It turns out that the total yield from one tuber should be higher, because the total number of sprouts has increased. Correctly?"

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Figure 23

In the previous article, we agreed that the yield of potatoes is influenced not by the absolute number of sprouts, but by the number of trunks that will develop from these sprouts. Can we say that the more trunks, the greater the yield? It is possible, but with a reservation. This relationship is only true up to a certain limit - 23-25 trunks for marketable tubers (for food and sale) and 25-27 trunks for seed potatoes per square meter. If there are more trunks, the yield drops. This is due to the intraspecific struggle for sunlight, nutrient solutions in the soil, and water.

Figure 24

You cut the tuber. The number of trunks grown from one tuber will definitely increase. But there is no direct relationship here. Let's take a closer look at this issue. For example, the top has 7 peeped-out eyes (see fig. 23). On pieces with a large number of sprouts (as well as on whole tubers), as a rule, not all sprouts become trunks. Ultimately, 1–5 sprouts can develop from this vertex. But more often several shoots develop from the top, and not one. What determines the number of developed trunks? I dont know.

Take a piece of stolon piece with 4 sprouts. On such a piece, 1-4 trunks can develop (see Figure 24).

Figure 25

A piece with two eyes can develop 1-3 sprouts. A piece with 1 eye will develop 1-2 shoots (see fig. 25)

Why am I talking about this in such detail? It is important to understand what to expect from pieces with different numbers of eyes. And do not harbor illusions that each peephole will definitely give a full-fledged plant (trunk).

Looking at the potato bushes during harvesting, I noticed the following pattern: in bushes that grew from a whole tuber, 1-3 tubers grow on each plant (trunk). In multi-stemmed bushes, some plants (trunks) have no tubers at all (see Fig. 26). More often in such a bush there are 6-10 tubers.

Figure 26

I was considering a plant that grew from a piece of a tuber with one trunk. One such plant has 2 to 10 tubers. And large ones.

Why it happens? Figure 27 shows the developmental stages of a bush grown from a whole tuber. As a rule, first one sprout sprouts, then the second, the third. The whole tuber until a certain time regulates the supply of nutrients to the sprouts. And most of the food goes to the topmost sprout. Then in descending order - to everyone else. Therefore, the first sprout is initially in an advantageous position.

Figure 27

With the formation of roots, each individual trunk begins to live its own life - this is already a separate plant. They are all very close. Already at the very young age of developing plants, each of them experiences a competitive struggle within the bush.

And it is at this age that the plant is "programmed" for the harvest - it decides how many future tubers it can feed during the growing season. The stronger the competition, the more the plant is "programmed" for a smaller yield. Stems - the latter are oppressed by the firstborn. And they often give one or two small nodules. For the bush as a whole, they are, in fact, weeds - they use food, shade the neighbors, but do not give a significant harvest.

Figure 28

The same processes occur when planting a part of a tuber. Part "considers" itself an independent tuber. The difference is that there are few sprouts on it. And at a young age, they experience much less competition. This means that they lay more stolons - they are ready to give more tubers. You can make a bush from separate pieces (see fig. 28).

With this planting, the development of all plants will occur more evenly than from a whole tuber. In this case, the number of tubers under the bush will be more than from the whole tuber. In addition, tubers grown from chunks in plants will be the largest (see Fig. 29).

Figure 29

Keeping in mind the competitive struggle and the particular importance of the initial stage of development of a potato plant, it should be borne in mind that the further from each other active shoots are located during planting, the better. That is why, among the planting options that I use (see Fig. 14-16), the most productive is the one in which there are fewer shoots in one "nest" - option 3 (see Fig. 16). That is why in other variants I place the sprouts in the "holes" farther from each other (see Fig. 18).

Figure 30

In addition to the competition within the bush, plants from tuber parts have another advantage. They have more leaves. This means that the whole plant receives more products of photosynthesis - the yield increases. The increase in leaf surface occurs due to the fact that “stepchildren” - additional trunks - appear in the leaf axils. Such a plant does not look like a trunk with leaves, but like a small tree. In Figure 30, the arrows show the stepsons.

Several times I have come across assertions that if we cut the tubers, we will get 2-3 times more harvest from the same planting material. It is possible. But I would not guarantee it. When using cut planting material, my yield always increased by 30-70%. As a result, it was possible to slightly step over the border of 25 bags per one hundred square meters. I think that in my case not all reserves have been used up, and much better results can be achieved.