Potatoes under straw: how to plant and care for them

Classic agricultural technology for growing potatoes on your own plot includes many stages. You need to prepare the planting material and soil, and put in a lot of effort digging holes, planting the potatoes, then hilling them up, watering, and weeding. Growing potatoes in the ground is extremely labor-intensive, and the results don't always justify the time and effort.

Growing potatoes under straw minimizes manual labor costs and, as practice has shown, yields higher quality than those obtained with traditional agricultural technology.

Description of growing potatoes under straw and hay

Potatoes can be grown under straw or hay. The differences between these mulching materials are as follows:

• Straw is harvested from dried legumes and cereals. It is highly brittle, has a tubular structure, and is highly permeable to vapor and gases. Its color ranges from light yellow to grayish-beige, depending on the crop from which the mulch is obtained.
• Hay, unlike straw, is made from fresh, green grass. Hay contains stems, leaves, and flowers. High-quality hay should retain a subtle floral or herbal aroma, be evenly dried, and have sufficient elasticity and low brittleness.

How to plant potatoes under straw?

The planting process begins with preparing the soil. The soil is dug and thoroughly loosened.

You don't need a shovel to plant potatoes. Instead, use a mattock, hoe, or other similar tool to dig even, parallel rows of trenches. A light layer of manure is usually added to these trenches as fertilizer, after which the sprouted seed potatoes are laid out. It's convenient to plant potatoes in rows at regular intervals, although some farmers prefer a "nested" approach.

The rows of laid potatoes are lightly covered with soil, watered, and covered with a layer of mulch, such as hay or straw. During the summer, the sprouts are watered periodically; this constitutes the main care for potatoes under straw.  Closer to autumn, when it is time to harvest, the tops are removed and the young potatoes are transferred by hand into bags.

Planting potatoes in straw is described step by step below; we recommend familiarizing yourself with the nuances.

Advantages and disadvantages of this method of cultivation

Potatoes under straw: main positive qualities.

1. High landing speed.
2. Minimum labor costs during planting and harvesting.
3. There's no pressing need to control weeds. Only bindweed can grow through the straw, and it doesn't harm the crop.
4. Potatoes under hay do not rot or rot.
5. No need to use chemicals. Colorado potato beetles and late blight do not appear on the foliage.
6. The quality and volume of the harvest is higher than when planting potatoes in soil without straw.
7. In warm regions where winter temperatures remain above freezing, multiple harvests can be made in a single year. However, during the winter months, the straw layer should be increased to 50 cm.
8. There's no chance of piercing the tubers with a shovel and ruining them. Harvesting is done by hand. Potatoes grown under hay grow to be exceptionally clean.
9. Straw and hay can be reused if, after growing potatoes, they are collected in bags and stored in a dry barn until the next gardening season.
10. If you don't remove hay and straw, but leave it in the soil, you'll get good fertilizer.
11. This is relevant for infertile clay soils, their structure is noticeably improved.
12. This method is suitable for dry, hot regions. Under a layer of straw, the soil does not overheat and maintains optimal moisture.

Planting potatoes under straw has several disadvantages, namely:

• It can be difficult to find hay or straw in sufficient quantities. In this case, farmers additionally use cardboard, sawdust, and crop tops;
• Mice and moles can damage crops. But there's a solution to this problem: plant a few bushes of black root (or rat-killer, or dog's tongue) around the edges of your plot to repel these unwanted guests.
• dense, compacted straw is not suitable for use, it will be difficult for sprouts to break through, and problems with gas exchange may arise;
• If you lay the straw too thinly, the soil underneath will overheat and dry out, the potatoes under the hay will simply not grow, but the weeds will vigorously push their way towards the light;
• Too thick a layer of hay or straw will not allow the soil to warm up sufficiently and will hinder the growth of potato stems.

Potatoes: Growing in Straw and Hay

Let's look at the step-by-step process of growing potatoes in straw.

Step 1: Preparing the Soil

Potatoes are sun-loving plants. It's best to choose a well-lit, open area for growing them. Otherwise, the tops will stretch, the leaves will turn yellow, and the tubers will be small.

Soil preparation traditionally begins in the fall. During this period, the soil is dug to a depth of a shovel without loosening or leveling. Weed roots and beetle larvae are removed from the soil at this time.

In spring, when the soil warms up to 10°C, mineral and organic fertilizers are added to the dug soil.

Table: Organic fertilizers for different soil types

Table. Mineral fertilizers per 1 sq. m.

After applying fertilizer, the area to be planted is leveled with a rake. Trenches for planting tubers are dug with a hoe or a Fokin flat cutter.

Fertilizers can be applied directly to the area where the tubers will be placed, rather than scattered. The following can be used for fertilization:

• peat or humus - one glass each;
• ash – 1 tbsp. spoon;
• superphosphate – 1 teaspoon. spoon.

Fertilizers are mixed with soil to a depth of 10 cm.

Step 2. Preparing tubers for planting

Preparation begins with culling the seed material. A richer harvest is obtained from tubers weighing over 100 g. Tubers weighing 40 to 60 g are suitable for planting. Small tubers are best avoided.

The sprouting of tubers is carried out in well-lit rooms at room temperature and with sufficient ventilation.

1. The selected tubers are strung on wire and hung in front of a window until sprouts appear. Avoid exposing seed potatoes to direct sunlight.
2. The potatoes are packaged in small, transparent, perforated plastic bags. The bags can be tied with string or twine. During the sprouting process, the bags are turned over several times. The sprouted potatoes are transported in these same bags, placed in any rigid container of suitable capacity.

What to do if you didn’t manage to sprout the tubers?

In this case, the potatoes are wilted for 8-10 days. The tubers are spread in a layer up to 10 cm thick in a bright, heated, ventilated room. The tubers will not sprout, but the eyes will become viable, which will have a positive effect on germination and yield.

Step 3. Planting conditions

To avoid constantly measuring soil warming while waiting for the right time to plant potatoes in hay, you can use air temperature as a guide. Frosts with temperatures dropping to -3°C kill the sprouts. The optimal average daily temperature for planting is +15°C. Gardeners typically plant tubers between May 5th and 10th.

It's best to choose a sunny, sunny day for planting, and plant in moderately moist soil. If the soil is too wet, there's a high risk of rot and disease.

Step 4. Planting technology

How to plant potatoes under straw? Place the tubers, sprout-side down, one at a time in prepared furrows. Space the tubers 20-40 cm apart. The furrows can be up to 70 cm apart. Lightly cover the tubers with soil. Top with a 15 cm layer of straw.

To prevent the straw from flying away in gusts of wind, you can sprinkle a little earth on top of it.

Step 5. Potatoes in straw: growing and care

In dry weather, watering is necessary. For convenience, you can use drip tapes or evenly water the crops manually with a hose. Direct the stream at the roots, avoiding wetting the flowers and leaves.

When the stems reach a height of 25-30 cm, you can mound them with straw. If the tubers are exposed to direct sunlight, they may turn green.

Step 6. Harvesting

The harvest begins when the tops begin to dry out. On average, potatoes grow in hay for 12 weeks. The tops can be mown down 1-2 weeks before harvesting, but this is not necessary. The tubers do not need to be dug up; they are stored under hay. Some tubers can be covered with soil.

It is recommended to store the harvest in perforated bags to prevent the potatoes from becoming damp or rotting during storage.

Each agronomist decides for himself what to do with the hay—leave it to fertilize the soil or stack it and put it away until next spring.

Using a minimum amount of straw

Potatoes under hay and straw: growing methods require the use of large amounts of mulch. This is beneficial if there are meadows and fields nearby, but straw is often a scarce resource for gardeners.

Where can I get straw? The answer is simple: grow it yourself.

1. Determine the boundaries of the area where the potatoes will be grown. Divide the field in half.
2. Prepare vetch, pea, and oat seeds. Mix them together and plant them in the soil (on one half of the plot) once the snow melts.
3. Potatoes can be planted in the half of the area where plant seeds were not sown using the classic method.
4. Once the sown potatoes have grown and dried out, there's no need to pull them up. Plant them directly among the stems. Decide how to plant potatoes under straw based on personal preference. For example, you can form "nests" from some of the stems and plant the tubers in the center, then cover the crops with the remaining hay.
5. In the second half of the field, when the potato crop has been dug up, vetch and oats should be sown in the same way.

Another straw-saving option is to form ridges of soil 10 cm high and 20 cm wide. A layer of mulch is added on top of the ridges. However, this will require much less mulch.

Cardboard and straw as an alternative growing method

Table: How to plant potatoes under straw or hay without burying them.

Growing potatoes in straw using cardboard allows you to effortlessly produce clean, large potatoes that are also environmentally friendly.

Reviews

Irina Sh.

I've been wanting to plant potatoes under straw for a long time: I read positive reviews and studied the technology.

Planting potatoes under hay pleasantly surprised me with the results. In the summer, I planted potatoes in holes and under hay. The hay yielded 3.5 times more potatoes, there were few weeds, and beetles didn't bother me. In the area where the tubers were planted in holes, there were many small potatoes, cracked from the heat. I had to hill them up five times and fight Colorado potato beetles.

Alexey K.

I highly recommend growing potatoes under straw. However, it's best not to use hay, as the grass loses seeds, and the following summer, too much grass grows. When wet, hay compacts and rots. Straw, on the other hand, is a breathable, porous material. I also recommend filling the spaces between the rows with wood shavings and sawdust. It's convenient, clean, and beautiful.

To get a bountiful harvest in the fall, you need to carefully prepare the soil and learn how to plant potatoes under straw correctly. By following all the details, you'll get up to one bucket of potatoes per plant, visiting your garden plot just a few times over the summer.

Alexander B.

Growing potatoes under straw is an excellent method: it's worth reading reviews to avoid repeating others' mistakes. We still get frosts after June 17th. I also cover the potatoes with a thick layer of hay, then rake it onto the paths. This has saved my harvest more than once.

Larisa S.

I'm an experienced gardener. I recently learned how to grow potatoes under straw. I decided to give it a try. But the summer was rainy, and slugs nearly ruined the harvest. I had to collect them in a can of gasoline.

Nikolay P.

I had a wonderful potato crop under straw this year: I learned how to plant it online. I ran into problems with the straw blowing around in the wind, so I had to cover it with boards, and then I drove in stakes and stretched a soft net.