Why Mow Potato Tops
Why Mow Potato Tops

Video: Why Mow Potato Tops

Video: Why Mow Potato Tops
Video: Мотокоса для скашивания ботвы картофеля. Brushcutters for mowing potato tops 2024, March
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Potatoes in bloom
Potatoes in bloom

Potatoes in bloom

There may be several reasons. First, they may be harvesting their crops with a digger or other equipment. The tops will clog into mechanisms and interfere with harvesting. But, most likely, they mow the tops because their potatoes are already finishing their growing season, and it is time to harvest them.

The fact is that all varieties of potatoes that we grow are divided by ripening time into early, medium-early, medium, medium-late and late varieties. And if you planted tubers of an early variety, then they should ripen in about 70-80 days.

So, having planted them in May on certain days, you already know when they will ripen. This year, the weather in May favored an early start to sowing and planting operations. And if gardeners planted tubers of an early variety in the soil, say, on May 15, then, counting the days of the growing season, we will understand that by mid-August the harvest of this potato is already ripe. And you can, after mowing the tops, start digging in 8-10 days.

Gardener's handbook

Plant

Potatoes in bloom
Potatoes in bloom

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Trial digging of potatoes

Mid-early varieties ripen 80-90 days after planting. This means that the harvest of these varieties can be harvested in the third decade of August.

And in this way, you can roughly calculate the harvesting time of any kind. True, one must also take into account which tubers were planted in the soil - germinated or not. The weather can also make its own adjustments to the growing season of any crop, but still it is not very difficult to determine the time of harvesting your crop. In addition, there is also such a popular method as selective digging of tubers.

This is when you gently run your hand into the soil near a potato bush and select one or two tubers there. And you see whether the harvest is ripe or not. Then, of course, you need to mask the traces of your penetration so that the remaining tubers are covered with soil and do not turn green with the sun. In this way, firstly, you can dig up young potatoes for cooking, and, secondly, you will see how ripe your harvest is.

When the skin of young potatoes stops peeling under the finger and begins to cork (become more firm and rough), it's time to harvest. But experienced potato growers know that if you cut off the tops of a potato ten days before the start of harvesting, it will ripen faster, its skin will become more rigid, resistant to injury during harvesting and storage. Apparently, for this reason, your neighbors are mowing the tops - they prepare their beds in advance for harvesting in this way.

There is one more reason why gardeners mow the tops, more precisely, they try to carefully cut it off. This happens when, at the end of summer, signs of profuse late blight appear on the potato tops - dark spots on the leaves that quickly spread throughout the plant, and not one or two plants are affected, but many.

And on the underside of the affected leaf there are fungal spores in the form of a white bloom. Then it is advisable to cut the tops off as soon as possible, trying not to spray the spores of this fungal disease on the soil, to take the tops and the source of the disease off the site and burn them. If you do this work quickly, there is a chance that the tubers will not be affected by this disease, and you will save the crop.

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Potatoes in bloom
Potatoes in bloom

Potatoes. Aurora variety

If you notice signs of late blight at the beginning or in the middle of summer, then you need to urgently save the future harvest and treat the planting with drugs. In June, when the tops begin to close in rows, experts recommend treating potato plants twice with an interval of ten days for late blight with solutions of fungicides Ridomil MC and Osksikh (according to the instructions).

If you notice the first signs of the disease after flowering potatoes, treatment with a solution of copper oxychloride or Kuproksat preparation is necessary (also according to the instructions).

In areas where there were signs of late blight, harvesting and selection of tubers for storage, and especially for seed purposes, must be done very carefully. All tubers must be thoroughly dried in the sun, and in bad weather, under ventilated awnings. Experienced gardeners, already during harvesting, notice nests of potatoes with a large number of healthy tubers and choose the best specimens from these nests for planting next year. But even with this selection, after drying the crop, each tuber must be carefully examined - both for planting and for food purposes. If you notice the slightest signs of illness, discard such tubers immediately. They are a threat to your entire crop.

E. Valentinov

Photo by Olga Rubtsova

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