Some gardeners try the harvest in early July, while others endure until the first autumn month. Are gardeners wondering when is the best time to dig potatoes?
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Why you can't dig potatoes too early
Potatoes must be dug out at a strictly designated time of the year, because the risk of losing the entire crop is high. A root crop very early harvested is suitable only for cooking in the shortest possible time. Such a tuber has thin skin with various damages. Therefore, digging up a crop is easy to damage and will rot, while transferring putrefaction to other tubers in the basement during storage.
Harvesting too late is also unfavorable. If the gardener leaves the harvest until late autumn in the hope that the tubers will be covered with stronger skin and increase in volume, then this will be a big mistake. This is due to the fact that the middle or the end of the autumn period is the time of rains, which is not useful for either potatoes or the health of the gardener. Another negative fact is that the tops are already drying up and have time to rot, so you will have to look for the crop based on intuition. And the third important point is to process the tubers for further harvesting for storage only in dry and warm weather, which is impossible in late autumn.
Early potato harvest time
As a rule, in the middle zone of the country, the potato crop is harvested between 25-30 August or the first week of September. It was then that the summer heat was already asleep, and the rainy season had not yet arrived. But not only the season should be considered when harvesting, but also the variety of the planted vegetable.
To facilitate harvesting, large weeds should be cut and the tops should be cut in 2 weeks. This will make it easier to navigate the potato field. and not do extra work.
Digging up potatoes for storage
An early vegetable ripens no more than 60 days, and is planted according to tradition in early May. Therefore, this type of potato is harvested in late June or early July. The crop will not be very large in size, and you should not count on long-term storage either. An early variety of potatoes are planted either for their own consumption during the summer or for sale in small quantities.
2 signs of ripe early potatoes:
- The stems of the tops begin to dry out, and the leaves turn yellow.
- Near the stem, the earth rises and cracks.
Those gardeners who plant late varieties of potatoes should pick them in the first week of autumn. In the last week of August, the root crop already absorbs everything it needs from the tops, becomes covered with dense skin and ceases to increase its volume. Once the green part of the plant is completely dry, the potatoes are stored in the soil. And 3 weeks after the tops of the plant begin to turn yellow and dry, the potatoes are ready to be harvested.
In order to be sure of the maturity of the crop, you can dig out several test bushes with varying degrees of tops drying. If the skin on the tubers is dense and they themselves are easily separated from the tops, then they can be harvested. It will be better to dig up green and unripe bushes towards the end of September.
Before transferring potatoes to the basement for storage, it must be thoroughly dried in the shade for 2-3 hours and cleaned of lumps of earth. Also, specimens with damage (cracks, cuts, rot, etc.) are selected. They are best disposed of or consumed. The crop suitable for long-term storage is harvested in various containers. These can be boxes or bags (mesh). Then the crop is placed in a cool place for about 7 days. Infections or diseases will manifest and the infected specimens can be thrown away.
The crop can also be thoroughly washed before harvesting for long-term storage. This process is laborious, but it bears positive results. This makes it easier to identify diseased tubers, and much easier to work with clean potatoes in the future.
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