Emma Miller
It’s hard to imagine our diet without potatoes. Boiled, fried, stewed, baked – what not to do skillful housewives with this versatile vegetable. We suggest learning how to get a super crop of potatoes and provide yourself for the whole winter.
So we suggest you understand in more detail, why the potato crop is not always high, how to grow a super crop of potatoes in a small area, how to fertilize potatoes for a good harvest, and other secrets of growing potatoes with your own hands.
How to get a super yield of potatoes
A large number of factors affect the yield of potatoes. Experts advise paying attention to the quality of the seed material: it is important that the variety you choose corresponds to the conditions of your region.
What to feed potatoes for tuber growth? Skilled gardeners suggest making incisions on it (both transverse and circular, the main thing is to leave a small bridge 1 cm wide) – thanks to this method, the nutrients will be evenly distributed over the potato eyes.
In addition, some gardeners fertilize potatoes only with manure, which has a lot of nitrogen substances. However, the crop also needs potassium, phosphate, magnesium, and calcium: all trace elements must be balanced, and the soil must also contain boron, copper, manganese, and zinc.
It is also worth paying attention to the fact that potato tubers can slow their growth if the root system does not have enough space and nutrients. In particular, if you want to grow a high yield of potatoes in a small area, you have to take into account that the density of planting should be as high as possible – from 45 thousand cubic meters per hectare to 55 thousand cubic meters per hectare.
At the same time it is worth paying attention to the depth of planting: if potatoes are planted deep, they will form a long stem under the ground and a wide root system. This way the crop will get a lot of nutrients.
It is recommended to plant small potatoes at the level of 5-6 cm, medium – at 10-11 cm, and large – at 12+ cm.
Gardeners also remind us that potatoes, like many other vegetables, need a regular flow of air. This is why they advise regular hilling and loosening of the soil.
How to grow potatoes in 3 weeks
There is just over a month left until the end of summer. And if you suddenly did not have time to plant potatoes, you have a great opportunity to grow them before the cold weather begins. How to do it? We tell you.
First, to get an early harvest of potatoes, you need to pick varieties with a short vegetation period: early (50-60 days) and ultra-early (45-55 days). We bravely recommend the following potato varieties: Riviera, Impala, and Carrera.
Secondly, for potatoes to sprout faster, agrarians advise using wet germination in composted sawdust or peat-peat mixture. In such sprouting, it is necessary to fill the bottom of the box with sawdust to 4 centimeters and place the sprouted tubers there, filling them with the same mixture. After that, you should water the potatoes with warm water with copper sulfate (1 teaspoon per 10 liters of water).
Also, it is worth considering that planting potatoes in July has its own peculiarities: the soil in some places is too dry. If it is not moistened, the tubers will not develop normally. Therefore, in the absence of rain, the beds are watered so that the soil is moist to a depth of 40-50 cm. The tubers are planted 2-4 days after watering.
After planting the potatoes, it is also necessary to monitor the soil moisture. experienced gardeners advise using mulching – cover the soil surface with straw, humus, mulch paper, or recycled waste to protect the soil from drying out and overheating. This way you can keep the soil with potatoes moist for a longer period of time.
Start harvesting the super crop of young potatoes when the flowering is over and the lower leaves have turned yellow.
