New potatoes are a seasonal vegetable, and you can only eat them in the summer. However, if you try, you can grow it twice a season. In any case, I can do it.
Growing the first crop
So that the potatoes can be harvested twice, I do this:
- I carry out vernalization 10-20 days before planting. To do this, I lay out the tubers in a bright room in boxes filled with wet sawdust. The potato "wakes up", starts growing - and by the time of planting it already has clearly visible seedlings. As a result, the crop ripens two weeks earlier.
- I'm waiting for the bloom. It usually occurs in our area at the end of June - beginning of July. At this time, potatoes can already be eaten, and they are suitable for planting. At the same time, what is important, he has not yet managed to gain weight - but he has not gained diseases and is less damaged by pests than during autumn harvesting.
- I use most of the crop for food, but send about a quarter to a new planting. The tubers should be exactly immature - when rubbed, the skin should come off easily. I plant medium-sized potatoes - 40-50 g.
Growing a second crop
At the beginning of July, there is still no free space in the garden; involuntarily, one has to plant potatoes after potatoes. This is not very good, but usually there is nowhere to go - I cannot afford to keep empty beds, the plot is not very large. Therefore, before planting, you need to feed. When digging, I usually use a mixture of 5 kg of wood ash, 1 kg of urea or, in extreme cases, ammonium nitrate (the amount is indicated for one hundred square meters). The site itself is carefully dug up and leveled
Young tubers selected for seeds, I first “wake up”. To do this, I take a sharp knife, ignite the blade on the fire and make shallow cuts on the potatoes. Then I dip the tubers into a stimulant solution (Fumar works best in combination with Reastim) and immediately plant it back.
An important point: in order to get an autumn harvest of young potatoes, planting and harvesting must be carried out on the same day. It is highly undesirable to leave the collected tubers outside the ground even for a day!
The planting pattern for the second crop is standard: rows are 60-70 cm apart, the distance between potatoes is the same, planting depth is 10-12 cm. Immediately after planting the hole, I lightly spud, without waiting for the emergence of shoots. The earth must be loose so that the potatoes germinate the second time faster.
Second cleaning
The second harvest usually ripens by the second half of September or early October. It is impossible to delay harvesting here: with two-yield cultivation, tubers touched by even a light frost are absolutely not stored.
10-14 days before harvesting, I mow the tops. Here, unlike single-crop cultivation, you can’t wait for it to dry up and turn yellow - it just won’t have time before frost.
By itself, harvesting the second autumn harvest of young potatoes is the same as usual. But the difficulty is that this crop must be preserved until spring. To do this, I send all the tubers to a two-week quarantine. I put them in mesh boxes or baskets in a dark but ventilated room and leave them to build up a denser skin. At the same time, I still sort them out and inspect them. Those tubers that are damaged or have signs of disease are not stored: I throw out the sick, and the damaged ones are eaten first. I also reject useless trifles that are not suitable for landing.
What varieties are best to use
For two-crop cultivation, in principle, any potato is suitable. But according to my observations, it is best to use these varieties:
- Alyona. A good red potato of an ultra-early variety.
- Ariel - he has good keeping quality.
- Bellarosa is an early maturing variety with excellent yields.
- Impala - that's the least of her problems.
Conclusion
By growing potatoes twice a season, you can not only get more of it, but also improve the seed material. There is a risk, of course, that during the second landing, he will just fall under the blow of phytophthora - but you can fight it. The procedure itself is time-consuming, and I don’t plant like this every year - but I recommend trying at least once every 3-4 years a two-crop cultivation.
Have you tried this technology? If so, please share your observations.
Read also: Ways to plant potatoes that will give the maximum amount of harvest
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