Five Key Points for Potato Planting
Seed potatoes can be sprouted using the dark storage and chitting method
Take the seed potatoes out of the cellar 15-20 days before sowing, place them at a temperature of 13-15°C, spread them flat in 2-3 layers in a dark place, gradually expose the seed potatoes to scattered light, and turn them once every 2-3 days so that the seed potatoes receive sufficient light and sprout purple shoots. When the shoots grow to about 0.5-1 cm, they can be cut into pieces and prepared for sowing. During sprouting, avoid direct sunlight, rain and frost, and at the same time remove diseased and rotten potatoes.
Seed potato cutting: Sterilize the cutting knife with 70% alcohol or 5% Lysol solution, select healthy seed potatoes and cut them vertically, ensuring each seed piece has 1-2 strong buds. For mechanical sowing, each piece should weigh 40-50 grams. For manual sowing, each piece should weigh 35-40 grams. To prevent virus transmission, whole-tuber sowing is recommended.
Seed dressing, sweating and seed coating: Mix 100 kg of seed potatoes with 0.1 kg of chlorothalonil, 1 kg of talc powder and trace elements (such as molybdenum, boron, copper, zinc, magnesium) for seed dressing, then place in a ventilated place for 1-2 days. Once the wounds have healed, they can be sown. It is best to carry out seed potato coating treatment, which can effectively prevent seed rot after sowing, sterilize, reduce the incidence of field diseases and increase the emergence rate.
Adopt wide-ridge cultivation
The 80-90 cm wide-ridge standardized cultivation technology for potatoes is a new cultivation technical measure summarized by drawing on successful foreign experience, combining the actual production conditions of our province, and based on the growth and development characteristics of potatoes. The key promotion is the "90 cm wide-ridge cultivation model" with a ridge bottom width of 90 cm, a ridge top width of 40 cm, and a ridge body height of 25 cm. In this model, the soil structure of the ridge body is loose, the fertilizer supply capacity is strong, which is conducive to root development and increases the tuber-setting rate. It also has the advantages of light transmission and ventilation, preserving and raising soil moisture, resisting drought and waterlogging, and reducing the occurrence of early and late blight, effectively improving the yield and quality of potatoes. The yield per unit area can be increased by more than 50%, and the large tuber rate can be increased by more than 20%. It is a practical and feasible high-yield cultivation technical model. Balanced fertilization ensures yield
Potato is a crop with a relatively large fertilizer requirement. To obtain high yield, more fertilizer must be applied. If the yield per mu is to reach more than 3 tons, then more than 100 jin of fertilizer must be applied per mu. In order to give full play to fertilizer efficiency and improve fertilizer utilization, apply light base fertilizer and heavy topdressing, and implement staged fertilization to prevent fertilizer waste and improve fertilizer utilization. At the same time, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium should be rationally combined and applied in proportion. The specific practices are as follows:
Increase the application of organic fertilizer: Use more than 15 tons of decomposed high-quality organic fertilizer per hectare as base fertilizer, applied all at once in combination with land preparation.
Base fertilizer: On the basis of applying 1 cubic meter of organic fertilizer per mu, apply quick-acting fertilizers. During the seedling growth period, the required ratio of urea, diammonium phosphate and potassium sulfate is 3.4:1:3. At sowing, apply 10 kg, 3 kg and 9 kg per mu of urea, diammonium phosphate and potassium sulfate respectively, to ensure the needs of the seedlings' entire life growth and development. Topdressing: The tuber-setting stage is the period when potatoes need the most fertilizer. At this time, topdressing should be carried out to meet the needs of tuber expansion and prevent premature aging of seedlings due to fertilizer deficiency. The required ratio of urea, diammonium phosphate and potassium sulfate is 1.5:1:3.5. The suitable period for topdressing is when the tuber diameter expands to 2-3 cm, that is, when the plant growth center has shifted from vegetative growth to reproductive growth. Around June 20, before the rainy season arrives, mix the three fertilizers evenly before hoeing and apply them on both sides of the ridge body. After fertilization, hoe the ground in time to cover the fertilizer and prevent loss. The amounts of urea, diammonium phosphate and potassium sulfate are 15 kg, 10 kg and 30 kg respectively. They can also be appropriately increased or decreased according to this ratio. In addition, other fertilizers can also be applied, but the ratio of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium cannot be changed.
Foliar topdressing: During the tuber formation stage and tuber expansion stage, apply 0.5% urea and 0.3% monopotassium phosphate, add trace elements, and carry out foliar topdressing 3-4 times in combination with pesticide spraying, with an interval of 5-7 days.
Achieve multi-layer tuber setting
Before emergence, harrow once to increase soil temperature and also control weeds. When the young buds are about to break through the soil, carry out one deep plowing and shallow earthing up. After the seedlings emerge uniformly, hoe and hoe once in time, then plow once more (with less earthing up) to increase soil temperature and reduce water evaporation. During the branching stage, hoe twice and plow three times, with more earthing up, so that the furrow is narrow and the ridge top is wide, raising soil moisture and loosening the soil, achieving multi-layer tuber setting, which is beneficial to tuber expansion.
Strengthen disease control
Late blight: A major disease of potatoes. Starting from June 20, spray with 25% Amistar at 500-800 times dilution; spray with Kexiu and Ridomil at 1.5 kg/hectare diluted 3000 times, spraying once every 7-10 days, for 5-6 consecutive sprays. Viral disease: Potato viral diseases mainly include common mosaic disease, yellow spot mosaic disease, leaf roll disease, purple top and crinkled mosaic, etc. The control of potato viral diseases is mainly based on prevention, such as selecting qualified virus-free seed potatoes and disease-resistant varieties, improving cultivation measures, and at the same time cutting off sources of infection, and using chemicals to control aphids, etc. Chemical control can use antiviral No. 1 or 2% Junikeduke at 300 times dilution for spraying, all of which have a certain control effect.
Bacterial ring rot: Select disease-resistant varieties and establish disease-free seed fields, disinfect cutting knives and soak seeds with chemicals. When cutting and sowing, disinfect the cutting knife with potassium permanganate at a concentration of 5 ppm. Before sowing, treat seed potatoes with 75% Dexon wettable powder, using 0.28 kg of powder per 100 kg of seed potatoes, add an appropriate amount of dry soil for seed dressing, and pull out diseased plants at the seedling stage.