Growing Potatoes: Ways, Features of Care

  Potato is one of the most popular crops grown by summer residents and villagers. It is rightly called the second bread, and the number of dishes that can be prepared from potatoes, the most diverse. People have become accustomed to this culture so much that they do not even consider it necessary to give it proper care. After all, it's done like: planted in grooves, dripped with earth, once weeded, bored and everything, wait for the harvest. And yet, potatoes are a very demanding vegetable, and if you do not take care of it, you will not be able to harvest a good harvest.

Agrotechnics for growing potatoes is quite diverse today. Long-term research allows us to derive new varieties, which will grow well in different climatic conditions. Also, new and often original ways of cultivation are invented.

Cultivation of potatoes begins with the preparation of land. In the autumn, the allotted area must be transplanted and the manure put back. In the spring, again, it is not necessary to dig up the earth, it is enough to simply loosen it or to pre-cultivate it. Experienced vegetable growers know that it is possible to start planting potatoes already when buds begin to bud open on birches.

Now it remains to be decided how potato cultivation will be organized. The type of planting in many respects depends on the area given to the dacha and on the amount of harvest that one wants to get. In the old manner, this can be done under the shovel, and if the site is large, then, as a rule, the potatoes are planted in the furrows that drive the tractor. But there are much more interesting ways: landing in a barrel and under the straw. In the first case, the potatoes are planted on the bottom of the barrel, into which, as the tops of the plant grow, the ground is poured until the barrel is completely filled. In the second case, the potatoes are laid out on a non-repaired area, and the top is laid in several layers of straw. Periodically, straw must be piled. These methods are used rarely, and yet with their help, truckers manage to get even a very good harvest. Cultivation of potatoes from seeds is another good way. Its main advantage is that it allows you to harvest much earlier than with any other methods of planting. Seeds are grown from seedlings, which are then planted in open ground.

Whichever method is chosen, potatoes should still be surrounded with care. Growing potatoes is significantly inhibited, and in some cases, reduced to zero, there is a shortage of light, heat, moisture and nutrients. To ensure that potatoes do not feel lack of light and heat, it is necessary to select open areas under the planting, which do not obscure trees and farm buildings. Not all vegetable growers know that potatoes must be watered several times a season, especially when rains rarely go. Scientists have even proved that for the formation of one kilogram of potatoes, the plant must "drink" almost 100 liters of water (and this is only one plant). Of course, to achieve this result is not so simple, so you just need to water planting by virtue of your capabilities. As a rule, during the season it is necessary to conduct three watering: one during the growth of greenery, the second - during the formation of buds, and the third - when the flowering of potatoes begins.

Cultivation of potatoes is impossible without planting of plants, which favorably affects the growth of green mass and increase in yield. Hilling should be done three times per season: at a plant height of 20-25 cm, and subsequent until the foliage is well decomposed. And another important condition is the fight against weeds and pests. Spinning potatoes is necessary until it closes its foliage with free space. The main potato pests are Colorado beetles. Fortunately, today you can get rid of them with the help of special chemical preparations or by resorting to the help of folk methods.