Content
Every gardener dreams of a rich harvest of vegetable crops in his area. To obtain it, you need to take care of high-quality planting material. Potatoes are considered the main crop, occupying a large area of all plantings. Just removing the tubers from the cellar and planting them in the ground will not get positive results, even if you pick up the most productive varieties.
How to prepare potatoes for planting will be discussed later. Let's talk about the ways germination and dressing of planting material, soil preparation. Each reader can choose a suitable option for preparing potato seeds for planting.
First steps
As a rule, to obtain strong shoots, potatoes are taken out of storage 20-30 days before planting. It has been proven in practice that just such a time is enough. Preparatory work does not require any material costs. To obtain early potatoes, the appropriate varieties are used. Under favorable climatic conditions, it is planted in early May, so the preparation of tubers begins at the end of March.
Sorting
First of all, the seed is carefully examined for damage. During the bulkhead, tubers with the slightest hint of disease are removed. Most often, dry or wet rot, scab is found on the tubers. Substandard potatoes, less than a chicken egg, with signs of deformity, will go to waste. If the tuber is more than 90 grams, it is also discarded.
Calibration
What is it connected with:
- Small tubers are not capable of producing a sufficient number of stems, therefore, a large yield cannot be obtained.
- Large planting material will quickly form the aerial part of the plant, all the nutrients contained in the uterus will go to it. Root development is blocked at the initial stage. In the future, the root system will develop slowly, the time for creating tuber primordia will be lost.
When preparing potato seeds for spring planting, calibration should be done. The first pile will contain tubers weighing from 30 to 50 grams. In the second - from 50 to 75 grams. In the third - from 76 to 90.
Sometimes vegetable growers use nodules less than 30 grams to obtain planting material of the potato variety of interest. But the selection must be carried out in the fall. You need to take tubers from the most developed and healthy plant of a certain variety.
Many novice vegetable growers will probably wonder why fractional selection of potatoes is needed when preparing seed. It's simple: tubers of the same size are planted separately. Then the seedlings will appear on each site at the same time, which will greatly facilitate further work.
Landscaping
Landscaping concerns the question of how to properly prepare potatoes for planting. At the initial examination of the material, tubers with emerging sprouts were selected. Green potatoes are less attacked by pests because they contain the poison solanine. You cannot eat such tubers either.
The room should be warm, 10 to 12 degrees, and sunny with good ventilation. The sun should directly hit the potatoes. Planting material is laid out in one layer. From time to time, it needs to be turned over so that the landscaping takes place evenly. After 25-30 days, the tubers turn green.
What is the best way to plant potatoes? Containers should be transparent, plastic containers, cake dishes, plastic bags are suitable. If bags are used, they are tied from above, holes are made for air circulation.
Express method
This method is acceptable in cases where it was not possible to prepare the planting material in a timely manner. And the deadlines are running out. We'll have to do the withering of the tubers. Potatoes are placed in a warm, dry room with a temperature of 14-16 degrees. The tubers are laid horizontally in one row. Light is optional. You can use a dark room. The method is effective, after 10 days the potatoes are ready for planting.
Other ways of germination
Gardeners are very original people. They come up with various techniques for preparing potatoes before planting.
Wet method
Many growers use wet germination when preparing tubers. Light is not needed with this method, and high-quality sprouts appear in half a month.
The containers are filled with wet sawdust, sand, peat. It is better to take sawdust from deciduous trees, since there is too much resin in conifers. Before the start of the bookmark, they are poured twice with boiling water in order to "wash" the resin. River sand is thoroughly washed.
According to experienced vegetable growers, this method of preparing potatoes for planting allows you to preserve nutrients in the tubers. Seedlings are friendly.
Warming up
The warming method minimizes seed preparation. Sometimes, after a long germination, the eyes for some reason do not hatch, although the tubers are apparently healthy.
If there is no other material, and the deadlines are already running out, you can try to warm up the tubers at high temperatures: from 35 to 40 degrees. The buds get a push, sprouts appear in 5 days. You can plant, the planting material is ready.
Garlands
String the sorted potatoes on twine or thick wire, hang in front of a sunny window. From time to time, the tubers need to be sprayed with a spray bottle.
We use transparent bags
Preparing potato tubers for planting is an important point for obtaining high-quality planting material.
If there is not enough space in the apartment to install containers for sprouting tubers, you can take ordinary cellophane bags. They need to make holes for circulation. Do not overfill the bags so that the tubers do not overwhelm, the sprouts do not intertwine with each other.
The bags must be tied with a strong string and hung in front of the window. Enough light enters the tubers through the film, the sprouts do not stretch, do not outgrow.
Potato sprouts will not break off in any container.
Tips from experienced vegetable growers about preparing potatoes for planting on video:
How to stimulate germination
Stimulation of potato tubers is carried out when the terms of normal germination are missed. One liter of water is poured into a small container and a solution is prepared, which includes:
- furnace ash in any quantity;
- trace elements at the tip of a knife;
- copper sulfate ¼ teaspoon.
Tubers are laid in boxes and sprayed with a solution. The procedure is repeated every other day. You can prepare a large amount of a solution, keeping the proportion of the ingredients, put potatoes in it.
Such sprouting of potatoes before planting with the use of copper sulfate not only stimulates the vitality of the tubers, saturates them with nutrients, but also destroys fungal diseases.
Stimulation can be carried out using other drugs:
- Nitrophoska;
- Effekton;
- Urea.
Disinfection of tubers
Preparing potatoes for planting in spring does not preclude pickling the tubers. There are many tools to help prevent the spread of rhizoctonia and scab. Among the most common drugs is formalin.
A solution is prepared in advance in the following proportion: one part of 40% formalin is taken for 200 parts of water. The tubers are dipped in the solution for 5 minutes, removed, covered with burlap and left for 2 hours.
You can not soak, but spray the planting material. For 100 kg of tubers, three liters of solution are prepared, the proportions are the same. Potatoes are first sprayed with clean water and then with formalin solution. To destroy pests, it is enough to hold the tubers under the burlap for about 6 hours.
Preparing the soil
You can get a rich harvest of potatoes only on fertile soils. It can be sandy loam, clay or black soil, but light. In the spring, you need to do soil preparation before planting potatoes. If the soil is clay, then sand is added to it.
In autumn, experienced vegetable growers after harvesting potatoes prepare the soil for planting potatoes - sowing the area with siderite. And in the spring they mow and plow the land. By overheating, plant residues increase the fertility of the soil in a natural way. Experts believe that potatoes need to be planted in a new place every year. Grows well after legumes, corn, cucumbers, strawberries and raspberries.
As soon as the soil warms up to 10 degrees, the preparation of the potatoes for early planting is completed, you can proceed to work on the site.
Before plowing or digging the earth, humus or ammofoska is introduced - up to 3 kg per hundred square meters. After that, the lumps are broken, the roots of the weeds are selected. It is impossible to start planting right away: the soil must settle and warm up. Indeed, below the soil before plowing was colder than the top layer.
Before planting potatoes, the site is leveled, markings are carried out. The row from the row should be on distance up to 75 cm. It will be easier to weed and huddle. A day after digging up the site, you can plant potatoes. You can't wait any longer, the soil will lose moisture. Hole from hole 25-30 cm, depending on the variety.
Conclusion
We told you about how to prepare seed and soil for planting potatoes. Of course, each person decides for himself whether to use the knowledge gained or not. But I would like to note that our climatic conditions do not allow potatoes to stay in the field for a long time in autumn. If you plant unprepared potatoes in the spring, then it will lie in the ground for a long time. Tubers will spend energy on germination, thereby reducing productivity.
