2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Why grow potatoes from seed, you ask, when an old proven method - planting a tuber - gives great results? The fact is that potatoes, like any other living organism, accumulate diseases in themselves, which, even in spite of dressing before planting, are still transmitted to some extent with each new generation during vegetative propagation. This leads to the fact that the variety degenerates, the tubers become smaller, and the yield decreases. Therefore, approximately every five years, experts recommend updating your planting material by seed propagation
Features of seed potatoes
There is nothing strange in the fact that potatoes are propagated by seeds, no. Let's not forget that it belongs to the nightshade family, and sowing seeds of pepper, tomato, eggplant is not surprising to anyone. But potato seeds still have their own characteristics:
• The seed for potatoes is very small. And their seedlings are very thin and tender. They are easily affected by diseases, therefore it is important to carry out pre-sowing treatment with fungicides.
• Based on the same feature of seedlings - their delicate constitution - for sowing seedlings it is necessary to take a soil mixture of a very loose structure. It is recommended to steam the soil before work. Thanks to this, disinfection is carried out, as well as moistening of the soil. Instead of steaming, you can also water the soil with a warm fungicide solution.
• It is impossible to sow potatoes on dry soil mixture, because when watering, the seeds will sink into the ground, and after that you can no longer wait for germination.
At the time of planting potato seedlings in the ground, it should be approximately 50 days old. In open ground, disembarkation is carried out approximately in mid-May. Based on this, crops need to be done in the third decade of March.
Care of potato crops
The container with crops must be covered with foil or hidden in a transparent bag. If the shelter immediately fogs up, it means that the technology has been followed. The container with the crops is left in a warm place until the seeds germinate. To prevent seeds from rotting in moist soil and cool air, they need a room temperature of about + 25 ° C.
Daily care consists in removing the shelter for ventilation and control of seedlings - they will appear for 4-5 days. Watering the sprouted sprouts is done carefully along the walls of the container so that moisture does not fall on the stems from above. The seedlings do not remain in the container for long - until the moment of the pick.
The first transplant is carried out in small cups about the size of a small yogurt box. The planting depth should be deeper than the seedling grew in its first container.
The next transfer is carried out in cups with a volume of approximately 200 ml. If the seedlings are stretched out, you do not need to shorten the root to plant it in a glass. A long stalk is laid with a loop, and it will build up the root system under a layer of earth. After transplanting, abundant watering is performed. Do not forget that the containers must have drainage holes.
Moving seedlings to open ground
The finished seedlings are placed on the beds at a distance of about 30-40 cm. The more free space the potatoes have, the more nodules can be collected from one bush.
Care for seedlings in the open field does not differ from potatoes propagated by tubers. The only difference is that the seedlings are more sensitive to a drop in temperature. And if, during a cold snap, the sprouts from the tubers can be painlessly covered with earth, then for seedlings in order to protect them from frost, it is better to use a non-woven covering material.
The harvested harvest of small nodules is not immediately used for food. It is planted in the sun and stored until the next planting season. Only a year later, from this healthy planting material, a high-quality product is obtained for culinary consumption and further propagation.
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