When it's time to dig potatoes: the optimal time for harvesting and harvesting for storage
Gardeners who grow potatoes know how important it is to harvest tubers on time. If this is done too early or too late, some production will be lost. Meanwhile, the optimal time when it is already possible to dig potatoes does not depend on a specific date. Many factors can influence them. Let's understand together what needs to be considered in order to start work.
The timing of harvesting and its preservation in winter are interconnected. If the tubers were not dug up at the right time, they will not store well, and stocks will not last until spring. The taste of tubers will also suffer, as well as their nutritional value will decrease.
Early harvesting of potatoes will not allow the tubers to fully ripen “on the bush”. They do not form a dense, strong peel, and the pulp will not contain the right amount of starch and other useful substances. Such tubers are easily damaged during digging, and when stored in the basement, they rot or dry.
In addition, gardeners who are in a hurry to remove potatoes from the garden ahead of time run the risk of getting a crop of tubers much less than it would be if the deadlines were met. Small potatoes can still grow if given the opportunity.
No less problems arise when harvesting tubers later than the optimal time. First, it is connected with certain inconveniences. The tops by this time, as a rule, are already not visible. She either dried up or rotted. The gardener will have to look for bushes intuitively. It is so easy to damage part of the crop with a pitchfork, shovel or machinery.
In addition, it will be necessary to dig potatoes for winter storage with a high degree of probability in rainy weather, which is also not good. Being in damp ground for a long time, mature potatoes will turn out watery and not tasty. It is more susceptible to disease damage, can produce new shoots. Such tubers are no longer suitable for seeds, and they will be bad in the cellar. Potatoes of early varieties can lose moisture and become soft in dry soil.
The optimal time for harvesting potatoes, depending on various factors
You can harvest early potatoes from the end of July. However, it is only suitable for quick consumption or sale. Tubers of later varieties, which are suitable for winter storage (the ripening period should be approximately 110-115 days), are usually dug later: from early to late September.
Experienced gardeners determine the start time of work on several grounds at once. In order not to be mistaken in the timing of harvesting potatoes, they take into account its varietal affiliation, weather and climatic conditions, and the characteristics of growing the product.
Varieties
You can determine when it's time to dig potatoes, focusing on the following numbers. The tubers are fully ripe and ready for harvest:
- very early varieties - 35-55 days after germination;
- early varieties - after 55-75 days;
- mid-early and mid-season varieties - after 75-90 and 90-105 days;
- medium-late and late varieties - after 105-120 and 120-140 days, respectively.
Knowing the time of planting the tubers, and when the sprouts appeared, it is easy to calculate the approximate date of collection. However, the actual ripening period of potatoes can be reduced or increased depending on a number of reasons: temperature, rainfall, the presence or absence of additional irrigation, fertilization. But, in any case, tubers for winter storage should be dug up before the onset of frost.
Growing region
All gardeners harvest potatoes at different times, although they may grow the same variety. It all depends on the region in which the potato grows. Before everyone else, they start harvesting tubers for storage in the south of the country. It is warm and dry here, potatoes ripen quickly, so they are ready for digging as early as the end of July. Basically, it is removed from the beds in early August.
In central Russia, potatoes are dug up from the middle of the last summer month to mid-September. But for gardeners in Siberia and the Urals, the optimal time for harvesting is August. In rare cases, work may be delayed until early September.
Weather
When the ripening period of the cultivated potato variety comes to an end, the gardener needs to carefully monitor the weather forecast. To keep the tubers well, it is better to harvest them in sunny and dry weather. This will allow you to get clean tubers with the optimal amount of moisture, spend a minimum of effort during the harvesting process, and with large planting areas it is easier to prepare the crop for storage.
Digging potatoes in wet weather is not advisable. Unless there is no other way out, but this rarely happens. On the other hand, it’s not worth waiting until the weather “gets better”. Tubers can sit out in the ground, which will affect their keeping quality. If the forecasters are predicting prolonged rains, it is better to dig up the potatoes a little earlier. He matures a little.
Harvest Ready Signs
Experienced gardeners know that it is possible to understand when it is time to harvest with a certain accuracy, guided by the appearance of the plants. If the tops drooped, began to turn yellow at the bottom, and then wither and dry, the tubers in the ground were already ripe. For reliability, you can dig a few bushes and check the quality of the product. Mature potatoes should have a dense, strong skin that can only be cut with a knife.
In some modern varieties of potatoes, the tops remain green even after the tubers ripen. When growing them, you need to know this feature in advance and check the readiness of the crop for harvesting, focusing on the timing determined for them by breeders. If potatoes lay seeds after flowering, you can check them for maturity. Usually, both the "top" and "bottom" on the bush ripen at the same time.
Cleaning methods
How to dig potatoes, each gardener chooses independently. This can be done with hand garden tools, as well as with the help of machinery. A fork or shovel is suitable for cleaning small household beds. They have their pros and cons. Forks come in handy if the ground is heavy or wet. In this case, they are easier to work with than a wide shovel. But at the same time, the tubers damaged by the pitchfork will have to be eaten immediately, they will not be stored.
A potato shovel is ideal in dry weather and on light sandy soils. But she has to dig under the bushes carefully so as not to cut the potatoes. Especially a lot of marriage when working with a shovel happens in seasons when the harvest is especially generous. However, sections on tubers after cuts with a shovel quickly dry out and heal. Such potatoes can be stored for some time.
The harvesting process itself is not difficult. The bushes in a row are alternately digged with a pitchfork or a shovel, a potato bush is lifted by the tops and the tubers are removed from it. Then they check the hole for the presence of specimens remaining in the ground. Next prepare the potatoes for storage. The tops are burned.
But, picking potatoes over large areas, digging them up with a pitchfork or a shovel, is tedious, difficult and not cost-effective. Besides, it's long. This will require the involvement of many people in the work, which is not always possible. The only way out is to use technology. When harvesting potatoes with a walk-behind tractor, everything can be done in 1-2 days.
To quickly dig up the tubers, prepare the area in advance for the operation of the unit. To do this, the tops, as well as the existing weeds on the site, are pre-mowed. Cutting green mass is also resorted to when plantings are affected by late blight and to accelerate the ripening of tubers in unfavorable seasons. Work in this case is carried out 2-3 weeks before harvesting by machine.
They dig potatoes with a walk-behind tractor equipped with a potato digger, a plow (on heavy clay, damp soils), and a hiller. In order not to lose the crop and facilitate the collection of tubers, they make passes through the row. Naturally, for such work, a potato field should be planted under a walk-behind tractor.
Preparing potatoes for storage
The tubers dug out of the ground are first dried before being stored. In dry sunny weather, they do it right on the beds. Potatoes need no more than two hours for this procedure. If you keep it in the sun longer, it may turn green. However, for seed potatoes, which are selected during harvesting from the most abundantly fruiting bushes, this is not a problem.
When it is necessary to harvest potatoes before rains, they dry the crop under a well-ventilated canopy. Next, the tubers are sorted out. Cut and damaged by pests and diseases, specimens are tried to be set aside separately even during digging. Next, the potatoes are sorted into fractions and stacked for about 2 weeks in a dark room (diseases will appear during this period). Having again sorted out the tubers, it will already be possible to fall asleep in a specially equipped cellar compartment. Seed potatoes are kept separate from what will be eaten. Bookmark in the storage and cooling of potatoes for winter storage is carried out as soon as possible.
