How to grow potatoes well? Let me teach you the planting method (Part 1)

I. Seed potato selection

Whether potatoes yield high mainly depends on the seed. The quality of the seed potatoes affects growers' yield and income, so identifying whether seed potatoes are good or bad is a key issue. From the appearance of the seed potatoes, you should not only look at the size of the potato seed, but also look at the gloss of the seed potato. Good gloss, fresh, no rot, the tuber feels soft in the hand, and when cut with a knife it feels crisp and soft. Cut a knife half a cm from the rear end of the tuber and check that there is no ring rot (black ring). This can be called a relatively good potato seed. Good potato seeds have strong disease resistance, good quality, and high yield, generally reaching 3500-4000 kg per mu.

II. Storage of seed potatoes

They should be placed in a cool and ventilated place. When the temperature reaches minus 3-4°C, something should be placed over the seed potatoes, such as burlap sacks, old clothes, etc. When it reaches minus 6-7°C, they should be placed in a closed room. If there is stronger cold air, a little more tarpaulin or plastic film should be added as covering. After the weather turns milder, the tarpaulin or plastic film should be removed. The temperature in the room where potatoes are stored should not be too high either. They must not be placed beside a stove. Seed potatoes are afraid of heat. Even the warmest place must not exceed 7°C. If the temperature is too high, many sprouts will grow, consuming the nutrients of the seed potatoes, and later when planted in the field this can easily cause reduced yield. In short, when storing seed potatoes in winter, as long as the room temperature is not lower than 0°C without covering, that is fine.

III. Potato planting methods

1. Land management before planting:

The Dutch potato is a crop with very strong adaptability. Apart from saline-alkali land, any other land will do, but there must be watering conditions. For land where potatoes are to be planted the following spring, it is best to plow it in the previous year. Not only should it be plowed, but it should be deep plowed. Potatoes like soft soil layers the most, and are also the plant best able to loosen the soil. For relatively compacted plots, planting potatoes continuously for several years will make them become soft and loose.

For land that has undergone deep plowing or winter plowing, after a winter, the freeze-thaw layer can reach 15 cm. The severe cold and sunlight of this winter will have a very good sterilizing effect. This 15 cm of matured layer is very beneficial to potato growth the following year.

It is not only necessary to plow in the previous year, but also to plow deeply. Potatoes have several layers of creeping root systems, so they need a deep soft soil layer. In recent years, machine rotary tillage in the fields has not reached the required depth, affecting potato yield. Therefore, to achieve high yield, the depth must reach below 20 cm. If it can reach 30 cm, under the same planting conditions, the yield increase will be even greater.

2. Sprouting:

Although potatoes are a cool-loving crop, the planting time should not be too early either. In recent years, some farmers have started planting before Awakening of Insects. The time is on the early side. Seed potatoes that have sprouted emerge quickly, and if they encounter a late spring cold spell in early spring they are easily damaged. Potatoes that have suffered frost damage are like a person who has had a serious illness; after recovering, they need a certain amount of time to slowly recover. Therefore, once potatoes suffer frost damage at the seedling stage, it will affect the yield of the whole season. Thus the planting time should not be too early. For field spring potatoes, the best planting time is after Awakening of Insects and before the Spring Equinox, and the specific time can be around the 16th or 17th day of the lunar month.

Before planting, sprouting and pre-sprouting should be carried out. Sprouting can make them emerge earlier, and also gives full and vigorous seedlings. Emerging earlier means forming tubers earlier, and throughout the entire potato growing period, this can increase yield and achieve the goal of increasing production and income. The method and time of sprouting is 20 days before Awakening of Insects: place the seed potatoes on a heated kang, about 30-40 cm thick, with straw spread on the bottom of the kang and something covering the potatoes on top. Light a little fire every day, not too much. When the sprouts grow to about 1 cm, remove the covering, and stop lighting the fire for cooling the sprouts. After a few days, the sprouts will turn black and become thick and strong, and the sprouts will not easily fall off when handled. The second sprouting method is to put the seed potatoes in bamboo baskets, arrange the baskets in a circle, and make a fire in the middle with a stove. This also works very well.