How to plant potatoes? Potatoes are the most common vegetable in the garden. Recently, their acreage has decreased, although early varieties are still grown in almost every summer farmhouse.

In one place, potatoes can be grown for 6-9 years, but gradually, if they are not harvested, the quality of the tubers will decline dramatically due to soil fatigue and accumulation of pathogenic microorganisms.

In this case, changing potato varieties does not help, because they consume the same elements to form the crop and usually already carry pathogenic microbiota in the planting material (unpleasant rotten smell, black circles on the tubers, etc.).

Moreover, buying varieties of planting materials does not guarantee their quality.

One solution to this situation may be the technique of growing potatoes from biological seeds. They are formed from loose brushes at the top and white and pink flowers.

The fruits are berries that are light green, dark brown, and other colors when fully ripe. The seeds are small and brown.

HOW TO GROW POTATOES FROM SEEDS

SOIL PREPARATION

Potato is a plant that likes sunlight and usually allocates light areas in its placement. In the shade, the bushes stretch out and the tubers become smaller.

The best precursors for potatoes are early harvested beans (peas), corn, beets, vegetables (not eggplants).

In autumn, after harvest, we release the allocated areas from the weeds and dig them out with a spade bayonet.

If the soil is easily acidified, introduce one cup of lime, dolomite powder, or 2-3 cups of wood ash per square meter at the time of digging. Metre area.

Our chopped and sown seeds can be encapsulated in soil (peas, barley, rye, mustard, rapeseed) after 5-8 weeks and be fully prepared for spring sowing.

By preparing for fall digging without subsidies, we bring in. 1 bucket or half a bucket of humus or compost per square inch. If hummus is not available, use mineral fertilizer for 15cm (5.9inch) cultivation in the spring.

The easiest way is to use 30-40 g/m2 of nitrate balanced mineral fertilizer. The surface of the soil is flat and unaffected by the soil.

PREPARATION OF SEEDS

For faster germination, wake potato seeds from dormancy by pre-sowing them in a humid room at 40ºС-42ºС (104°F-107.6°F) for no more than 15-20 minutes. If not treated at the seed preparation center, the seeds can be treated additionally with trace elements.

Dry the treated potato seeds at room temperature until they are ready to flow, then sow them in the soil to dry or germinate. Scatter the seeds evenly in a saucer on a wet paper towel, cover the top with a wet paper towel, and place in a warm place.

It may be near on a warm windowsill. We keep moistening the napkins. 3-5 days later, the nailed potato seeds are ready to be sown.

SOWING SEEDS

In the first or second decade of May, when the 10 cm (3.93inch) thick soil warms to 14ºС-16ºС (57.2°F-60.8°F), we again loosen the bed allocated for sowing potato seeds and prepare holes no more than 3cm-4cm () deep for a distance of 30cm-40cm ().

We spread 2-3 seeds in each hole and cover them with the same soil or 0.5 cm (0.2inch) of fine soil.

Instead of sowing holes, plow furrows can be used. Cut furrows 4cm-5cm (1.57inch-1.96inch) deep and fill them with water. After absorbing water from the soil surface, sow and cover with 0.5cm-1.0cm (0.2inch-0.4inch) for potato shoots to appear on days 5-10. Seedlings may be sparse, so we thicken the sowing.

In the second stage of true leaves, when the seedlings on the ground start to close, we thin the seedlings. Moisten the soil before thinning. Potato seedlings can be planted neatly pulled through in individual rows or holes spaced 20 cm-25 cm (7.87inch-9.84inch) apart.

Potato seedlings grow very slowly at first and suffer from weeds, soil compaction, and dryness. Therefore, they need to be constantly loosened, weeded, and irrigated with an average amount of water.

After about a month, potato seedlings will form multi-stemmed bushes. Further care for them is the same as when planting tubers. Depending on the variety, harvest in late September or early October. Yields may be low (20-40 g tubers).

We store potato seedlings as nutritional seeds, free of viruses and other pathogens, ready for planting next year.

PLANTING POTATO SEEDLINGS

In the southern region, we plant 40-55 day-old potato seedlings in the open air or in a greenhouse in May.

In a prepared open garden bed, we punch holes 8 cm-12 cm (3.14inch-4.72inch) deep, with the distance between holes depending on the final target.

If we use the first year of planting to obtain potato seedlings, then we prepare holes 25 cm-30 cm (9.84inch-11.8inch), and to obtain potato tubers (for taste-testing), we increase the distance between holes to 40 cm-60 cm (15.7inch-23.6inch), depending on the variety.

You can plant 2 seedlings in one hole.

If necessary, add 0.5 cup of mature humus and a few tablespoons of ash to the holes, mix with soil and water, absorb the water, and then sow the potato seedlings.

Potato seedlings are usually prone to collapse and breakage. Gently lay the seedlings down, place them in the holes and cover them with soil so that 2-3 upper true leaves remain on the surface.

Sown potato seedlings may be covered by sudden, abrupt cold spells or by overheating from the spring sun’s rays.

As time passes, we remove the seedlings as they begin to form new leaves.

During the first month, we start with small doses of watering on 2-3 days, then increase the watering rate and switch once a week.

We constantly loosen the plant bed from the crust and remove weeds. We watered and then mulched the soil before the bushes closed.

Monthly potato seedlings form multi-stemmed bushes, and caring for them is no different than caring for a crop planted with tubers.

FERTILIZATION OF YOUNG POTATO PLANTS

During the growing season, we feed potatoes.

Early variants of potatoes have 1 appearance within a month after sowing underground and a phase cutting surface is formed. We combine chasing fertilizer with mounding.

We feed mid-to-late-season potatoes twice. The first time was at the apical growth stage and the second time was for heavy sprouting.

The first feeding is required when the potato seedlings are more than 10 cm (3.93inch) tall and