The best time to plant potatoes

It's no secret that potatoes planted and grown with their own hands are always much healthier and tastier than purchased ones. That's just to really grow a high-quality home crop, you need to know when and how to plant potatoes in open ground. Next, consider the nuances of planting for a rich harvest.

What you need for a good harvest

The main factors that affect the quality of future potatoes are the growing conditions and the planting material itself.

Growing conditions

Plays an important role in obtaining a good harvest choosing the place where they plan to plant potatoes. Potatoes prepared in advance should be planted in a light area from north to south.

The optimum hydrogen content in the soil is 5-5.5 units, although the growth of the root crop is possible in acidic soil. The soil should be breathable and loose.Potatoes are best suited medium and light soils - sandy, loamy, sandy and black soil.

Before planting the ground should be treated twice:

1. In the autumn period to dig up the garden, having brought rotten manure to the soil. 2. In the spring, put a mixture of peat and sand into the ground in a proportion of 10 kg per 1 sq. M. m

Selection of planting material

It is very important to correctly determine which potatoes are best suited for planting in a particular area. If last year during winter storage potatoes deteriorated, it is necessary to change the variety to a more resistant to late blight. It is recommended to plant three different varieties at once., since it is impossible to predict which variety will produce the best yield.

Potatoes for planting should Prepare from the previous seasonstarting from the moment of the last harvest.Select for storage better flat and beautiful medium-sized tubers to plant them next year.

To avoid infection with fungus from selected tubers, they should be stored separately from the main potato. The best place to hold planting material will be ventilated container or dry cellar. A couple of weeks before planting potatoes, they take it out of a cold room and transfer it to a warmer place for germination.

Landing time

To determine the day when it is necessary to plant potatoes in the ground, in two ways: depending on the type of planting material or using the lunar calendar.

Depending on the variety

Experts identify 5 groups of potato varieties for ripening:

• early varieties;
• medium early;
• mid-season;
• middle late;
• late

In the second decade of April, when the temperature of the soil at a depth of 8 cm will be 6 ° C and higher, it is possible to plant early potatoes. If harvesting time is extremely limited, planting of germinated tubers can be carried out under film cover or in greenhouses.In the place where they plan to plant early potatoes, in the second half of March, snow is removed, sprinkled with peat on the soil and covered with a special film for heating.

At the beginning of this month, the tubers begin to germinate. By the second decade of April, the land is warming up, and you can begin landing. Among the early varieties ripening in 50-65 days, The most popular are: Impala, Red Scarlett, Dnipryanka and Rosalind.

Middle-early potato varieties, such as "Sineglazka", "Zabava", "Mriya", "Nevsky", ripen in 65-80 days. Their landing is best to start in early May. However, it is necessary to take into account that the early and mid-early potato varieties have lower longevity, starchiness and worse taste.

Mid-season varieties are best planted in late May, as they ripen within 80-85 days. It is these varieties that are the most fruitful and prolific, besides, they do not require frequent watering.

"Desiree", "Kuroda" and "Zdybak" refer to medium-late varieties of potatoes, which ripen from 95 to 110 days.Their landing is best planned for the end of May.

The latest date for planting this plant is mid-June., if you want it to be fit for human consumption. Such varieties as "Orbit", "Zarnitsa" and "Cardinal", which are the latest ones, need 110 and more days to ripen. They are most resistant to various parasites and diseases. Basically, these varieties of potatoes are grown for the winter or as feed for livestock.

Using the lunar calendar

There is such a thing as favorable days for planting various crops in the garden, summer cottage, etc. The moon has a direct impact on the development of potatoes.

Depending on its location, planting, processing, watering and weeding the soil are carried out at certain time intervals. In order to achieve a good harvest, you must adhere to the recommendations of the lunar calendar, by which you can determine whether to plant potatoes on a particular day.

For 2018, experts have identified clear dates that are most suitable for planting potatoes:

• May: 4-6; 14; 30-31;
• June: 1-2; 10-12; 29.

In addition, there are unfavorable dates, in which it is undesirable to carry out work associated with planting potatoes:

• May: 15; 20-23; 27-29;
• June: 13, 16-20; 23-24; 28

Blind use of only those dates when it is necessary to plant potatoes according to the lunar calendar, can negatively affect the yield generally. Relying only on dates, and not on weather conditions, there is a big risk of failure. Therefore, it is necessary to adhere to a certain balance between the real natural state and the forecasts of specialists.

The correct calculation - a pledge of a rich harvest.

The choice of which days it is worth or not worth planting potatoes directly affects its quality and environmental friendliness, as well as the yield as a whole. Although it is a simple process, it requires sufficient attention and compliance with the rules.

First of all, it is necessary to determine the goals of planting potatoes. If you need new potatoes in early May, then choose early varieties that quickly ripen. But at the same time, remember that early does not mean quality.Mid-season and mid-late varieties in this case are the most optimal for obtaining a rich harvest of tasty and healthy potatoes.

Often people grow potatoes to feed livestock. In these cases, should choose late varieties. They are stored for a long time and ripen well, resistant to pests and diseases.

Since the choice of the date of planting potatoes affects its yield, do not delay the planting of potatoes. In the early stages, before the appearance of aphid vectors, the plant matures to a state of resistance and suffers less from diseases and pests. In determining the timing of planting potatoes should also not forget about the weather conditions, the state of the soil and tubers.

The timing of planting also affect the processing of plants in the summer. It is necessary to plant each variety of a plant in the shortest period, otherwise further treatments with pesticides will lose their effectiveness, as they are carried out in certain phases of the development of potatoes. Take into account the fact that with very early planting there is a great threat of spring frosts, which will negatively affect the yield.

Many people follow national signs and begin planting potatoes during the budding period at the birch and the end of the flowering of the bird cherry tree.

The process of planting potatoes in open ground seems quite simple, but at the same time a large number of young plants can suffer from non-observance of the elementary rules. In this case factors for obtaining a good harvest are:

• observance of optimum temperature condition;
• maintaining the necessary soil moisture and fertilizer;
• selection of the right potato varieties depending on the composition of the soil and ripening terms.

A key factor in a rich harvest is the correct timing of planting tubers. Both nature itself and lunar calendars, which are compiled specifically for choosing the most favorable days for farming, can help in this.