Potatoes owe their popularity to the ancient inhabitants of southern America, who discovered the tubers of a wild plant at the beginning of our era. For a long time, the earthen apple, as the inhabitants of the settlements called it, grew on its own. It was only in the 12th century that potatoes began to be planted in the fields and new varieties were gradually developed.
Specimens of the plant came to Europe, and then to Russia, already in the 18th century and did not immediately find their well-deserved vocation. Because of his beautiful blue flowers potatoes are used as decorative decoration in gardens and parks. Today it is difficult to overestimate the importance of this vegetable for nutrition; the popularity and variety of dishes made from it are simply off the charts.
Potatoes are a tasty and healthy food that nourishes the body and supplies it with many essential vitamins and microelements. According to the amount of potassium content tubers are equated to meat and fish products, starch, in large quantities present in potatoes is needed for the normal functioning of our body.
Despite the fact that many gardeners and summer residents consider themselves experts in growing potatoes, new methods of planting and care are emerging. Getting a high yield personal plots requires considerable physical effort, some older people refuse to cultivate this vegetable. By uniting scientific knowledge and practice, potato lovers have found many new ways to make their work easier.
The best of them is considered to be manure., and especially that obtained by using peat as bedding for livestock. The amount of fertilizer is calculated at the rate of 6 to 10 kg per square meter crop area. Manure is introduced into clay soils in the fall along with digging. If fertilizing is carried out in the spring, then the manure should be rotted in special heaps or pits. Leave organic fertilizers You can’t put them on the surface, as they dry out quickly and go to waste.
If there is a shortage of organic matter, it is added directly to each hole when planting potatoes. Fertilizing is in the area of direct nutrition of the roots and works even better than fertilizing the entire area as a whole.
For fertilizing the soil use decomposed peat. But its effectiveness is much lower than when mixed with slurry. Peat composts with manure are used poultry mainly in autumn period or clean droppings at the rate of 2–4 kg per square meter.
River silt is used as organic fertilizer, aerated and dried in summer period or the sapropel plant, which lives in large masses in bodies of water.
Organic matter decomposes slowly and during the first period of growth of a potato bush it remains without significant feeding. For such purposes, mineral fertilizers are added to the soil.
Sandy soils enrich nitrogen and potassium fertilizers, phosphorus is used in black soil areas and forest plots. They are added in the spring under a shovel.
Ammonium nitrate is introduced in the amount of 1–2 kg, urea up to 1.5 kg, potassium chloride 2–4 kg, and nitroammophos 3–4 kg per 1 sq. m. m.
The area is dug up, the necessary organic and mineral fertilizers are applied, then covered with dense black film. Mark the places for planting potatoes and make cross-shaped cuts, opening the edges. Use a hoe or hoe to make holes to a depth of 10–15 cm and place the tubers there. This method of planting avoids the growth of weeds; the soil under the blanket retains moisture and does not require additional watering. In autumn, the above-ground parts of plants (tops) are cut off and the film is revealed. Potato tubers are collected from shallow depths.
This method is the least labor intensive of all. Digging up the garden is not done either in the fall or in the spring. In an area cleared of large weeds, use a hoe to longitudinal furrows to a depth of 10 cm at a distance of 70 cm from each other. The potatoes are laid out in these grooves every 40 cm. With a hoe, soil from the row spacing up to 5 cm thick is poured onto the tubers. These rows are covered with straw or hay on top with a layer of up to 30–40 cm. It is fashionable to use fallen leaves, then the layer is made 20 cm.
Potatoes do not require watering or hilling during the entire growing season. Straw mulch is added to the areas where the roots emerge to the surface. This coating decomposes and supplies the soil and plant roots with essential substances. Worms, bred in large numbers under the mulch, naturally ventilate the soil with their moves, which contributes to a high potato yield.
Weeds don't grow with this growing method. Harvesting tubers comes down to pulling them out of the straw layer in the fall. No further digging is required, since this method is based on the theory that digging breaks the natural structure of the soil. Planting potatoes under straw gives good results.
This method, in addition to reducing labor intensity, also saves space in the garden. At limited space For planting, growing plants in bags gives good results.
It consists in cutting off the bottom of the barrel and placing it on the ground. Below is a layer of soil with organic fertilizers in the form of peat composts. Several potato tubers are placed on it in any order. When the first shoots appear, they are covered with soil again. This is done every time until the layers reach the top of the barrel or bag. Sufficient watering is provided so that the soil does not dry out. Sometimes the end of a watering hose with holes is directly buried in the barrel and thus the bush is watered.
Growing potatoes is based on the fact that new roots branch off to the sides of the trunk and the formation of tubers occurs along the entire height of the barrel. Subject to the right technology and having gained experience over time, they get up to 60 kg of potatoes from one container.
This method of planting came to us from American scientists who believe that potato yields increase if the plant is given a lot of free space for development and growth.
The bushes have on wide beds at least half a meter. Passages between rows are made from 0.75 to 1 m. The beds are surrounded by a roller of earth to a height of 10–15 cm. Such sides will save moisture and reduce the number of weeds. If the garden is supposed to be placed on a sunny slope, then instead of beds, boxes are made, which are filled with soil ideal for growing.
The Mittlider method requires constant watering of the bushes, but hilling of the potatoes is eliminated. Plants are fertilized three times a season. Harvest at proper cultivation reaches half a centner per hundred square meters.
The soil is prepared as usual, dug up and fertilized in the fall and spring. Using a shovel, a hole of normal depth (20 cm) is made, and its width is 1.3 by 1.3 m. Potato tubers are laid and covered with a suitable sized cap. After emergence of seedlings in The top of the hood opens, and the shoots head towards the sun. Through the hole, the soil is moistened and the bushes are fed and fertilized. No need to hill up.
With this method, potatoes ripen half a month faster than usual and the yield is high.
Tillage is carried out in a standard manner. A marking grid with cells of 0.75 by 0.75 m is applied to the area. Holes are made at intersections, organic fertilizers are placed in them, several tubers are placed on top and everything is sprinkled with earth.
When the first sprouts appear, two or three of them are left to grow vertically, and the rest are bent to the ground in the form of rays in a circle from the center and sprinkled with earth. This is how formation occurs big bush capable of bringing a rich harvest.
This method consists of a large distance of 1 m between the bushes in the garden bed. Manure is poured into the holes and planting material is placed. An earthen roller is made around the hole. When sprouts appear from the ground, they are sprinkled with soil directly in the center of the bush. The shoots deviate to the sides, this is done several times. This results in additional formation of strengthening stolons in the axils of the sprinkled leaves.
Formed multi-tiered high-yielding bush.
The potato field is marked in a special way. Two rows of holes are located only 40 cm apart from each other. The distance between such double rows is 1.2 m. Potatoes are placed in holes, and a pile of earth is poured on top, thus the depth of placement planting material increases.
Placing two rows close to each other increases quality drip irrigation while saving water, since the hose is located close to two rows at the same time. Wide row spacing allows convenient to care for plants. At higher elevations, potato bushes receive 70% more rays and the aeration of the piles is much better. The mole cricket is less striking root system, and pests are practically absent with this planting method.
There are many methods for planting potatoes in the ground; it is difficult to list them all. But if you choose one of the most common innovative methods, you can increase productivity with at the lowest cost labor.
We have already reviewed the most different methods growing potatoes, except traditional. But there's another one new method growing potatoes- under a hood that is simple and convenient. First, a little theory.
Potato tubers develop from shoots and require air for maximum development. This is why the soil in which potatoes grow must be loose.
No wonder the method is now being revived growing potatoes under straw, and this method is very convenient, because there is no need to dig the ground either for planting or harvesting. In addition, even part of the harvest is not lost at all - after all, during normal planting, even with the most careful digging, some tubers still remain in the ground.
And if they remain, it means they will serve as food for pests and potato diseases. This drawback can be avoided using the method growing potatoes in bags. But there is another new method of growing potatoes, which is quite original.
This method is growing potatoes under cover. It has already been successfully used in Europe, and I think it will be interesting for us too. In the fall, you need to prepare the site - add humus, sow green manure, or add organic matter. In the spring, you plant all this to a depth of 5 cm deep into the soil, and plant the sprouted tubers.
Tuber pre-germination time - approx. 1.5 months. Take a larger distance between planted tubers than usual - approximately 1-1 meter Plant potatoes in holes 5 cm deep. Thus, the tubers will be barely covered with soil.
Some even recommend not making holes, but simply placing the tubers on the ground. Each tuber is covered with a light-proof cap. The caps can be made from tin, or you can use large paint cans, plastic buckets, or other available materials.
These caps will serve you for many years. Each cap has a hole at the top. At first, while the potatoes are growing, the hole is covered with a lid so that light does not get inside.
After the sprouts become long enough, the hole opens and the shoots are directed upward through this hole. The potatoes will be watered and fed through the same hole. By the way, you shouldn’t mix it into potatoes. ash.
Potatoes do not like an alkaline environment, and the ash can slow down their development for some time. But onion peel This is very good for potatoes. Recently it became known that onion peels contain growth accelerators for plants, in particular for potatoes.
So you can add onion skins by cap You can also add a layer of mulch from old hay - the mulch will serve as food for beneficial microorganisms and worms, and they will continuously improve and structure the soil in which the potato roots are located. The potatoes under the hood will hardly be touched Colorado beetle- after all, young shoots are protected, and adult plants will no longer be so vulnerable to attack.
Fight weeds It’s also not necessary - it’s enough to mow the grass near the hood if it’s too high, but it’s possible that you won’t even need to do this. K great advantage new method of growing potatoes can be attributed to small water consumption- it is enough to place one dropper on the box. You regulate the water flow in the dropper - and then everything will go automatically, you just need to monitor the water level and add it to the droppers in time.
When cleaning It is enough to cut off the tops, fold back the cap, and collect the harvest. It has been noticed that potatoes under a hood develop one and a half times faster, despite the fact that the harvest, as a rule, is larger. It would be interesting to combine the method growing potatoes in narrow beds- place the caps directly in the center of the beds.
At the same time, the entire remaining area of the beds can be occupied by other crops, for example, carrots, cabbage, onions, garlic, radishes, lettuce, dill, beans, beans - these plants get along well with potatoes, and most even have a beneficial effect.More details You can get it in the “All Courses” and “Utilities” sections, which can be accessed through the top menu of the site. In these sections, articles are grouped by topic into blocks containing the most detailed (as far as possible) information on various topics.
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Most gardeners believe that they know everything they need to know about how to grow potatoes on their plot, but only a few are satisfied with the harvest. What's the matter?
Maybe numerous potato diseases and pests are to blame, or is it time to change the place for planting potatoes? Or maybe it’s worth experimenting by abandoning the traditional method of growing and trying one of the non-standard technologies? Conservative potato growers may claim that conventional potato planting has long been tested and does not bring such bad results.
In fact, the traditional method, where one person digs holes and the other throws potatoes in, has significant drawbacks. For example, when hilling between rows, the part of the root system that is most active is destroyed. Yes, and with the usual thickened planting, potatoes do not have enough sunlight, but diseases and pests are quickly transmitted from bush to bush. There are various methods growing potatoes (new and well-forgotten old ones), which can significantly increase the yield, reduce the time and effort spent on planting, and also improve the quality of tubers.
Growing potatoes under straw
Several popular methods of growing potatoes are based on the same principle - increasing the distance between plants so that they receive more sunlight and develop better. These technologies are successfully used both in Russia and abroad.
Mittlider method Thanks to the famous American vegetable grower, Dr. Mittlider, a very effective technology for growing potatoes has emerged, which is as follows: potatoes are planted in ridges half a meter wide, making wide passages between the ridges (from 0.75 m to 1 m). To save water and to control weeds, earthen ridges are erected around the perimeter of the beds.
If there is a slope in the garden, long boxes filled with soil are built for planting potatoes. The Mitlider method also involves regular watering and fertilizing the plants three times a day during the season; there is no need to hill up the potato bushes.
In this way, it is possible to simultaneously reduce the area allocated for potatoes by three times and significantly increase the yield - up to 550 kg per hundred square meters. The peculiarity of growing potatoes using the Gülich method is that the plot is divided into squares of 1x1 m for each plant. In each square, a roller is formed from rotted manure in a circle, loose soil is poured into the formed circle and a large tuber is planted in it with the top down.
Then, when shoots appear around the tuber and begin to stretch in length, pour soil with a hoe into the very middle of the ring formed by the shoots. As a result, the shoots deviate and begin to grow in different sides from the tuber in the form of rays.
When the first leaves appear on the shoots, the soil is added - this procedure is repeated several times until a multi-tiered potato bush is formed. With sufficient supply of water and fertilizing, up to 16 kg of potatoes can be obtained from such a bush.
Dutch technology In addition to wide spacing between rows, Dutch potato growers pay great attention to soil aeration by loosening and planting potatoes in ridges. In addition, clear cultivation rules are strictly observed: selection of the best planting material, crop rotation, soil fertilization, treatment of tops with herbicides against pests.
Passages 70-75 cm wide are arranged between the ridges, and tubers are planted in the ridges every 30 cm. summer season plantings are watered three times; instead of hilling, the ridges are covered on both sides with soil from the row spacing.
Thanks to the Dutch method, it is possible to obtain up to 2 kg of selected large potatoes from one bush, which have high taste and are perfectly stored in winter. Folk method Over the course of 8 years, a resident of the Tula region developed his own method, which allows, under favorable weather conditions and good planting material, to obtain from 600 to 1000 kg of wonderful tubers from one hundred square meters. Growing potatoes consists of the following:
Growing potatoes under straw 2 ways
In addition to increasing the yield, many gardeners are also concerned about how to reduce physical and time costs for planting and caring for potatoes. For those who are used to using their time rationally, you can try non-standard potato growing: the video in the tab will give you an idea of how to grow tubers in straw, in moss or in a box.
In addition, you can plant potatoes in barrels or bags - you definitely won’t have to waste time on hilling! Potatoes in barrels This method is great for small areas where it is not possible to allocate space for planting potatoes.
You can use a metal or plastic barrel without a bottom: make small holes around the circumference so that the water in the ground does not stagnate and the soil receives oxygen. Place a 10 cm layer of compost mixed halfway with soil at the bottom of the barrel.
Place the tubers on top in a circle or in a checkerboard pattern and cover them with the same layer of compost and soil mixture. The small shoots that appear will need to be sprinkled with soil again and this will be repeated until the barrel is one meter full.
Potatoes in a barrel are regularly watered and fed complex fertilizers. At good care You can collect about a bag of potatoes from one barrel. Potatoes in bags Growing potatoes in bags differs slightly from the above method:
This method does not require significant material costs and physical labor, and also helps to save space on the site.
growing potatoes in bags
What conditions are needed for growing potatoes?
Potato- a relatively cool summer plant. The following temperatures are most favorable for the development of potatoes at different stages: for germination of eyes - +5-7°C.
Full growth of the above-ground mass is possible only with sufficient development of roots, which are formed, as a rule, at a temperature not lower than +7°C. At lower temperatures, planted tubers lie in the soil for a long time without forming a root system.
At the same time, due to the existing nutrients new tubers can form on them without the appearance of tops. This phenomenon is often observed when planting potatoes in cold, waterlogged soil with a temperature below +7°C or, conversely, in too dry soil at a temperature above +25°C. Seedlings potatoes They develop better in cool, damp weather.
During this period, young plants are sensitive to heat and dry winds. The most favorable temperature for tops growth is +15-20°C. The maximum growth of tops occurs at a temperature of +17-22°C.
A decrease in temperature to +1-1.5°C and high relative air humidity lead to the death of plants. The most intense tuberization occurs when the soil warms up to +15-19°C. For tuber growth early varieties favorable temperature is +15-17°C, for mid-season and mid-late varieties +19°C.
At soil temperatures below +6 and above +23-25°C, tuber growth is delayed, and at +29-30°C tuberization usually stops. In this case, watering is necessary.
Potatoes are very demanding of moisture. At the beginning of emergence and during the first period of tops formation, the need for moisture is small; the plant tolerates dry weather well. With the onset of budding and flowering, the need for moisture increases sharply.
Its lack during this period leads to wilting of the leaves, which reduces the yield. At the end of the growing season, when the tops wither, potatoes require significantly less moisture than in previous periods. In warm, dry weather, by the end of the growing season, a strong, thick skin forms on the tubers, which protects them from mechanical damage during harvesting and ensures better preservation in winter .
Rainy weather delays the ripening of tubers, and very delicate skins form on them. Such tubers are easily damaged during harvesting and are poorly stored. Overmoistening of the soil in some years leads to rotting of the tubers due to lack of oxygen.
To have a sufficient amount of oxygen in the soil, it is necessary to loosen it. Potatoes are photophilous. In the shade, with a lack of light, the stems stretch, the tops turn yellow, the yield of tubers decreases, and their taste deteriorates. To obtain high yields, it is necessary to correctly position the rows in relation to the light. When the rows are directed from north to south, the plants are illuminated more evenly throughout the day than when they are directed from west to east.
For the growth and development of potatoes, the presence of mineral substances in the soil is necessary: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, as well as microelements: boron, molybdenum, cobalt, etc. On most soils, potatoes have a maximum need for nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
With insufficient nitrogen nutrition, weak growth and branching of plant stems are observed. When there is an excess of nitrogen in the soil, excessive development of plant tops occurs, to the detriment of the tubers, ripening is delayed, and the susceptibility of tubers to diseases increases. Consequently, both excess nitrogen and its deficiency in the soil are harmful to the plant.
Potatoes can grow in any soil, but higher yields are obtained in deep, loose and well-fertilized soil. Soddy-podzolic, loamy and sandy loam soils with a slightly acidic reaction of the soil solution (pH 5.5-6.5) are well suited. If the area for planting potatoes is located in low-lying areas with heavy clay soils where water stagnates and does not dry out for a long time in the spring and warms up slowly, then such soils can be used only after they have been cultivated - adding manure, sand, peat, ash, etc. For early potatoes, the most suitable plots of land are on the southern or southwestern slopes, protected from the north and northeast by forest or buildings. Potatoes should not be planted in places where they were grown in previous years. The causative agents of many diseases and pests can overwinter in the soil on plant debris or remaining tubers, so when planted in an old place, tubers of a new crop can be severely affected by these diseases and pests.
You cannot plant potatoes where tomatoes, peppers, or eggplants grew, since they are similar in origin and have common diseases.
They try to place potatoes on the plot after cabbage, beets, cucumbers, lettuce, spinach, and carrots. If conditions do not allow annually changing the area for planting potatoes, then in this case it is possible to some extent eliminate bad influence
permanent landing. To do this, it is necessary to fertilize the area well, add peat, manure, compost, sow green manure and change planting material more often. In dry weather, water the plants regularly. If you are developing a new area, then when correct processing
and caring for plants, you can get a high potato yield even without applying fertilizers, because virgin lands are better for potatoes. It is only important that the area is well drained and the depth groundwater was no higher than 40-60 cm from the soil surface. If the humus layer is small, then it is advisable to add peat and turf soil to increase the moisture capacity and fertility of the soil. damp areas arrange drainage grooves for drainage excess water
What soil is best for growing potatoes?
Potatoes place high demands on soil looseness and breathability. It is best to dig up the soil in the area for planting potatoes in the fall, leaving it in layers for the winter, without leveling it with a harrow or rake.
In addition, this contributes to better snow retention, frost destruction of weed seeds, as well as pest larvae. In the spring, the area is leveled with a rake or harrow, and then dug up or plowed again, but smaller (2-5 cm) than with autumn processing so as not to turn weed seeds onto the surface of the soil. All works on spring training soil for potatoes should be done in a timely manner and of high quality.
It is especially necessary to ensure that the soil has normal moisture, crumbles well, and is not smeared, since when processing waterlogged soil, unloosened layers are formed, while dry soil forms lumps. In blocky soil, tubers are deformed and lose their commercial quality. Pre-planting treatment of arable peat soils usually comes down to shallow loosening and harrowing, leveling the surface, and destroying weed seedlings before planting potatoes. The great need for potatoes in nutrients necessitates the application of increased doses of fertilizers for this crop.
The main source of replenishment of nutrients for potatoes is different kinds organic fertilizers, and primarily manure, peat manure and other composts. The best organic fertilizer for potatoes is manure, especially peat manure obtained by using peat for bedding for livestock. The average dose of manure for potatoes, as well as other organic fertilizers, is 5-10 kg per 1 m2 of plot area. On loamy soils, organic fertilizers are applied in the fall.
In spring, only rotted manure can be given. On light sandy and sandy loam soils organic fertilizers are applied mainly in the spring. The fertilizer is evenly scattered over the surface of the soil and then dug up or plowed with a plow.
It is impossible to leave manure or composts on the soil surface for a long time, as they dry out quickly and lose their value. If there is not enough organic fertilizer, it is better to apply it into a furrow or hole during planting. This makes it possible to reduce the dose of fertilizers by two to three times and get an increase in tuber yield no less than from scattered application of large doses.
With the local method of application, fertilizer nutrients are less susceptible to absorption by the soil and are used to a greater extent by the plant, since they are located in the zone of development of the bulk of the roots. Clean, well-ventilated and decomposed peat can also be used for cultivating garden plots. However, its nutritional value for plants is several times less than that of peat composts, mixtures of peat with slurry.
Mixtures of peat with bird droppings are applied under potatoes mainly in the fall. Sludge can be used as fertilizer in pure form, however, in this case it is necessary to ventilate it during the summer to reduce the content of harmful nitrogen compounds. An effective organic fertilizer is sapropel, which accumulates in large quantities in water bodies. Chicken manure is also a very valuable organic fertilizer.
The rate of application of fresh raw manure should not exceed 20-40 kg per 10 m2. Green manure crops, the green mass of which is used for fertilizer, can serve as a significant additional source of organic fertilizers. Among them are oilseed radish, spring rape, white mustard, and Sarepta mustard.
All of them belong to the cabbage family, have a short growing season, and tolerate autumn frosts well. They are cultivated in areas after early harvested crops (early potatoes, greens, radishes, etc.), the seeds are sown to a depth of 2-3 cm.
The seed sowing rate is 200-300 g per hundred square meters. These crops are plowed into the soil in late autumn. It has been established that green fertilizers help to increase the starchiness of tubers and reduce disease incidence. Manure and composts contain all the nutrients necessary for plants.
However, organic fertilizers decompose slowly, and applied before and during planting, they do not immediately become available to the plant. IN initial period These fertilizers are poorly used for potato growth and development. To provide plants with a sufficient amount of nutrients in the earliest period of life, in addition to organic fertilizers, mineral fertilizers are added, which contain nutrients in an easily digestible form.
The effect of mineral fertilizers on the growth and development of potatoes on different soils is not the same. On sandy and sandy loam soils with low humus content, higher increases in tuber yield are obtained from the use of nitrogen and potassium fertilizers.
On chernozems and gray forest soils, productivity especially increases when nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers are used. Plants develop especially well when full mineral fertilizer is applied, which provides potatoes not only with nitrogen, but also with phosphorus and potassium.
When organic and mineral fertilizers are applied together, the correct ratio of nutrients is established in the soil, ensuring an uninterrupted supply of nutrients to potatoes throughout the entire growing season. You should know that both a lack of nutrients and their excess are equally harmful to potatoes. If there is an excess of nitrogen, the potatoes go into the tops without forming tubers. Complete mineral fertilizer is usually used in the spring for digging or plowing the area in the form of superphosphate, potassium chloride and ammonium nitrate, 30 g of each per 1 m2.
Complex fertilizers (nitrophoska), containing all three types of nutrients, are applied at the rate of 60-90 g per 1 square meter. meter. Currently, the most accessible mineral fertilizers for the population are: ammonium nitrate(1-2 kg per 100 m2), urea (urea) (1-1.5 kg per 100 m2 double superphosphate (5-10 kg per 100 m2), potassium chloride (2-4 kg per 100 m2), nitroammophosphate ( 3-4 kg per 100 m2) and a number of others. For effective use fertilizers, it is necessary to take into account the specific conditions of potato cultivation (fertility, mechanical composition of the soil, moisture supply, etc.) and adjust the doses in accordance with them. If fertilizers are not applied sufficiently before planting and during planting, they are added to fertilizers. Fertilizing with nitrogen should be carried out as early as possible, when the plant height is 10-12 cm.
The introduction of nitrogen at a later date leads to non-ripening of the tubers and a decrease in their quality. Fertilizing with potassium fertilizers can be carried out at a later date. Phosphorus fertilizers are less effective in fertilizing. Before precipitation falls, fertilizing potatoes has a good effect mineral fertilizers and ash.
Potatoes are one of the popular vegetable crops among gardeners, but not everyone can boast of a rich harvest and large root crops. This is often due to inappropriate weather conditions, poorly chosen planting material or the result of the action of numerous pests. It may be worth abandoning the traditional approach and trying new potato growing technologies to improve yields while reducing labor costs.
The basic principle of the new potato planting technologies below is to increase the distance between the bushes so that they receive more sunlight and sufficient space for development.
Important! Regardless of the method chosen, potatoes should be removed from the cellar approximately a month before planting and left in a warm room for germination.
Author this method, American doctor-vegetable grower Mittlider, suggests planting tubers in narrow ridges up to 50 cm wide and leaving passages 75-100 cm wide between them. Earthen rollers are formed along the edges of each ridge, which save water and effectively fight weeds., and along the inner perimeter Two rows of holes are marked in a checkerboard pattern. There should be a distance of 30 cm between the holes.
When the site is located on a slope, it is recommended to use long boxes filled with soil for planting tubers. The new technology for planting potatoes according to Mittlider does not provide for hilling, but requires feeding the bushes three times a day and regular watering.
Planting potatoes according to this new technology involves the formation of a multi-tiered potato bush by repeatedly adding soil. To do this you should:
Provided regular watering and sufficient fertilizer supply, each bush can produce up to 16 kg of harvest.
The peculiarity of this option is to plant potato tubers at a distance of 30 cm from each other in ridges, and leave 70-75 cm gaps between them. In addition, several rules should be strictly followed:
Using the new Dutch approach to growing potatoes allows you to get up to 2 kg of yield per bush.
For many gardeners, the issue of not only increasing the yield, but also rational use territory and reducing time spent on planting and maintenance. For such cases, you can try planting potatoes using new technology in straw and even in barrels or bags. Moreover, you don’t have to waste time on hilling.
With this technology, the tubers are not buried in the ground, but laid out on its surface, slightly deeper into the ground, and covered with straw with a layer thickness of 20 cm on top. As the potatoes ripen and the straw rots, new layers are laid. Straw provides plants with everything they need for proper growth:
As a result, mature tubers lie on the soil surface under a layer of straw. To collect them, just lift a layer of straw. And unripe tubers can be left to ripen on the bushes.
On a note! Tubers grown in straw do not need to be dug up, which eliminates the possibility of them being damaged during harvesting. In addition, they are always distinguished by a clean and even surface.
This method is suitable for those who do not have a large area of land. Suitable for planting potatoes:
Small holes should be made in the selected container to saturate the soil with oxygen and drain excess water. At the bottom, make a “pillow” 10 cm thick from compost mixed with soil in a 1:1 ratio. Sprouted tubers are placed on top of it (in a checkerboard pattern or in a circle) and covered with the same layer of compost-earth mixture. When the seedlings grow 2-3 cm, layers of soil are repeatedly added until the total depth of the layer reaches approximately 1 m. If you regularly feed and water the bushes, you can get more than 1 bucket of harvest from one container. And to collect it, you just need to turn the container over.
New technologies for planting potatoes are very different from each other, so everyone will decide for themselves which option to choose in order to get the desired harvest.
Potato is a vegetable that I plant in my garden every year. In recent years I have been following the principle: “Less is better.” This means that I am constantly reducing the area for potatoes, but I increase productivity.
The most interesting thing here is to find and apply methods that increase this yield. I find these methods in the experiences of gardeners, which they talk about on the pages of magazines and newspapers, and I also look for such methods myself in my own beds.
A couple of years ago I spoke in detail in a magazine about not the usual way growing potatoes when Instead of hilling up with earth, use mowed grass as mulch. I learned about this method from Finnish farmers and tried it with some changes in my garden. I received excellent harvests with little physical labor.
Now growing tubers under grass is the basis of all my potato experiments. In past years, I faced a problem: there was nowhere to plant potatoes.
Crop rotation had already used all the plots in the garden, but I wanted to plant it in a place where it had not yet been grown. One of these places was found without any problems. This was the place from where I dug up a twenty-year-old Siberian iris bush that had grown to incredible sizes. I contributed a lot there a small amount of ash so as not to poison earthworms and other soil inhabitants.
Around the entire circle, since this area turned out to be round, I laid out a dozen small potatoes at a distance of 20 cm from each other, lightly pressing them into the ground. She covered the top with a 10 cm layer of mowed grass from a lawn mower. In the center of the resulting flower bed she sowed beans.
All summer I regularly added grass to the flowerbed as soon as the previous layer of grass dried out. I did this small area the same thing I did last years in all potato beds.
At the end of summer, I collected very good harvest, and, most usefully, the tubers were clean, without the slightest sign of scab. In general, scab is an indispensable resident in my garden, constantly infecting all potato plantings, but here I dug up the cleanest tubers. Thus, the long-standing observation of gardeners that potatoes love fresh soil was confirmed.
I often practice planting small groups of several potatoes in different places garden, where some flowers or shrubs used to grow, which I removed as unnecessary.
You get nice flower beds with potato plants. And here I also grow crops under the grass. The main thing here is that there is no need to specifically dig the ground, and then hill up and weed the plantings. Potatoes grown on such patches of soil always turn out clean. In addition, after digging up the potatoes, the soil on these patches turns out to be loose and moderately fertile. Here cabbages, carrots, beets, and onions work well here.
Another place where I wanted to plant potatoes was densely occupied by large-fruited garden strawberries, popularly called strawberries. The plantings were outdated, they should have been removed, but digging up these rhizomes, overgrown with soot and wheatgrass, was too labor-intensive.
It is known that science does not recommend alternating garden strawberries and potatoes in the same bed: these crops have common diseases. Of these, the most dangerous is verticillium wilt, when by the end of summer, and sometimes earlier, plants stop growing, their growing points turn brown, and the leaves dry out. But my strawberries turned out to be clean, without any diseases, and I decided to plant potatoes after the strawberries without digging the soil. To do this, it was necessary to deprive everything that grew on this ridge of living conditions.
To begin with, I decided to deprive them of light. Having collected the last harvest of berries from the garden in July, she did not dig up the soil, but simply covered the entire ridge with a 20 cm layer of grass, let it wither, and then covered it with two layers of black film, pressing them down at the edges with boards so that not a single quantum of light penetrated inside. . A month later, I opened the film and saw white skinny sprouts of weeds that made their way through the grass that had begun to rot.
For reliability, I additionally laid a layer of dried grass from a lawn mower on the ridge and covered it again black film. In this form the ridge went into winter.
In the spring, I removed the black film and covered the ridge with a transparent film - for a greater rate of heating of the earth. Unkillable weeds began to emerge through last year's half-rotted grass. At first Fokina cut them down with a flat cutter, but soon the most persistent ones began to grow again. I had to dig them out with a pitchfork.
The soil under the grass coat was very loose. The strawberry roots have almost rotted. I left their remains in the soil to rot. When the soil temperature rose to 10°C and above, I began planting potatoes. She put her hand with the tuber under a layer of last year’s grass and left it there on the ground. I planted them in a checkerboard pattern with a distance between potatoes of 45 cm. The plantings were additionally covered with black film. I took it off when the first tips of the shoots appeared on the surface.
For planting I chose potatoes with big amount eyes. All of them underwent standard vernalization within a month. I mixed up all the varieties and mixed them up. I also took advantage of the experience of Omsk gardener Oleg Telepov, planting a couple of potatoes as an experiment with their eyes down. With this type of planting, his harvest was obtained a little later, but more than with normal planting. This result was also confirmed for me.
If during normal planting the sprouts from the eyes immediately go up, forming a dense bouquet, and subsequently the stems shade each other, then when planted with the eyes down, the sprouts, climbing to the surface, spread away from the potato in different directions. Therefore, the stems emerge to the surface less densely. There are more stolons, larger potatoes, and a higher yield. I planted the rest of the potatoes in the usual way.
As the tops of the sprouts appeared on the surface, I sprinkled mowed grass on them. At the same time, the shoots were necessarily straightened in different directions from the center, tilting them towards the ground, and the bulk of the grass was poured into the middle of the bush. As a result, the bushes grew sparse and were pierced by the sun. The lower remnants of last year's grass quickly rotted. I regularly added new mulch on top so that later the potatoes would not turn green in the sun. Therefore, there was always enough moisture in the soil. Sometimes I watered the plantings with water with ash loosened in it.
As a result, the potatoes received organic fertilizers from rotten grass and mineral salts from ash. It is known that organic matter affects the size of tubers, but reduces their starchiness. However, organic matter from the grass has little effect on this process, because it appears gradually as the grass rots and in small doses.
Ash increases the content of mineral substances in tubers. So the tubers turn out more tasty. When growing potatoes under grass, it is very important to follow one rule: never immediately apply a thick layer of grass to the tubers. It should be no more than 10 cm. The next layer should be added when the previous one dries or at least withers. Otherwise, it will be difficult for the sprouts to make their way to the light.
The total layer of already dry grass should not be more than 20 cm. But not less, so that there is no access to light to the potatoes. The lower layers of hay quickly begin to decompose. They are actively working there earthworms and other soil inhabitants, and by the time the potatoes ripen, the layer has already thinned significantly.
At the beginning of autumn, when the potato tops withered, I began harvesting. In early varieties, the tops turned yellow earlier. I started digging up tubers from these bushes. The potatoes grew large and even, there were practically no small things. Especially big harvest It turned out near the bushes, where the tubers were planted with their eyes down.
The fact that garden strawberries had previously grown on this site did not affect the harvest. True, many tubers turned out to be affected by scab, but this was not from strawberries. In this area, even 20 years ago, when I grew potatoes, they were severely affected by scab. This means that she lives in this land permanently and has no plans to leave.
There was especially a lot of scab on early varieties, which I dug up too late, at the same time as more late varieties. Still, potatoes must be dug up on time and not left in the ground.
After digging up the crop, I lightly worked the remains of unrotted grass into the soil with a flat cutter. A very small amount of skinny weed rhizomes were easily pulled out and thrown away.
The soil after the potatoes turned out to be lush and light. I sowed green manure there. Using this method, I was able to use an overgrown piece of land and get excellent harvest potatoes without digging up the area, without loosening the soil, without hilling up the plantings, without watering and almost without fertilizing, without weeding, because practically no weeds grew there.
The biggest advantage of this planting method is minimum costs physical labor throughout the summer. In addition, I think that if you are convinced that your garden strawberries do not suffer from diseases common to potatoes, then you can safely plant tubers in old strawberry plantings without removing the rhizomes and bushes from the garden bed. Then it will become easier to maintain crop rotation on your small acres, and rotten strawberry plants will become a source of additional soil fertilizer.
Lyubov Bobrovskaya, Saint Petersburg, Photo by the author
Potatoes are an undemanding plant that produces consistent yields of quality tubers. But with improper planting and ignorance of care features, the yield decreases sharply. IN Lately The Dutch method of growing potatoes has become very popular. Table varieties are mainly planted for this purpose. This method creates optimal conditions for the root system of the plant, and as a result, intensive tuber formation occurs compared to the usual method. For the most part, it is used on farms, but it is a universal technology, and for this reason it can be successfully used in ordinary garden beds.
Briefly speaking, the basic principle of the Dutch method of growing potatoes is to abandon holes and beds altogether; instead, they make long furrows into which the prepared tubers are planted.
TO positive aspects growing potatoes Dutch technology relate following points:
These advantages make it possible to collect approximately 1.5-2 kg of potatoes from each bush. But keep in mind that such a result will only happen if you follow all the recommendations, which complement each other and do not work independently.
The bulk of Dutch varieties are mid-early and mid-ripening, they develop quickly and form a harvest early. Late varieties are less commonly planted using this method.
The peculiarity of Dutch potato varieties is their regular shape, small eyes, attractive appearance tubers. However, the tops of Dutch varieties are often affected by late blight; for this reason, plants require fungicide treatments (drugs against diseases) during growth. Most of these varieties resist scab and other potato infections well.
Growing tubers using Dutch technology begins with choosing a location and preparing the soil on the site. The bed should be located on a level place, without the slightest slope. You should not choose a place in the lowlands where melt and rainwater. It is necessary that the sun illuminates the potato bushes all day. It is important that the area with potatoes is not located where the wind often blows, quickly drying out the beds. The soil must be permeable, contain a lot of air, light and fertile.
Important! It is good to place potato beds where cereals, beans or peas previously grew.
You need to prepare the soil for potatoes in advance, mark the beds and dig up the ground. Preparations begin in autumn, dig up the area to a depth of about 25 cm, add organic matter (mullein) and add 500-1000 grams. superphosphate and 200-500 gr. potassium sulfate per hundred square meters.
With the onset of spring, the area is fed with 500 grams of urea. per hundred square meters and treated with a cultivator or, in dacha conditions, loosened with a pitchfork to a depth of about 15 cm. This allows you to maintain air chambers in the deep layers of the soil, through which air will circulate and water will flow to the roots.
To plant using the Dutch technology, you need to choose intact potatoes with a diameter of 3-5 cm and a weight of about 50-60 g; there is no point in using smaller tubers - the shoots will grow too weak. Make sure each tuber has at least 5 eyes. 
A month before planting in the soil, you need to germinate the potatoes. It is germinated for a month in a dark place at a temperature of +16–18 degrees, scattered in one layer on newspapers or fabric spread on the floor.
According to the Dutch method, tubers are planted when they have sprouts 5-8 mm long, of which there should be at least 5 pieces. Those shoots that are longer than 1-2 cm will simply break off during mechanical planting, but for the manual (country) option they are quite suitable.
Attention! Planting sprouted tubers is a 100% guarantee of germination.
For planting, it is better to choose elite Dutch varieties, preferably the first, at least the second reproduction (“elite” and “super-elite”), because they resist diseases well, they have tubers correct form, and the plants are highly productive. Growing several varieties of different early ripening makes it possible to extend the productive period and enjoy fresh potatoes for several months.
Important! Tubers for planting should be purchased in specialized stores or nurseries, and not at agricultural fairs, and especially not from hand, otherwise such savings will certainly come back to bite.
The most popular varieties in Russia Dutch potatoes are:
Thanks to the main advantage of Dutch varieties - good yield, from 1 hundred square meters (100 sq. meters) you can harvest from 200 to 400 kg of high-quality tubers.
In our climate, it is necessary to choose the right timing for planting potatoes, including using the Dutch method.
You can’t rush too much, otherwise the seedlings will suffer from frost.
Tubers are planted only when the soil warms up to at least +8-10 degrees.
By the way, you can navigate and to time-tested folk signs - dandelions and bird cherry have begun to bloom, leaves are blooming on birch trees.
Another way to check is to take a handful of soil in your hand, squeeze it lightly and drop it on the ground. If it crumbles and does not remain in the form of a lump, the soil is ready.
This can help you choose the optimal date for planting potato tubers. Moon calendar.
Favorable days according to the lunar calendar for planting potatoes in 2019 are:
But you should also take into account the periods of the new moon and full moon, since when sowing at this time the seedlings will turn out weak and elongated. Therefore, there are days when planting potatoes is carried out absolutely not possible:
According to lunar calendar from the magazine “1000 tips for a summer resident.”
The Dutch method involves planting tubers immediately after completing site preparation. Delay will lead to drying out of the land and loss of positive qualities. Work can begin immediately after the soil warms up, dries slightly and stops sticking to the shovel.
A person who encounters this method for the first time will immediately think that a lot of space is being wasted in vain, since for 1 sq. There are only 6-8 tubers per meter. But the prudent Dutch calculated everything - spreading plants with strong roots grow, and you can get a better harvest than with the usual technology.
Dutch technology will provide the tuber with:
It is necessary to choose an area with a deep arable layer, because the tubers must be immersed to a depth of 10-15 cm. When the first seedlings appear, they are sprinkled with soil on top. When the sprouts appear again, the procedure is repeated. As a result, the depth of planting potatoes is the same as with the usual planting method.
Potatoes planted using the Dutch method must have sufficient nutritional area. That's why between the rows leave approximately free space 70-75 cm (preferably 80 cm), A bushes place in the ranks at a distance of the order 25-30 cm (preferably 35 cm).
What gives long distance between plants:
Fertilizers are poured into the holes so that the tuber is located under them. Good humus or rotted manure is used as fertilizer during sowing. If you don't have manure, you can use a little dry chicken manure(over 1 year old). The ideal feeding for potatoes is crushed egg shells and wood ash. You need to sprinkle about a handful of eggshells, and you need to take about 50-100 grams of wood ash. for each hole. If you add a little onion peel, it will save the potatoes from wireworms.
The tubers are placed in the holes with their sprouts facing up and after that they are covered with 4-6 cm of soil. After a week, the first sprouts of weeds should appear. They must be destroyed immediately before they have time to take root.
After the emergence of seedlings (and this usually happens after 2-3 weeks), the plantings are hilled up so as to raise ridge height up to 8-12 cm and width up to 30-35 cm, and before that all weeds are removed. After 4 weeks, the soil near the seedlings is carefully weeded and then soil is raked from the row spacing so that the ridges are already raised to height approximately 23-30 cm, and at the base there should be ridges width near 70-75 cm.
Further weeding and hilling using Dutch technology is not expected. As for removing weeds between rows, using Dutch technology they use herbicides. Such drugs include: “Titus”, “Zellek Super”, “Centurion”, “Lapis Lazuli” and others.
Water plot needed no more than 3 times. The first time you need to moisten the area before flowering, again - 10 days after flowering, the last time - after the end of flowering, at this time the tubers begin to grow.
By the way! If you fully follow the Dutch growing technology, it assumes the presence of a drip irrigation system.
On potato plantations, preventive treatment with pest control agents is necessary. Real danger For most varieties of Dutch potatoes it is late blight. To combat pathogenic fungi, it is advisable to use only insecticides or preparations of biological origin. Naturally, we will also have to confront Colorado potato beetle and wireworm. It is recommended to carry out treatment against these pests strictly before the bushes bloom.
You need to prepare for harvesting the tubers; to do this, you need to remove the tops from the potato bushes 10-15 days before harvest, leaving only bare “stumps” about 5-7 cm high. Then the tubers are kept in the soil for another 10-15 days until they ripen, and a strong skin will not form on the tubers. Potato tubers are then less damaged during harvesting, and such potatoes will be stored better.
Potatoes that will be used for food or for sale are harvested in late August - early September, and seed potatoes much earlier - in late July - early August.
Attention! On large plantations, the tops are not mowed, but a desiccation method is used, this allows the green mass to be dried using special compounds to simplify subsequent harvesting.
Thus, planting potatoes using the Dutch method is common in most European countries and is widely used on our farms. You just need to strictly adhere to the rules of planting and care, and a rich harvest is guaranteed.
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