Planting Early Potatoes: How To Prepare The Tubers?

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

In the second half of February, it is already worth starting to think about which method of preparing planting material to start in order to get a harvest of early potatoes. Gardeners have invented a lot of such methods, and everyone can choose something suitable for themselves

Sprouting potatoes

The simplest and most common method for preparing tubers is to germinate them. This trick is suitable for those who want to shorten the growing season of the plant after planting in the beds. Such a measure will speed up the harvest of young potatoes by 2-3 weeks.

To do this, select medium-sized potatoes, on average weighing 50 g plus or minus 10. They are poured into boxes with low sides and left in a bright cool room at a temperature of about + 10 … + 12 degrees C. The lack of lighting is indicated by the state of the sprouts that have appeared. When they are white, brittle, elongated, this means that the tubers do not have enough light. Good healthy shoots should be dark green with an admixture of the characteristic color of the variety, be of small height and rather plump.

The humidity in the room during germination should be increased. It is useful to spray the tubers in the boxes several times. To speed up the process, planting material can be placed in boxes on a layer of moistened sand, moss or peat. In this case, the air temperature can be increased to +15 degrees C. On average, this procedure takes about a month.

Germination can be carried out not only indoors, but also outdoors. But this can be done when at night the air temperature does not drop below 0 ° C, and during the day it is kept at a level of at least + 10 ° C. Experienced gardeners note that with this approach, even more germinated eyes can be obtained in a shorter time than when germinating indoors. The process takes 2-3 weeks.

Simple operations to increase the productivity of planting material

A month before planting, it is recommended to perform stimulating cuts in the tubers. This operation must be carried out before the germination of the eyes began.

There are two ways to make an incision: annular and transverse. To get an early harvest, the first method is chosen. To do this, the girdle incision of the tuber up to 1 cm deep is made so that it is located approximately perpendicular to the axis of the tuber. Thanks to this technique, the connection between the upper and lower parts of the tuber is disrupted, which prevents the outflow of nutrients from the apical eyes, which are more productive. The result of this trick is a higher sprouting rate and the beginning of the tuberization process.

The cross-cut provides a branched multi-stem plant and a high yield, but at a later date. To do this, the tuber is cut perpendicular to the axis, but not completely. A bridge about 1 cm thick is left as a bridge between the upper and lower parts. Due to this, the connection between the halves is not interrupted, as in the previous case, and the nutrients accumulated by the planting material are evenly distributed.

As with any operation, the tubers should be cut with a sterile instrument. In addition, the planting material must be healthy in order to prevent the spread of diseases during the seed stage.

The incision knife is easy to disinfect at home. This will require a high container filled with sand and 5% formalin solution. It is recommended to immerse a knife blade in this vessel after processing every five potatoes. Lysol is also used instead of formalin.

After the "operation", the tubers are laid for germination. The final stage of preparation for planting will be watering the potatoes with a nutrient solution of superphosphate, potassium salt and nitrogen fertilizers. Processing is recommended to be carried out two days before planting potatoes in the beds.