Detailed Guide to Potato Growing Techniques: Full Instructions from Sowing to Harvest

Potatoes are one of the most common foods in everyone's daily life, with a very high yield, and thanks to their many uses, they count as a relatively stable crop to grow. So what needs special attention when growing potatoes? Let's find out below how to grow them! And while we're at it, let's look at the points that people easily overlook.

1. Preparing the Soil

Before planting, you naturally need to turn and prepare the soil first. Most people just loosen the soil with a simple dig and then leave a trench at regular intervals. The first thing here is that when loosening the soil, you need to dig a bit deeper, otherwise the potato seedlings' roots will struggle to penetrate the lower soil, which later easily leads to poor potato growth. Generally, dig about 25-30 cm deep, and space the drainage channels about 1.2 m apart; only this way can you make the most of the soil while also making management easier.

2. Cutting Potatoes into Pieces for Seed

Once the soil is leveled, it's time to prepare the seed. First cut the seed potatoes into pieces; people may cut them rather casually here, but cutting the seed potatoes also has its rules. Generally, when the seed potatoes have basically sprouted some shoots, you can cut them into several pieces, cutting according to the distribution of the sprouts, with each piece having several sprouts on it, so the germination rate is higher. Also, when cutting, make sure the cut surface is smooth, otherwise the piece will struggle to survive.

3. Coating with Plant Ash

After cutting, don't rush to sow them. These pieces of seed potatoes are very short of nutrients at this point, and plant ash is an excellent source of nutrients. Mainly, sprinkle this plant ash on the cut side; it's fine to sprinkle a bit more, as this helps promote sprouting in the potatoes. Many people sow directly after sprinkling the ash, which leads to a less-than-ideal emergence rate. Here it's actually best to mix the seed pieces into the plant ash and then leave them for 1-2 days, waiting until these pieces' sprouts have grown a bit more obvious before planting; in the end the emergence rate will be higher.

4. Sowing

Finally comes sowing. When sowing, just sow and cover them along the planting channels dug beforehand. What to note here is that you should face the cut side toward the soil and point the sprouts upward, otherwise the sprouts will struggle to break through the soil, and in the end you'll get failed emergence. When sowing, space each piece about 30 cm apart; it's fine to make them a bit denser, but mainly it depends on the soil conditions. If you have a lot of plant ash, you can put some underneath the seed pieces when sowing, so the potatoes grow faster.

The above is the potato growing technique. Although growing them looks fairly simple, if you don't pay attention to these details in between, you still won't grow them well. Many people underestimate these problems, and that's exactly what leads to their unsatisfactory harvest.