Detailed Explanation of Key Points for High-Yield Potato Cultivation Techniques

Potatoes are grown in every province across the country. By ecological type, they are mainly divided into four major regions: the northern single-cropping region, the Central Plains double-cropping region, the southern double-cropping region, and the southwestern mixed single-and-double-cropping region. The varieties and cultivation measures required in each region differ, but according to the biological characteristics of potatoes, there are still commonalities in cultivation techniques for achieving high yields.

1. Land preparation. Potatoes are harvested for their underground tubers. To promote high yields, a good soil environment must be created for tuber growth underground. Deep plowing can loosen the soil, improve water storage and retention capacity, coordinate the fertility factors of water, fertilizer, air, and heat in the soil, and provide a comfortable growing environment for potato roots, stolons, and tubers. The root system produced after potato tubers are planted is a fibrous root system with poor penetrating ability. Loose soil is conducive to root growth and development. With a strong root system, the ability to absorb water and nutrients from the soil can be enhanced, continuously supplying the aboveground parts, making the plants grow robustly, enhancing photosynthetic capacity, increasing photosynthetic products, and providing the material basis for high yields. Therefore, deep plowing is the foundation of high-yield potatoes. According to research reports from Heilongjiang, Shanxi, and Gansu, when the plowing depth is 15-18 cm, the loosened soil layer can reach 30 cm, increasing yield by 10% compared with shallow plowing. When the plowing depth reaches 36 cm, the yield can increase by 63.1% compared with a plowing depth of 18 cm. It can be seen that good land preparation is the prerequisite for high-yield potatoes.

2. Fertilization techniques

3. Sowing techniques

4. Field management techniques

5. Control of diseases, pests, and weeds

During the growth period, potatoes are often infected by diseases and pests. The main diseases include viral diseases, fungal diseases, bacterial diseases, and physiological diseases. The main pests include: aphids, potato lady beetles, white grubs, mole crickets, cutworms, potato tuber moths, and others. If not controlled in time, they will seriously affect yield and tuber quality. The types of diseases and pests, their occurrence periods, and the degree of damage differ from place to place. It is very important to understand and master the local occurrence patterns of diseases and pests and control experience. The occurrence of diseases and pests is closely related to meteorological conditions. Drought makes insect outbreaks more likely, while waterlogging makes diseases more likely. According to long-term local weather forecasts and the disease and pest occurrence trends released by plant protection departments, early control and prevention first can greatly reduce input.

Field weed control: Weeds in potato fields compete with the crop for water, fertilizer, and sunlight, leading to reduced potato yields. Weed control has three methods: mechanical weeding, manual weeding, and chemical control.

Mechanical weeding mainly uses plowing, harrowing, and leveling and other land preparation methods to eliminate weeds in the plow layer.

Manual weeding should be combined with loosening the soil and hilling. Before emergence, hoeing the ground can cut off the root systems of young weeds that have already sprouted in the surface layer, exposing the young shoots to the ground to be dried to death by the sun, giving a good weeding effect. In addition, it can raise soil temperature and help emergence. After the seedlings emerge completely, that is, at the rosette stage, combine soil loosening to raise soil temperature and promote root development, hoe a second time, and after pulling out the weeds with their roots and sun-drying them for one or two days, carry out hilling. At the vigorous growth stage, the plant type has already been established. In this period, in order to promote the formation of thick, strong, and leafy high-yielding plants, a third hoeing should be done to clear field weeds, and a second hilling should be carried out.

Chemical weed control should mainly be carried out after sowing and before emergence. Because potato leaves are sensitive to herbicides, pesticide use must be cautious. Generally, 1-1.2 L of 50% acetochlor emulsifiable concentrate is mixed with 380 kg of water and sprayed on the ridge surface, then covered with plastic film, and the weeding effect can reach 90%. In addition, metribuzin can be used at 1.5 kg per hectare mixed with 40 kg of water and sprayed, which can kill many kinds of weeds.

The control of farmland weeds should follow the principle of integrated control, that is, before sowing, use mechanical methods to eliminate part of the weeds; after sowing and before emergence, use chemicals to control part of the weeds; at the rosette and vigorous growth stages, combine soil loosening and hilling for manual weeding. In this way, integrated measures can basically eliminate field weeds, and the yield increase effect is generally above 10%.

6. Harvesting techniques

Harvesting techniques are the last link in field management and are related to improving commodity quality, so attention must be paid to them. When potatoes mature, the aboveground vines have not yet withered, and the skin of the underground tubers is quite tender, so the skin can be broken with even a little carelessness. After the tuber skin is broken, it is very easy to become infected with pathogens, and at the same time the broken area turns brown, affecting marketability. One week to ten days before harvest, the vines should first be cut off so that the tubers can after-ripen in the soil and the skin can become suberized, making it less likely to break during harvest. In addition, during harvest, workers pick them up by hand and pile them in small heaps, then dry them in the field. When picking up by hand, grading should be carried out at any time, and damaged tubers and diseased tubers should be placed separately. After drying for 1-2 days, transport them back to the storage site. The storage site should be dry, ventilated, and shaded. In some places, after harvest, potatoes are buried in soil for temporary storage to prevent the tubers from turning green when exposed to light. In short, during harvest, the number of broken skins and damaged tubers should be minimized as much as possible. Drying them a little is to allow the tubers to evaporate part of their water and reduce losses during storage.

7. Potato storage techniques

The main purpose of potato storage is to ensure quality for food, processing, and seed use. For the storage of edible commercial potatoes, water loss and nutrient consumption should be minimized as much as possible, exposure to light should be avoided so that the potato skin does not turn green and the taste does not deteriorate, and the tubers should always be kept fresh. For the storage of processing potatoes, starch should be prevented from converting into sugar. Seed potatoes can be exposed to scattered light, and maintaining good sprouting and propagation ability is the main goal of storage. Only by adopting scientific management methods can tuber rot, sprouting, and disease spread be avoided, their commodity and seed quality maintained, and natural losses during storage reduced.