Autumn Potato Planting and Management Techniques and the Best Planting Time

Do you want to plant potatoes in autumn? Then you need to understand the planting techniques and management for autumn potatoes. Want to know how? Let's take a look together.

Sowing and transplanting

1. Determining the sowing date: For autumn potatoes, the sowing date should be chosen according to the climate conditions of Pingnan County, and around August is suitable. The suitable temperature is 17-20°C, and it must not exceed 25°C.

2. Seed treatment: Select single tubers that are disease-free with smooth, tender, thin skin, and strictly remove tubers with cracked skin, deformities, or necrotic eyes.

3. Sowing: The growing period of autumn potatoes falls in a season of high temperature and strong light. To create a cooler environment, they should be sown on a shady slope. When sowing, place the eyes facing downward, sow 1 single tuber per hole, then cover with 3 cm of clean soil, and then cover the bed surface with 2-3 cm of rice straw.

Field management

1. Cultivation and earthing up: Potatoes are tuber crops, and loose soil with good aeration helps promote tuber expansion. The first cultivation is after full emergence, with a depth of about 8 cm, mainly for loosening soil and weeding; the second cultivation is when stolons begin to grow, with a depth slightly shallower than the first; the third cultivation is at budding, shallower than the second. Each cultivation should be combined with earthing up. The first cultivation should earth up about 3 cm, and the second and third cultivations should earth up about 6 cm. Deep cultivation and high earthing up for potatoes not only benefit root development but also prevent tubers from being exposed on the soil surface and turning green from sun exposure.

2. Fertilization: During the growing period of autumn potatoes, temperatures gradually drop and sunshine shortens, which is not favorable for stem and leaf growth, so fertilizer should be applied skillfully. After full emergence, combine with cultivation and apply 15 kg of urea per mu to promote rapid seedling growth. When the ends of stolons begin to expand, apply 10 kg of urea and 20 kg of potassium sulfate per mu to promote starch accumulation in tubers. At full flowering, spray 0.30%-0.35% potassium dihydrogen phosphate, once every 10 days or so, for a total of 2 sprays, to increase tuber yield.

3. Water management: The cultivation period of autumn potatoes coincides with the dry season, and the water requirement is greater than that of spring potatoes. After sowing, water should be applied in time, but it is enough to keep the furrow moist, watering once every 3-4 days to promote emergence. After seedlings emerge, water frequently to keep the soil moist and promote stem and leaf growth. During the tuber formation stage, the weather turns cooler, and evaporation from plants and the ground decreases, so keeping the soil moist is sufficient.