What Potatoes Love

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

The fact that most people who do not suffer from any abnormalities in the work of the body love Potatoes is an indisputable fact. But what Potato loves is known to a much smaller number of her fans

Excursion to childhood

It would seem that such a special thing can be loved by home-grown Potatoes, which require attention only 4 times during their growing season. As far as I remember my urban childhood, every year my parents planted potatoes on a plot of land allocated by the factory trade union to everyone. There were many eaters in the family, so their own potatoes were a good help to the metallurgist's salary.

The whole process of growing potatoes took only 4, sometimes 5, days a year. The land was plowed, so one day was spent on planting; second day weeding; the third day was intended for hilling potato bushes; and the fourth day was the most pleasant, especially if the harvest was a success.

Since ordinary workers did not have their own cars in those days, the export of potatoes from the fields was organized by the same trade union. Therefore, sometimes it was necessary to grab the fifth day, while waiting in line for the car.

For us, children of primary school age, these 4 days were fun, because the family had older brothers and sisters who helped their parents to the best of their ability. And I and my little sister, in the days of weeding and hilling, tore potato flowers or green fruits, similar to small inedible tomatoes, and arranged different games with such an abundance of "products".

But for her mother, for her long life, these 4 days a year responded in old age with the fact that she categorically refused to eat potatoes, saying: "What, I am a pig to eat potatoes?" Such is the unexpected look.

A similar process of growing potatoes was deposited in my child's head as a very simple and easy task. Only 4 days, and then throughout the long autumn, winter and spring, you can enjoy boiled, fried, stewed root vegetables, and also eat ruddy pies with potato filling or gobble up dumplings with potatoes, seasoned with butter or sour cream.

Unexpected discovery

It turns out that in order to get a decent harvest, potatoes should be given much more days than four.

Firstly, potatoes are water-intensive vegetables that require regular watering. If the heavens refuse to rain for more than a week, then every three days you should water the potato field yourself. Apparently, in my childhood it rained more often, because no one watered the potatoes on purpose. That's for sure. After all, the field was far outside the city, public transport did not go there, so the potatoes had to be content only with the gifts of heaven.

The fact that the potatoes dug up in the fall were enough for a large family until the next harvest, plus a part of my mother managed to sell to people in order to make the children a new thing or buy sweets for the holiday, and there was also a supply of seed potatoes, most likely, it was not the merit of the fertility of the potatoes, but the merit of the number of hectares cultivated land.

If all the plant's needs were met, the same crop could be harvested from a much smaller plot.

Secondly, potatoes are not so simple and love nutrients, especially potassium and phosphorus. Moreover, one should not lose a sense of proportion, fertilizing the soil with superphosphate or wood ash, since excess can provoke rotting of tubers. And a substance like chlorine has a depressing effect on the plant, so refrain from adding fecal compost to the soil.

Thirdly, potatoes grow best on black soil with neutral acidity.

Fourthly, for a lot of starch to form in the tubers, the potatoes need a lot of sun. But, if the sun beats down mercilessly, heating the soil more than 20 degrees, then the tubers become smaller, although the tops of the potatoes feel great at a higher temperature. To make it pleasant to both tops and roots, people got used to using straw to hide the earth under potato bushes.

Fifth, you should be on the lookout so that the Colorado potato beetle does not rob you of your harvest.