Potatoes, a member of the nightshade crops, arrived in Europe from Argentina and Peru. It came to us during the reign of Nicholas I, who, by “highest command,” introduced this agricultural crop into crop rotation. Interestingly, this led to the state peasant potato riots in 1840 and 1844. The unrest was caused by ignorance, as well as the spread of all sorts of fables about this in all respects decent vegetable.
They claimed that whoever ate it would be subjected to sinful temptations, and would go straight to hell. Every lie contains a grain of truth - raw potato juice increases potency. Also, tubers stored in the light acquired a greenish tint. This signaled an increased content of solanine, which is a strong poison that can cause serious poisoning. People ate the green vegetable and poisoned themselves with it, which also did not contribute to enthusiasm when planting potatoes.About 500 thousand peasants took part in the riots, and at that time this was a very serious challenge to public order.
But over time everything calmed down, learned how to store potatoes correctly and cook. Today we call it second bread and cannot imagine our daily diet without it. The topic of our article will be processing potatoes before planting.
General information about potatoes
For a good potato harvest, you need to have an idea of the optimal growing conditions.
What do potatoes like?
The plant is a native of countries with hot, dry climates and this determines its requirements. Potatoes like:
- Water- and breathable soil rich in organic matter, although it can grow on almost any soil except wetlands;
- Neutral or slightly acidic soil reaction;
- Warm. If the soil is cold or the air temperature is low, growth processes will stop;
- Increased doses of potash fertilizers;
- Good lighting. In partial shade, green mass grows, and the harvest will be poor.
What potatoes don't like
The plant does not tolerate:
- Excessive doses of nitrogen, including fresh manure - in addition to pulling out the tops to the detriment of the multiplication of tubers, they provoke scab disease. But this does not mean that nitrogen fertilizers cannot be given to potatoes - they simply should be in moderation;
- Excess calcium. The field on which it is planned to plant potato tubers is, if necessary, deoxidized with lime or dolomite flour in the fall;
- Chlorinated fertilizers;
- Shading planting – if there is a lack of light, you can’t expect a good harvest;
- Excessive moisture. You need to water the potatoes moderately, we will talk about this in detail in one of the following articles;
- Prolonged cold snap. Potatoes will simply stop growing and wait for warmer weather;
- Planting thickening. In addition to darkening, this will give impetus to early late blight disease.
Variety selection
We will not talk in detail about potato varieties, of which there are many; let’s look at the grouping of varieties by ripening time. The taste qualities of tubers, storage, the advisability of planting in a particular region, and resistance to diseases depend on them.
Early varieties
They are ready for harvesting 60-70 days after planting and sprouting, thanks to which they do not have time to contract late blight. They:
- least productive;
- starch contains about 10%;
- boil quickly;
- usually have low taste qualities.
Planting tubers is recommended in all regions.
Mid-early varieties
They are usually harvested after 70-80 days of cultivation. The differences between these varieties are:
- resistance to viral infections;
- starch content – about 15%;
- the tubers are less boiled and have a better taste;
- they may fall under late blight.
Mid-season varieties
Tubers ripen after 80-90 days. They are characterized by:
- all mid-season varieties necessarily fall under late blight;
- the starch content in tubers is more than 15%.
In regions with cold climates, planting them is risky - the tubers may not ripen.
Mid-late and late varieties
In the north, the tubers do not have time to ripen; planting in regions with a so-called risky climate is not recommended.
Potato processing
Strictly speaking, processing potato tubers before planting is an optional procedure. But if you are interested in getting an early harvest, high quality and large quantities of potatoes, as well as protecting plants from diseases and pests, you will have to process the tubers.Each owner does this in his own way, there is no single recipe, but we hope that the information we present will be of interest not only to beginners, but also to experienced gardeners.
How to treat potatoes before planting is up to you; there is now a huge list of preparations for this purpose on sale:
- humates;
- stimulants;
- biofungicides;
- chemicals (not all of them are toxins);
- poisons.
Every year new funds appear here or abroad. If you decide that you will process the tubers, let's see how this is done, and also correctly select the seed potato tubers suitable for planting.
Why process potatoes before sprouting?
Dressing tubers before planting gives us the opportunity to get a good harvest, beautiful potatoes, and also spend less time and effort on care. It speeds up germination and strengthens the plant’s own defense mechanisms. There are many preparations for treating potatoes that protect them from pests.
Selection of planting material
The correct choice of planting material is half the success when growing potatoes. Of course, it is best to buy seed material in specialized nurseries or stores. But it is expensive, and if you consider that you usually need a lot of potatoes for planting, it will result in a very decent amount. So if we buy certified first reproduction potatoes, it is in very limited quantities, and only in order to multiply them, and subsequently plant tubers of “our own production.”
Perhaps you selected the seed material for planting in the fall, or perhaps you will take the best potato tubers left after the winter. Inspect them carefully, discard any that are affected by wireworms or rot, and then wash them under running water so that possible defects are better visible.
But in this way we will only reject potatoes that are clearly unsuitable for planting.
Dissolve 1.9 kg of urea in 10 liters of water and place potatoes on the bottom of the dish with the solution. Wait 2-3 minutes. Healthy tubers will remain at the bottom, while damaged ones will either float or “dangle” at the bottom. Cull them.
Warming and disinfection
Approximately 30-35 days before the intended planting, fill the tubers with hot (approximately 42-45 degrees) water. Let it cool and add pre-diluted potassium permanganate until it turns bright pink, let it sit for another 15 minutes. This will kill many pathogenic microorganisms that have entered the tubers from the soil or from a storage place, and will also help to quickly begin growth processes.
For the same purpose, you can use boric acid by adding 50 g of the drug per 10 liters of water or a mixture copper sulfate and zinc sulfate, taking 10 g of both and dissolving in the same volume of water.
Humates for the benefit of the harvest
Humates are a powerful activator of plant growth and development, in particular potato tubers. They have an anti-stress effect and help produce enzymes that promote plant survival in unfavorable conditions. The tubers are simply soaked in a humate solution prepared according to the instructions for 12 hours. This can be done both before germination and immediately before planting.
Treatment with phytosporin
Now on sale there are biofungicidal preparations Fitosporin and Fitosporin-M, intended to protect a wide variety of plants from bacterial and fungal diseases. They have shown high efficiency and are made of chalk, humate and hay bacillus.
To treat buckets of potato tubers before planting, dissolve 4 tablespoons of the drug in one liter of water.
Watch a video about how to use phytosporin correctly:
Treating with pesticides
Of course, the use of poisons gives the fastest and most reliable effect when treating tubers before planting. There are so many names on store shelves that it is simply impossible to remember them all. But the poison is not completely removed from the plant. When new tubers appear and develop, what we treat them with goes into them. Then, even in small doses, it enters our body. Some of the drugs can worsen the taste of potatoes.
But plants treated with poisons create almost no problems for gardeners, and there are state standards regulating the permissible content of harmful substances in agricultural products.It is up to you to decide whether to treat the tubers with pesticides before planting, but when buying potatoes at the market, remember that along with food you can constantly ingest small doses of poison.
Seed treatment
When growing potatoes by sowing seeds, we get clean planting material, because viruses and diseases accumulate in tubers from year to year. We can get them ourselves or buy a bag of the variety we like in the store. Treating potato seeds before planting is not necessary, but it is better to soak them in humate, epine or phytosporin. Next, they are sown and grown in the same way as tomato seeds.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are many ways to process potato tubers before planting. You can use one of them, or you can combine several. You can use pesticides and not have problems all season, or you can get by with natural preparations and eat environmentally friendly products. It's up to you to decide which product to use.
