2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Potatoes are one of the most popular garden crops that you can't do without! And everyone who has grown it at least once is well aware that the key to good yields is high-quality preparation of planting material, which is carried out with the help of sprouting tubers. Unfortunately, with unprepared potato tubers, high yields cannot be obtained, and if suddenly the harvest pleased you anyway, then this is just a matter of chance, and nothing more! So what is the correct way to germinate tubers before planting?
Why sprout tubers?
The potato tubers germinated before planting significantly outstrip the potatoes not subjected to this procedure in their development, and the difference in this case is on average from twenty to thirty days. In addition, sprouted potatoes boast much better moisture absorption capabilities, as well as very impressive resistance to various diseases. In short, the benefits are obvious!
How to germinate potatoes?
The tubers selected for subsequent germination must certainly be healthy, that is, in no case should there be absolutely any lesions on them, including traces of various diseases! As a rule, potato tubers are selected in the fall, while medium-sized tubers are considered the most suitable seed, the weight of which ranges from fifty to eighty grams. However, too large tubers can be cut into several independent parts!
To get the first shoots as early as possible, it is necessary to germinate potatoes in warm rooms, the temperature in which is from fifteen to twenty degrees. If the air only warms up to ten degrees, only the strongest apical buds will sprout. But at a temperature of eighteen to twenty degrees, maintained during the first ten days, not only the upper buds will awaken, but also the lateral ones, and the more buds that appear, the better, since this, in fact, is the future harvest! Nevertheless, it is absolutely not worth raising the temperature when sprouting tubers for too long a period, as this can lead to the decomposition of the most valuable nutrients!
And with the onset of March, the tubers are already taken out for light pre-planting germination - for this purpose they are scattered in small layers over the boxes, in addition, two maximum layers can be placed in strong plastic bags, in which holes with a diameter of about one centimeter are made every ten centimeters. At the same time, only daylight is taken as the basis for light germination, that is, the artificial lighting characteristic of cellars will not work in this case! As a rule, the total duration of light germination is from thirty to forty days, and the length of the shoots that emerged during it should be approximately one centimeter. And at this stage, you can easily identify rotting or diseased tubers - they are characterized by small and weak sprouts, and that is why it is advisable to discard such tubers immediately. By the way, light germination is often combined with further placement of tubers in compost or sawdust!
And immediately before planting, it is recommended to dust potato tubers with wood ash - this approach allows them to provide them with very good additional nutrition for the first time, and the volume of the crop can increase in this case by as much as twenty percent!
Germination in a humid environment
The main advantage of this method is that, in addition to sprouts, with this approach, roots are also formed on the potato tubers! This allows you to significantly accelerate the development of potatoes after planting, but it is best to apply this method to early varieties of this crop.
Well-moistened compost or sawdust with a layer of three centimeters, no more, and also making sure that the air temperature does not exceed fifteen degrees, is placed in the prepared boxes. Next, the tubers are laid on top so that the eyes on them are at the top. And on top of this "structure" compost is poured again. On average, it takes about seventeen days to germinate tubers in this way at a temperature of fifteen degrees! And subsequently, tubers sprouted in this way will definitely give an excellent harvest!
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