If you do not take into account the early varieties, then in most cases the mass collection of potatoes begins in early autumn, but the precise timing depends on many factors. Too early or, conversely, late dug potatoes may not last until spring. We will tell you how to correctly determine the maturity of potato tubers and harvest an excellent harvest.
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Why is it important to comply with the timing of harvesting potatoes
The potato tuber ripens in the summer and if you plan to immediately use the root vegetable for food, then you can dig it out ahead of time. The thin and tender skin of young potatoes allows you to quickly and tasty cook a root vegetable, but such a vegetable is not suitable for long-term storage. Such tubers are easily damaged when dug up, which will cause rotting of the fruit, and during storage, infection and damage to most of the stock.
Overexposing potatoes in the beds to get larger, thicker-skinned tubers is also not recommended. The completely rotted tops will make it harder to locate the bush, and rainy weather in mid-autumn can make it difficult to harvest a quality crop. Besides the fact that it is more difficult to harvest potatoes in wet soil, such crops are difficult to store.
When to harvest potatoes
In late August or early September, if the weather is dry, but not hot, in the middle lane you can already start collecting root crops. But besides the climatic features of the region, the harvest time depends, first of all, on the variety of potatoes.
Early varieties
Early maturing varieties ripen in a maximum of two months. If the planting dates have not been violated (traditionally this is the first decade of May), then at the end of June or a little later, you can harvest medium-sized young potatoes. These varieties are planted for food use during the summer or for sale.
How to know when to dig:
- Raised and cracked soil around the bush.
- Yellowed leaves and dried stems.
Mid-late and late varieties
Longer ripening varieties are gaining full strength just in time for autumn, so the best time to harvest is late August or early September. The skin of such tubers is already strong enough to ensure long-term storage of the vegetable.
How to know exactly when to dig:
- Pay attention to the appearance of the tops. Harvesting begins three weeks after the leaves and stems have begun to turn yellow and dry out. If some bushes are still green, then they can be skipped and left to ripen for a few more weeks.
- Carry out a control excavation of several bushes. If the tubers crumble easily, and the skin on the tubers is dense and does not peel off, then it's time to dig up the entire crop.
Preparing potatoes for storage
To keep the harvested crop longer, after digging up the potatoes before laying them in storage, you should perform several useful actions:
- Spread the dug potatoes out in the shade and dry for a few hours.
- Remove clods of soil from the tubers and inspect. Any damaged, rotten or pest-eaten specimens can either be recycled immediately or disposed of.
- Fold the selected tubers into bags or boxes and transfer them to a cool room with high humidity for a week. This is necessary in order to identify and remove previously unnoticed infected fruits, which in these conditions will begin to deteriorate quickly.
- If conditions permit and there is extra time, then the tubers can be pre-washed - this will make them more comfortable use later, as well as during washing, you can notice damage that is invisible on dirty tubers.
How to use potato beds after harvest
Whenever you dig potatoes, potato garden work doesn't end there. The first thing to do is to completely free the soil from the remnants of the old haulm. This will protect the soil from diseases and pests. Then you can have time to get additional benefit from the vacated territory.
After harvesting early varieties of potatoes, fertilizers with phosphorus and potassium can be applied to the soil, and then dug up to reuse the beds for planting until the end of the season.
Most often, potato beds are used to obtain fresh herbs and are planted:
- Bow on a feather.
- Different types of salad.
- Spinach and arugula.
- Radishes and other early ripening vegetables, especially if you prepare seedlings in advance.
In addition, in the southern regions, where the main varieties of potatoes are dug up in July, you can manage to get another crop of young potatoes or grow other early ripening root crops and even cabbage.
As you can see, it is not at all difficult to determine the ripening period of potatoes - it is enough to monitor the weather conditions and the appearance of bushes and tubers. And to make the process of digging out potatoes more convenient and take less time - 1-2 weeks before that, free the beds from large weeds and trim the dry tops.
Do you know when to pick potatoes?
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