We Grow A Second Crop Of Potatoes

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

Photo: Irina Loginova

In the southern parts of Russia, for example, in Rostov, Astrakhan regions, Krasnodar and Stavropol regions, that is, in those regions where it is quite warm until the end of September and the temperature does not drop below 12-15 degrees Celsius, it is quite possible to grow a second crop of potatoes and in mid-October-early November, enjoy boiled young potatoes from your garden. This year I myself became convinced of the possibility of this event. And this despite the fact that the weather pumped up a little.

Attention: the article describes a purely personal experience that led to a positive result!

So, in mid-July, we already dug up potatoes and the site "pleased" us with its emptiness. There were many options for what to plant. But the 2015 harvest potatoes sprouted in the basement changed all our plans. And it was decided: let's try to grow potatoes! By the way, it turned out to be easy to carry out our plans, and the result made us very happy! We will definitely repeat it next year!

Cooking a garden bed and holes

First of all, we removed the remaining tops, old tubers, we carefully weeded the area. Then they loosened the earth well, breaking all the lumps, which were numerous due to the dry weather.

Now we align the garden so that there are no holes and slides, then we prepare the holes. Since the land is already a little depleted, it needs to be slightly improved. No, we will not pour and pour chemicals. Let's prepare a mixture of ash, peat and compost. We took about 80% peat, 15% compost and 5% ash, but this is an approximate ratio! If you don't have compost and ash, you can simply buy a large bag of nutrient-rich garden soil. If you have black soil, then the above operation can be skipped.

Then we dug holes, about half a bayonet deeper than necessary. And a little wider. After that, our soil mixture was poured into each hole to normal depth. Then each well was watered well.

Cooking potatoes for planting

The holes are ready, now we take out the potatoes, sort them out, leave them good, without rot, mold and other damage, with small but strong sprouts. If the shoots are very long (we were already very long), then cut them off a little.

Attention: do not plant potatoes without sprouts! If the potatoes in the basement have not sprouted a single sprout by the end of July, then they will not give it and there will be no sense from it! Only in vain will you take your place and waste your time.

We plant potatoes

We take the selected potatoes and lay out 1-2 pieces (I put 2 pieces) in each hole. We put it neatly, without breaking off the sprouts, a little at a distance from each other. The hole must be well watered! Next, fill in the holes. If you have black soil, then we cover it with earth from the holes. If you have ordinary soil, which does not interfere with softening and filling with nutrients a little, then we make a mixture of soil from the garden (from our holes) and peat, in a proportion of about 50% / 50%.

We leave it until shoots appear, this is about 10-12 days. Then, after the emergence of potato sprouts, water if necessary (I had to water one, this one, the first). If the weather is damp or it has rained, there is no need to water. That's it, now we just weed if necessary (I did not have such a need, since August, and the grass almost does not grow) and water during flowering if the weather is dry. To be honest, there is nothing difficult in growing a second crop of potatoes, you just need to put in a little effort and the potatoes will delight you with such a crop as in the photo to the article.

By the way, potatoes of different sizes have grown, there are very large ones, but there are also small ones. Unlike the spring planting, the potatoes in this case were for some reason located close to the bush, and were not scattered all over the hole.