Potato Harvest By June

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

← Read the previous part. Diseases and pests of potatoes

How to grow a good harvest of delicious potatoes. Part 4

Potato variety Aurora

Sealing landings

Many gardening magazines recommend planting radishes, beets, beans, or beans in the furrows of potatoes. Beans have a bad effect on potatoes, their joint growth reduces the yield of tubers. This is because the roots of the beans are on the same tier as the potato ones, and the beans have a very powerful root system that takes up precious space in the soil. It does not allow potato tubers to fully develop due to lack of space.

Radishes and beets, together with the plantings of my potatoes, simply cannot coexist, because its tops grow up to my waist, close together, forming an impenetrable jungle, where there is no place even for weeds, and besides, they do not have enough sunlight. Because of this, I also do not place other ridges close to potato rows. Potato tops fall on them in August, and then you can get less harvest.

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Harvest by June

You always want to get young potatoes as early as possible. And this is quite possible if you adhere to a certain technology for growing tubers. To get my potatoes by early or mid-June, I plant as soon as the ground thaws and warms up in spring. In the fall, I bring in incompletely decomposed compost and fresh horse manure with sawdust to the place where the tubers will be planted early. I dig this place, and then my father cultivates it with a walk-behind tractor. Thanks to this, all organic matter is well mixed and evenly distributed.

To make the soil ready for planting faster in spring, in the second half of March I shovel off the snow where the potatoes will be planted. I shovel it off over a larger area so that the snow lying nearby does not give a shadow and does not interfere with the sun's rays from heating the soil. I pour it with very warm water and cover this place with a black film so that the earth heats up faster. In No. 3 (157), 2013 the author Oleg Telepov wrote in the article "Physics in the Garden" that a transparent film heats the soil faster than a black one.

Based on personal experience, I disagree with this. I have been using black film in the garden for over twenty years, and more than once I have checked the ground under it by touch - it was very warm even in the cold season. The black film heats up, and then begins to give off heat not only to the air outside, but also under the film. After all, when we heat the stove, the heat from it spreads outside, the air in the room heats up. So the air heats up under the black film, and it heats the soil. In addition, such heat emanates from it (not only under the film, but also above the film) that the snow lying nearby also begins to melt faster.

The semi-decomposed compost introduced in autumn under the film also begins to rot from the heat, releasing additional heat. Loose and light soil heats up much faster than heavy and dense soil. In such soil, warm air penetrates deeper through the pores, heating a greater distance from the surface of the earth. And what is also important, weed shoots die under the black film.

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As soon as the soil thaws to a depth of a little more than a shovel's bayonet (this happens around the second half of April, it all depends on weather conditions and the number of sunny days), I dig a trench along the width of the furrow, scatter a layer of sawdust at the bottom of at least 10 cm, water them first with warm water to settle, and then with a concentrated solution of liquid manure (a mixture of horse manure with bird droppings, sapropel and Baikal EM-1).

On top of the sawdust I spread a layer of hay of the same thickness, trample it down and also water it with warm water, and then again with a concentrated solution of liquid manure. I pour a layer of horse manure with sawdust and compost on the hay (I mix them in advance). I also water all this with manure, and then also with very warm water (not boiling water, so as not to kill the microflora), sprinkle it on top with a not very thick layer of dug soil.

I put the sprouted potato tubers on it. I sprinkle it with compost, and on top with the remaining soil. I level the landing site with a rake. There should be no mound. I water the planting site first with warm water, and then with a solution of the growth stimulator HB-101 (two drops per liter of water). I cover the planting site with a black film until shoots appear.

After a week, I check the landing site, if necessary, I pour it with warm water with Energen (one bottle per bucket of water). Since the tubers are planted very early, seedlings do not emerge as quickly as with conventional potato planting.

After the emergence of shoots, I change the black film to a white dense spunbond, and spray the plants with HB-101 solution (one drop per liter of water). I sprinkle the potatoes twice as needed and cover them with spunbond again. Before the first hilling around the potato bushes, I sprinkle a pre-mixed mixture of fertilizers: potassium magnesium, superphosphate and Bisolbifit powder. I take off the spunbond only when the potato plants grow up and the weather is warm outside.

I water the plants as the soil dries. Before flowering, I feed with a solution of liquid manure. I cut flowers from plants. We eat the first early potatoes in mid-June. I harvest by hand. Putting my hand into the furrow, I pull out the largest tubers. I don't dig up the bush completely - there are also small tubers that still have to gain weight. They will take a couple of weeks to grow.

To get early potatoes, I plant only Rosara tubers. This variety, unlike other early varieties, grows very quickly, forming beautiful, large and tasty tubers. It is also resistant to the low temperatures of our spring. With such an early planting, this variety leaves phytophthora. Unfortunately, it is weakly resistant to it in the leaves, but rather resistant in the tubers. Unlike many other early varieties, Rosara forms at least 15 tubers in a nest, and all of them are large, little things do not happen at all (of course, with good agricultural technology). For early varieties this is a very good indicator, since other early varieties, as a rule, have no more than 7-8 tubers per nest.

To renew the planting material of this variety, I plant one furrow of it and at the usual planting dates, but in this case the plants of Rosary will already be grabbed by late blight along the tops, and earlier than all other varieties. This is its main disadvantage. Therefore, I dig it out earlier than other varieties, as soon as the leaves are half affected by late blight. You can no longer hold it, otherwise the tubers will crack and become clumsy. In addition, voids may appear in overgrown tubers. The tubers of this variety are bright pink, oval with a smooth skin and yellow dense flesh. But if you dig them out ahead of time, then during cooking the pulp is loose, a little watery.

Selection of potato varieties

As all potato growers know, different varieties produce different harvests in different years. One variety works better in dry summers, the other in dry summers. Therefore, true lovers of this culture are constantly experimenting, looking for the best varieties for themselves. For twenty years I have tried a huge number of potato varieties. Not all of them have taken pride of place in my collection. When selecting varieties, I pay attention to taste and resistance to late blight. In addition, the yield of the variety is of no small importance.

If the variety is not very productive, but with excellent taste, then I will also grow it. For example, such varieties, in my opinion, include the Lugovskoy variety. The number of tubers in his nest is about twenty, the variety is resistant to late blight, and I consider it the best in taste, it is not without reason that he was assigned nine out of ten points on the scale of taste. The maximum value - 10 points belongs to the Belarusian potato variety Lorkh, which is prohibited for cultivation in our state due to the fact that it is not resistant to nematodes.

Tim's potato

In addition to the varieties already mentioned, many other varieties of potatoes received registration on the site. Many of them are zoned for our area. These are the varieties of the Vsevolozhsk breeding station: Aurora, Zenit, Rucheyok, Real. I would like to thank the workers of the breeding station for these varieties. In the very first year of their cultivation with a high level of agricultural technology, we were pleasantly surprised by their record harvests, and in 2011, thanks to the varieties Aurora and Zenit, I became the winner of the Gardener 2011 competition, while other gardeners complained about poor potato harvests after extremely hot summer 2010. By the way, these varieties have shown themselves very well in the Gomel region of the Republic of Belarus. There is a longer warm growing season, much drier and higher temperatures than in our region.

Now I also have Belarusian potato varieties on trial: Lileya, Skarb, Zhuravinka and Molly. In terms of the number of tubers in the nest, I consider these varieties to be productive, but in terms of the size of tubers they are inferior to our zoned varieties, since they acclimatize to our wet and cool summer. I dig these varieties in the second half of September, increasing their growing season. I hope they will perform well this hot summer, but if this does not happen, then I will not grow them.

Of the potato varieties I grow in our Vsevolozhsk region, the most resistant to late blight are: Lugovskoy, Ladozhsky, Colette, Sudarynya, Radonezhsky. Medium-resistant: League, Brook, Aurora, Zenith, Ryabinushka, Sorcerer, Latona, Santa, Zhuravinka. Weakly resistant: Lisette, Rosara, Luck, Arnova, Lileya, Adretta, Karatop. I determined the resistance to late blight by the most unfavorable year of the outbreak of this disease. In favorable years, these varieties have shown their best side.

If we compare potato varieties with white, yellow, pink peel in terms of resistance to late blight, then, in my opinion, “red-skinned” varieties are less resistant, and when this scourge appears, they are affected first of all, infecting neighbors. I try to grow the smallest number of varieties of potatoes with pink tubers, leaving only those that are of high taste.

And I consider the following varieties to be the best among all varieties in terms of taste: Lugovskoy, Lisette, Santa, Colette, Radonezh, Zenith, Aurora

Years pass, and even the favorite potato varieties begin to degenerate. True, they can still be revived. I tested this experimentally. It is necessary to plant tubers of degenerating varieties in another garden of someone else's plot, the main thing is not after the potatoes. Getting into other growing conditions, these varieties increase their productivity. What is the reason, I cannot explain. Most likely, this is due to the fact that the microclimate of the site, lighting, moisture is changing; there is a different composition of the soil, it has different nutrients. A plant, once in an unfamiliar environment, begins to experience stress, and, as you know, in stressful situations, its resistance to the environment increases, and it seeks to give as many offspring as possible.

The next year, the tubers of this potato can be planted again on your site. But this is a rather troublesome event, and there is no certainty that the person who was given the tubers for "re-education" will not confuse the varieties. A more reliable way out of this situation is to buy new potato tubers of the same variety in a specialized seed store or at an exhibition for gardeners from trusted sellers.

Buying tubers

Visiting grocery stores, I noticed that there are beautiful and high-quality potatoes offered to customers. As a rule, these are the most expensive tubers in the store. They are clean, even, smooth and beautiful, without any damage from diseases and pests. And the most surprising thing is that the country of origin and its botanical variety are indicated on the packages of such potatoes.

For fun I bought one package. I boiled some of the tubers and was pleasantly surprised - they also had excellent taste. And then I decided to try to grow this potato variety in my area. I bought other varieties of potatoes, but only those where the botanical variety was indicated on the package, and which I liked for their taste.

In the process of experiments and testing, I came to the conclusion that it is possible to plant potato tubers purchased at a grocery store, but only those of them that were dug no earlier than six months before they were planted on my site. They have gone through a dormant period and can grow again. The tubers, which I bought in the spring as early potatoes from Israel, germinated only in mid-August, and they could not count on a harvest. For four years in a row, I tried to get Israeli potatoes to bear fruit on my site, collecting pea-like tubers in the fall and planting them the next year. Of course, after four years, the tubers noticeably increased their size and weight, but I already decided to go the other way.

Iranian potato grade Lira

From January to March, I purchase several packages of different varieties of potatoes I like in supermarkets. I boil several tubers from the net and taste, evaluating its taste. If I liked the variety, I thoroughly wash the rest of the tubers and disinfect and germinate them. Planting and caring for them is the same as for other varieties.

This is how the varieties Colette, Arnova, Karotop appeared in our garden. This year I bought Lira potatoes brought to us from Iran. When he ascended, the beauty of plants eclipsed all other varieties. I used to think that the beauty of the potato tops belongs to the Dutch varieties, but the Lira variety turned out to be even better. It has formed slender, spreading plants with strong, powerful stems and huge leaves. I have not seen larger leaves in two decades of growing potatoes. I will write about the harvest of this variety of potatoes and other new varieties at the end of this season.

Useful Tips

Many gardeners store potatoes in the basement, which is often visited by mice, causing huge damage to the crop. My friend Aleftina Ivanovna Efimova shared her experience of how she fights rodents. In the fall, she brings branches of marsh rosemary from the forest and puts them on boxes of potatoes. And sometimes he adds bunches of red elderberries to them. Mice do not like the smells emitted by these plants and bypass them.

If it so happens that the potato tubers are frozen, then after boiling them they will taste sweet. To get rid of this, I clean them, rinse them, fill them with ice water and put them on the stove not on high heat. The water heats up slowly and the sweet taste disappears. Salt frozen potatoes at the end of cooking. High-quality potato tubers need to be salted at the beginning of cooking, and you need to fill them with hot water.

Read the ending. Analysis of potato varieties at the end of the summer →

"How to Grow a Good Harvest of Delicious Potatoes"

• Part 1. Purchase and disinfection of potato planting material
• Part 2. Preparation and planting of potato tubers
• Part 3. Diseases and pests of potatoes
• Part 4. Potato harvest by June
• Part 5. Analysis of potato varieties at the end of the summer