Detailed Explanation of Key Field Management Techniques for Potatoes, a Must-Read for Potato Growers
As the push to make potatoes a staple food advances year by year, many growers are also planning to plant potatoes, but although potatoes are easy to grow, field management still requires attention. Below is a detailed explanation of the key field management techniques for potatoes.
I. Potato Field Management —— Checking for Missing Plants and Replanting
After the potatoes have emerged fully, check the seedlings promptly, and replant any gaps in time to ensure a full stand. The method for replanting is: at sowing time, densely plant surplus seed tubers at the edges of the field for use in replanting. When replanting, if there are diseased or rotten tubers in the gap, first dig out the diseased tubers and the surrounding soil before replanting. When the soil is dry, dig a hole, water it, and apply a small amount of fertilizer before setting the seedling, to shorten the recovery period and restore growth as quickly as possible. If there are no spare seedlings, select hills with extra seedlings from among the emerged rows in the field, break off the surplus shoots from the base of the mother tuber, and transplant them to fill the gaps.
II. Potato Field Management —— Cultivation and Earthing Up
Cultivate and loosen the soil so that the tuber-bearing layer is loose and well aerated, which favors root growth, stolon elongation and tuber expansion. If the soil surface crusts before emergence, loosen the soil to help the seedlings emerge. After full emergence, carry out the first cultivation promptly, to a depth of 8-10 cm, and combine it with weeding. 10-15 days after the first cultivation, carry out the second cultivation, which should be slightly shallower. At the bud stage, carry out the third cultivation, shallower than the second. Combine this with earthing up; the layer of soil drawn up should not exceed 10 cm, so as to thicken the tuber-bearing layer, prevent the tubers from being exposed, and avoid reducing quality.
III. Potato Field Management —— Topdressing
Potatoes take a fairly long time from sowing to emergence. After emergence, apply a sprout and seedling fertilizer early, using clear manure water plus a small amount of nitrogen fertilizer, to promote rapid growth of the young plants. At the bud stage, combine earthing up with one application of tuber-setting fertilizer, mainly potassium fertilizer together with nitrogen fertilizer; the amount applied depends on the growth and appearance of the plants. After flowering, no further fertilizer is generally applied; if the plants show signs of nutrient deficiency and premature senescence later on, phosphorus and potassium, or these combined with trace elements, can be sprayed on the leaves.
IV. Potato Field Management —— Pest and Disease Control
Potatoes suffer from quite a number of diseases; common ones include viral disease, late blight, bacterial wilt, ring rot, scab and wart disease. Late blight mostly occurs in periods of heavier rainfall and around the flowering stage of the plants. Therefore, take care to control it early with Bordeaux mixture or ridomil. Chemical control of bacterial wilt is currently difficult; the main control measures are rational crop rotation, choosing disease-resistant varieties, and using small whole tubers as seed.
The main insect pests of potatoes include ladybirds, cutworms, aphids, white grubs and mole crickets, which can be controlled with pesticides or by hand-picking.
Friendly reminder: Potatoes are fairly drought-tolerant, but to obtain a high yield they must not lack water; throughout the growing period, keeping soil moisture at 60-80% is relatively suitable. Especially during the high-temperature summer stage, deformed tubers easily occur, so irrigate in time to lower the soil temperature. Standing water after rain should be drained promptly to prevent waterlogging, otherwise it will cause tuber rot in the field; watering should stop 10 days before harvest.