The nightshade potato arrived in Europe from Argentina and Peru. He came to us during the reign of Nicholas I, who "by the highest command" introduced this agricultural crop into the crop rotation. Interestingly, this led to the potato riots of the state peasants in 1840 and 1844. The excitement was caused by ignorance, as well as the spread of all sorts of fables about this in all respects decent vegetable.
It was argued that whoever eats it will be subjected to sinful temptations, and will go straight to hell. Every untruth contains a grain of truth - raw potato juice increases potency. And tubers stored in the light acquired a greenish tint. This signaled an increased content of solanine, which is a strong poison that can cause serious poisoning. People ate and poisoned the green vegetable, which also did not contribute to the enthusiasm for planting potatoes. About 500 thousand peasants took part in the riots, which at that time was a very serious challenge to public order.
But over time, everything calmed down, learned how to store potatoes correctly and cook. Today we call it the second bread and cannot imagine our daily diet without it. The topic of our article will be the processing of potatoes before planting.
General information about potatoes
For a good potato harvest, you need to have an idea of the optimal growing conditions.
What potatoes like
The plant is native to countries with hot dry climates and this predetermines its requirements. Potatoes love:
- Water- and air-permeable soil rich in organic matter, although it can grow on almost any soil, except for swampy;
- Neutral or slightly acidic soil reaction;
- Warmly. With cold soil or low air temperatures, growth processes will stop;
- Increased doses of potash fertilizers;
- Good lighting. In partial shade, the green mass grows, and the harvest will be poor.
What potatoes don't like
The plant does not tolerate:
- Excessive doses of nitrogen, including fresh manure - in addition to pulling the tops to the detriment of the multiplication of tubers, they provoke scab disease. But this does not mean that nitrogen fertilizers should not be given to potatoes - they just have to be in moderation;
- Excess calcium... The field where potato tubers are planned to be planted is deacidified with lime or dolomite flour, if necessary;
- Fertilizers containing chlorine;
- Shading planting - with a lack of light, a good harvest can not be expected;
- Excessive moisture... You need to water potatoes in moderation, we will talk about this in detail in one of the following articles;
- Prolonged cold snap... The potatoes will simply stop growing and wait for warming;
- Thickening plantings... In addition to darkening, this will give an impetus to early late blight disease.
Variety selection
We will not talk in detail about the varieties of potatoes, of which there are many, let's understand the grouping of varieties by ripening time. The taste of tubers, storage, the advisability of planting in a particular region, and resistance to diseases depend on them.
Early varieties
Ready for harvesting 60-70 days after planting and pecking seedlings, so they do not have time to get sick with late blight. They:
- least productive;
- starch contain about 10%;
- quickly boiled down;
- usually have low taste.
The planting of tubers is recommended in all regions.
Medium early varieties
They are usually harvested after 70-80 days of growing. The differences between these varieties are:
- resistance to viral infections;
- starch content - about 15%;
- tubers are less boiled and taste better;
- they can get caught by phytophthora.
Mid-season varieties
The tubers ripen after 80-90 days. They are characterized by:
- all mid-season varieties necessarily fall under phytophthora;
- the starch content in tubers is more than 15%.
In regions with a cold climate, planting them is risky - the tubers may not ripen.
Mid-late and late varieties
In the north, the tubers do not have time to ripen; planting in regions with a so-called risky climate is not recommended.
Potato processing
Strictly speaking, the processing of potato tubers before planting is an optional procedure. But if you are interested in getting an early harvest, high quality and a large amount of potatoes, as well as protecting plants from diseases and pests, you will have to process the tubers. Each owner does it in his own way, there is no single recipe, but we hope that the information we have provided will be of interest not only to beginners, but also to experienced gardeners.
How to process potatoes before planting is up to you, there is now a huge list of drugs on sale for this purpose:
- humates;
- stimulants;
- biofungicides;
- chemicals (not all of them are toxins);
- poisons.
Every year new funds appear in our country or abroad. If you decide that you will process the tubers, let's see how this is done, and also correctly select the seed potato tubers suitable for planting.
Why process potatoes before germination
Treating tubers before planting gives us the opportunity to get a good harvest, beautiful potatoes, and also less time and effort to spend on grooming. It speeds up germination and strengthens the plant's own defense mechanisms. There are a variety of potato treatments to protect them from pests.
The choice of planting material
The correct choice of planting material is half the success when growing potatoes. Of course, it is best to buy seed from specialized nurseries or stores. But it is expensive, and if you consider that you usually need a lot of potatoes for planting, then this will result in a very decent amount. So if we buy certified potatoes of the first reproduction, then in very limited quantities, and only then to multiply them, and then plant tubers "of our own production".
Perhaps you selected the seed material for planting in the fall, or perhaps you will take the best potato tubers left over after winter. Inspect them carefully, discard any affected by wireworm or rot, and then wash under running water to better see possible defects.
But in this way we will only reject potatoes that are clearly unsuitable for planting.
Dissolve 1.9 kg of carbamide in 10 liters of water and place potatoes on the bottom of the dish with the solution. Wait 2-3 minutes. Healthy tubers will remain at the bottom, while the affected ones will either float up or "dangle" at the bottom. Discard them.
Warming up and disinfection
Approximately 30-35 days before the intended planting, fill the tubers with hot (about 42-45 degrees) water. Let it cool down and add the previously diluted potassium permanganate until it turns bright pink, and soak for another 15 minutes. This will allow the killing of many pathogens that have fallen on the tubers from the soil or from the storage site, and will also help to start growth processes faster.
For the same purpose, you can use boric acid by adding 50 g of the drug to 10 liters of water or a mixture copper sulfate and zinc sulfate, taking 10 g of both and dissolving in the same volume of water.
Humates for the benefit of the harvest
Humates are a powerful activator of plant growth and development, in particular, potato tubers. They have an anti-stress effect, help to develop enzymes that contribute to the survival of plants in adverse conditions. The tubers are simply soaked in a humate solution prepared according to the instructions for 12 hours. This can be done both before germination and immediately before planting.
Phytosporin treatment
Now on sale there are biofungicidal preparations Fitosporin and Fitosporin-M, designed to protect a variety of plants from bacterial and fungal diseases. They have shown high efficiency and are made from chalk, humate and hay sticks.
For processing before planting a bucket of potato tubers in one liter of water, dissolve 4 tablespoons of the drug.
Watch a video on how to use phytosporin correctly:
Pickling with pesticides
Of course, the use of poisons gives the fastest and most reliable effect when treating tubers before planting. There are so many names on store shelves that it is simply impossible to remember everything. But the poison is not completely eliminated from the plant. When new tubers appear and develop, what we process them with is transferred into them. Then, even in small doses, it enters our body. Some of the drugs can impair the taste of potatoes.
But plants treated with poisons almost do not create trouble for gardeners and there are state standards that regulate the permissible content of harmful substances in agricultural products. It is up to you to decide whether it is worth treating the tubers with pesticides before planting, but when buying potatoes on the market, remember that you can constantly ingest small doses of poison with food.
Seed treatment
When growing potatoes by sowing seeds, we get clean planting material, because viruses and diseases accumulate in tubers from year to year. We can get them ourselves or buy a bag of our favorite variety in the store. Processing potato seeds before planting is optional, but it is better to soak them in humate, epine or phytosporin. Further, they are sown and grown in the same way as tomato seeds.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are many methods of processing before planting potato tubers. You can apply one of them, or you can combine several. You can use pesticides and not have problems all season, but you can do with natural preparations and eat an environmentally friendly product. Which means to use is up to you.
