Soil preparation for potatoes in spring

Potato is the most important and consumed product after bread in modern Russia. It is of great importance in ensuring food security for our country. An ordinary root crop has a lot of advantages, the main of which is a long shelf life, subject to the necessary conditions. This allows you to use potatoes for food all year round. Growing a vegetable is a serious science, where domestic agronomists and gardeners have achieved unsurpassed results. For the industrial cultivation and storage of potatoes, yield and reliable storage conditions are fundamentally important. Scientists and ordinary summer residents work daily to improve these qualities. Thanks to them, new improved root crop varieties are constantly appearing on the market. However, proper soil preparation for potatoes in the spring is required, otherwise all efforts to store and breed improved varieties are easily nullified. Here we will consider the methods and rules for caring for the land intended for planting this vegetable crop.

General information about culture

Potato (Solanum tuberosum) is a perennial in nature, but annual when cultivated, herbaceous plant, with a bush height of up to 65 cm. Rod, with a developed root system. Roots are white. At their ends, tubers are formed, which are used for food. The stem is erect, the bush is sprawling. When planting, a certain depth for potatoes is required - 30 cm.

Potato

The leaves are dissected, with three or four leaflets. Flowers - white or purple, depending on the variety, are collected in inflorescences. Fruits in the form of dark purple berries are poisonous. Seeds are small, yellow. The color of edible tubers is different: white, purple, red and yellow.

Start of spring processing

First you need to determine which types of soil are suitable for growing crops and which are not. Heavy soils with a high content of clay are categorically not suitable. They have a lot of moisture and, despite all the tricks, the fruits will not grow here. Also, the area where water can roll is not suitable. The most comfortable for potatoes will be light, sandy, as loose soil as possible. Excellent soil with a high content of peat or black soil. Thus, for planting it is necessary to choose a dry site. In the case of only excessively acidic soil or soil with clay, it can also be processed to obtain an acceptable harvest in the fall. To do this, use wood ash, sand, manure, compost.

If the selected site meets all the main conditions, proper tillage is necessary before planting potatoes to get a rich harvest.

Potato

So, what requirements must be met to get a great harvest:

Good seed treatment before planting;
Good yield of the variety;
The correct composition of the soil;
Sufficient care.

Loosening the earth in spring

How to prepare the soil for potatoes in spring? The first step to getting a rich potato crop is the thorough preparation of the land in order to plant the tubers. With the onset of spring, the soil is loosened. It is advisable to avoid the turnover of the earth and make sure that there was no rain the day before. For sandy soils, the soil is loosened to a depth of about 15 cm. In the presence of clay and excessive moisture, a double digging of the prepared area is required to the depth of a shovel bayonet and crushing clods of earth with a rake. These actions are carried out to enrich the soil with oxygen and remove excess water from it.

The readiness of the site for planting potato seed in the spring is one of the most important, fundamental guarantees of obtaining a rich and tasty harvest in the fall. The method of growing this vegetable crop also depends on the type of land.

Important! Aeration is the maximum loosening of the earth, leaving wide gaps between rows. At the same time, the seeds themselves are planted in specially prepared ridges. With the help of these simple actions, the earth will be well and constantly enriched with oxygen from the environment.

Land with a high content of sand naturally fills with oxygen, so it is not necessary to plan for enrichment with ridges. Thus, the method of planting depends on the type of soil.

Correct landing rules

The soil is ready for planting. Now you need to do the preparation of the seeds themselves. The root crop must be placed not only in carefully prepared, but also in well-warmed and dried soil. Otherwise, the tubers may freeze or rot. Plant both whole potatoes and divided ones. Before planting, it is necessary to sort out the tubers and get rid of rotten or diseased specimens. Potatoes should look healthy and be without flaws. The best seed material is tubers, weighing 50-90 g. Before planting, root crops must be properly processed and dried. In case of shortage of planting material, it is allowed to divide whole potatoes into several parts. The main thing is that each part has germinated processes. The division is made right before landing.

Important! Potatoes like having lots of oxygen in the ground. The main way to enrich the soil with oxygen is digging and loosening. This procedure is performed twice a year: in spring, immediately before planting, and in autumn, immediately after harvesting and clearing the land of old grass.

Now we need to consider how to prepare the soil in the fall after harvest.

Autumn preparation

Autumn preparation of land for potatoes is significantly different from spring. To begin with, the bed is dug up with wrapping all the layers. Plow should be to the depth of a bayonet shovel (about 30 cm). After plowing, in no case should the earth be leveled with a rake. It is necessary that all harmful organisms and roots of weeds do not survive the winter. Land leveling is done exclusively in the spring immediately before planting. In autumn, organic fertilizers must be applied to the soil. During the period of rains and spring snowmelt, they will dissolve and completely soak into the ground.

Also in the fall, compost fertilizers are applied to improve the future harvest. They are harvested throughout the spring-summer period. Compost is placed directly into the furrows and sprinkled with earth. Together with the compost, manure and coal are added.

If it was not possible to fertilize the soil in the fall, it is allowed to carry out all these actions in the spring. However, autumn fertilization of the land is most effective and shows the best results.

Growing Rules

So, it is necessary to summarize all the stages and rules for obtaining a rich harvest of tasty young and crumbly potatoes:

Motorized landing

Recently, gardeners have begun to use motor cultivators, motor blocks and mini-tractors for plowing the soil and planting potatoes. With the help of these machines, the soil is prepared in the spring for planting potatoes. It is very convenient to plow the ground on them. Next after plowing, when do you need to plant potatoes? Planted almost immediately. In addition, if there is a plow, potatoes are planted with its help. This is done by two people. One person controls the cultivator, the second lays out the tubers. The depth of plowing with a plow for potatoes is set equal to 30 cm.

Mini-tractors are used in small farms for plowing. It takes significantly less time to plow the land for planting than if you do it manually.

Diseases, pests and control methods

Phytophthora is very important for growing potatoes. The plant can be affected by 23 types of viruses, 6 types of bacteria, 9 - aphids and 119 - other insect pests, 68 - worms and about 40 types of fungi. Here are some of them: