To sprout tubers, bury them in the ground, water and wait for shoots - it would seem, what is easier? In fact, planting potatoes requires more ingenuity from the gardener - before proceeding with this difficult procedure, you need to think about how you are going to fight weeds, water and huddle bushes. We offer you to familiarize yourself with five ways of planting potatoes - our selection will appeal to both experimental lovers and cautious gardeners.
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Shovel landing
Tubers are prepared for planting by warming up in the sun for 2 weeks - this is the amount of time it takes for potatoes to germinate. Immediately before planting, 10-20 holes 8-10 centimeters deep are dug into the ground. They are filled with a mixture of rotted compost and humus with the addition of nitroammophoska. At the bottom of the holes, the potatoes are laid out one by one. The planting holes are covered with earth, the beds are leveled with a rake.
The indisputable advantage of the technique is its simplicity. It has, however, a number of disadvantages: for example, taking care of potato bushes after planting can be very difficult. In addition, plants often grow weak and undeveloped due to lack of nutrition.
Trench landing
The technique of planting in a trench allows you to get a bountiful harvest - usually twice as many potatoes are removed from the beds than using conventional technology.
The site for planting begins to prepare in the fall. In the middle of the bed, they dig a wide trench about 50 centimeters deep. The resulting depression is filled with a mixture of peat, humus, manure and plant waste and left to "winter", covered with a black plastic wrap on top.
In the spring, when the soil warms up to a temperature of 6-8 ° C, the film is removed, tubers, previously germinated and treated with disinfectants, are laid out on the bottom of the trench. Top of the potatoes are covered with a layer of turf soil mixed with humus or rotted compost. Polyethylene is re-stretched over the beds, this time transparent.
The first shoots appear in two weeks. Young plants are carefully covered with a thin layer of nutritious soil mixture and covered with foil again. When new shoots appear on the surface of the earth, the procedure is repeated. For the third time, holes are cut in the polyethylene to provide the bushes with access to light and air. Potatoes continue to be grown under the protection of a film cover - this allows you not to waste time on hilling and weed control.
Dutch technology
Holland technology is used by owners of large plots who have at their disposal large agricultural equipment - a walk-behind tractor, a plow and a cultivator. Particular attention is paid to the choice of planting material - only the best tubers are suitable for planting using Dutch technology.
The potatoes are planted in rows, leaving a distance of 75 centimeters between the grooves, and 30 centimeters between the bushes. Rare landings are much more convenient to handle with a walk-behind tractor - this is what this technique is designed for.
During the summer, plantings are treated with herbicides and insecticides several times, watered and spud three times. After 3-4 years, the bushes are dug out - old plants are not able to bring a big harvest.
Meatlider method
The Meatlider method involves the use of ridges or rows up to 50 centimeters wide for planting potatoes. Such elongated narrow beds are limited on both sides by earthen bumps - they help to retain water and inhibit the growth of weeds. The ridges are located at a distance of 75-100 centimeters from each other.
Potatoes are planted on each bed in two rows in a checkerboard pattern. Tubers are laid out on the bottom of holes 8-10 centimeters deep, leaving distances of up to 30 centimeters between the bushes. Before placing the potato in the hole, it is filled with a small amount of vermicompost.
The Meatlider method is recommended for gardeners with limited space - the technology allows you to collect a bountiful harvest even from small plots. Using this technique, potatoes can be grown even on the slope of a non-steep hill - you just need to replace the beds with narrow boxes stacked on top of each other by a "ladder".
Gülich technology
Gülikh's technology involves the cultivation of each potato bush separately - on its own, limited by sides or pegs, a miniature garden with dimensions of 100 by 100 centimeters.
Tubers are laid out in the planting holes with the sprouted side down - after some shoots they find a "way out" and begin to break out of the ground, surrounding the potato with a green ring. A small amount of soil mixture is poured into the center of such a ring, because of which the shoots begin to deviate to the sides and grow. The procedure is repeated when the first leaves appear, and several more times during the season. Gülikh's technology allows you to grow powerful bushes that can bring a bountiful harvest - up to 16 kilograms of potatoes are usually removed from one plant.
Do you plant potatoes in the country?
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