How to plant potatoes correctly to get a good harvest

Today, we'll look at how to properly plant potatoes to ensure a good harvest. The very first thing to do is select good tubers for planting in the fall. Experienced gardeners usually do it this way: when the potato plants begin to grow, they select the best and strongest ones and mark them with stakes. Then, they save some of these tubers for planting. There's no need to try to choose the largest tubers; potatoes about 5 cm in size are just right.

Next, in the fall, you need to prepare the bed where you'll plant your potatoes in the spring. Add fertilizer, dig it over, and the bed will be ready for planting in the spring. Apply the following per square meter:

• Ammonium nitrate in the amount of 13 g (can be replaced with urea in the amount of 10 g)
• Potassium salt in the same quantity
• Superphosphate – 15g.

Read it, How to fertilize potatoes for a better harvest in detail.
We selected the planting material in the fall, fertilized the bed - that's it, we're ready for planting in the spring.

Adviсe:
• Change planting material every 4-5 years
• Change the potato bed every 2-3 years

Planting potatoes with a shovel

Spring has arrived, and it's time to plant potatoes, which should be done by the end of April. If your neighbors planted theirs earlier and you're worried about being late, remember that planting tubers in cold soil is pointless; they'll only waste a lot of energy germinating in unheated soil. Your neighbor's harvest is unlikely to be better than yours if you wait until the soil warms to at least 12 degrees Celsius (54 degrees Fahrenheit) before planting.
The most common way to grow potatoes is with a spade. Traditionally, the soil is dug into neat rows (some particularly zealous gardeners even use stakes and string to ensure the rows are perfectly straight. Well, that's only if you're completely visually impaired; otherwise, it's just unnecessary effort).

Holes are dug at least 40 cm apart, with 80-90 cm between rows recommended to ensure good ventilation and ease of hilling. The larger the tubers planted, the wider the rows should be. Read more. What distance should be left between potato rows?.

Fertilizer is added to the holes. It's best to treat the potatoes with a weak solution of potassium permanganate and sprinkle ash into the holes; this will help protect them from pests and diseases. Once the potatoes are planted, the next steps are hilling, watering, and weeding.

Planting under straw

If you don't want to bother with all the weeding and watering, you can plant potatoes under hay or straw. This has a number of advantages and disadvantages, the only real one being where to get enough straw. Everything else is pros. So, let's take a closer look at how this process works.

You can simply spread the potatoes out on the plot, sprinkle them with fertilizer, and cover them with a blanket of straw. It should be quite warm—about half a meter high. Once covered, you can forget about them until harvest. It's a very labor-efficient method. In the fall, rake away the straw and harvest the potatoes. Read more: Growing potatoes wisely without weeding or hilling.

Planting potatoes under a walk-behind tractor

If you've acquired a large plot for growing vegetables, you'll definitely need a walk-behind tractor. Such a machine will save you significant effort and time. Using a walk-behind tractor, you can plant potatoes quickly and easily in two ways.

The first is to simply make furrows with a walk-behind tractor, turning the wheel at the end of the furrow to create even rows at the desired distance. Then scatter the potatoes and cover them with the walk-behind tractor. Tip: use metal wheels when making furrows, and switch to rubber ones when you're ready to cover the furrows.

The second method is to use a special potato planting attachment. It's convenient—the tiller goes in, makes a hole at regular intervals, drops the potatoes, and covers them with soil. It can even add fertilizer. Using the same unit and various attachments, you can hill up the potatoes (manually, this is a labor-intensive process, especially on large plots) and harvest the crop.

Preparing potatoes for planting

Now that we've covered all the planting methods, site preparation, and seeding materials, we need to focus on the most important thing: how to prepare potatoes for planting. This is crucial for the future harvest, and if this step is done correctly, you'll be guaranteed a bountiful harvest.

About a month before you plan to plant your potatoes, begin sprouting them. Do this in a bright room, but out of direct sunlight. Make a solution of potassium permanganate in a large container. Collect the potatoes in a mesh bag, dip them in the solution, hold them there for a while, let the water drain, dry them, and arrange them in boxes, preferably in a single layer, or two at most. After a couple of weeks, move the boxes with the potatoes that have already begun sprouting to a darker place with a cooler temperature. Otherwise, they'll grow too much, which is not what you want—sprouts of 1.5-2 cm are ideal.

It would be good to turn the potatoes over and spray them with solutions, alternating:

• Mineral fertilizers
• Plain water
• Ash dissolved in water.

You don't have to do all these steps, but if you want to increase your yield and protect your tubers from disease, you should. You can also simply dissolve 20g of boric acid in a bucket of water before planting, dip the potato baskets in the solution for a few seconds, and then plant. This will create a protective film on the tubers and help preserve the harvest.

Read more: Tomatoes in a polycarbonate greenhouse: planting and care.

Using chopped potatoes

To save on seed potatoes, or if your tubers are too large, you can cut them into pieces, leaving 1-2 sprouts per piece, and plant them like full-sized potatoes. These pieces often produce a good harvest; you just need to use a few tricks.

If you cut potatoes, especially store-bought ones, disinfect the knife regularly by dipping it in a dark solution of potassium permanganate. This will prevent the spread of diseases from other, possibly infected, root vegetables. After cutting, lightly dry the potatoes in the sun and dust them with ash.

You can only plant these cut potatoes in warm weather—in cold and rainy weather, your cut potatoes will likely rot and you won't get a harvest. Place the potatoes in the holes with the cut side down, with the sprouts facing the sun. Have a good harvest!