There is no agrarian who does not dream of getting a high yield from his fields and beds. It doesn’t matter what grows there - tomatoes, cabbage or radish, the main thing is that there are a lot of it. This is especially true for potatoes, because it forms the basis of the diet of most people. So agronomists come up with different ways of planting one tuber and collecting half a bucket.
Now many have begun to practice growing potatoes according to Dutch technology, which promises to receive a crop of 2 kg and above from each bush. There is nothing radically new in it. Many of our farmers have long cultivated this culture in this way, not knowing that it is overseas. However, for some Russians this method may be a curiosity.
The Dutch, famous for their unique tulips, came up with something interesting for potatoes. Their method is complex. In the process of growing potatoes according to Dutch technology, it is necessary not only to plant the tubers correctly, but also to observe other conditions regarding the selection of seed, watering, fertilizer, pest control, and harvesting. Each of these points is important. You can get a decent crop using Dutch technology if all the recommendations for cultivation are met. Let's consider them in more detail.
Seed material
There is a wonderful Russian proverb: "What you sow, you will gather." To potato cultivation by any technology, this is most directly related. Zealous owners begin to harvest planting material at the time of harvest. Strong healthy tubers are selected for this purpose. Their size should be neither large nor small. The average weight of the nodules for planting should be within 70 g.
They are immediately put in separate boxes with numerous openings, exposed to the sun so that it provides protection against various diseases, and lowered into the cellar. In spring, potato tubers are placed in a warm place so that the eyes begin to sprout. It is believed that their optimal size before planting should be 2 cm. If you have sprouts turned out longer, it does not matter. They will also give good shoots, they just need to be put into the holes more accurately.
Before planting, tubers should be treated with the drug Prestige and Fitosporin-M against diseases and pests. The Dutch advise to plant only elite varieties, including Cleopatra, Asterix, Sante, Rezi. If there is an opportunity to get them - good. If not, you can get by with your proven ones.
Field or bed
Potato cultivation according to Dutch technology is focused on large areas, but this method can be safely applied on our classic six hundredths. The difference will only consist in the mechanisms and tools that will be used. In the fields, these are tractors, harrows, cultivators. In the country - a shovel, hoe, hands. Everything else has no fundamental differences.
First landing preparation
It starts in the fall. The Dutch advise to observe the crop rotation regime, that is, do not plant potatoes in the same place every year. If it is possible to change the place of plantations and cultivate, for example, onions in the first year on the site, sow cereals there in the second year, and plant potatoes in the third year is excellent. But not everyone has such an opportunity. Nothing wrong. You just need to properly prepare the soil. To do this, after collecting potatoes on the site, you must sow mustard, and when it enters the flowering phase, smell it. This wonderful plant will kill many pathogenic microbes in the soil, plus it fertilizes. In addition to mustard, the earth can be cultivated with copper sulfate. Before that, you need to remove all the remaining leaves and weeds, because many viruses, fungi and bacteria can get into them for the winter.
In winter, the bed needs to be dug up, and the field is plowed with a tractor. It is very useful during this period to make compost or last year's manure (a bucket of 20 m 2 ) in the ground. It is also nice to scatter complex mineral fertilizers and wood ash across the field.
Second landing preparation
It is held in the spring, as soon as the sun dries the field so that the earth ceases to stick to its feet. Soil preparation in the spring consists of drawing it with a rake or a cultivating cutter. This action allows you to protect the earth from drying out and enriches it with oxygen. In the process of drawing, weeds can be removed. This will delay their rivalry with the sprouted potatoes. Some farmers advise spring fertilizing the ground with urea. A good alternative is nitroammophosk.
Landing time
It is impossible to name a single date suitable for all regions of the country, because somewhere warm weather is already set in March, and somewhere in April it is still quite cool. The main guideline when to start planting potatoes is the degree of heating of the earth. It should be warm enough at a depth of at least 8-10 cm. Of course, you can throw the sprouted tubers of potatoes into the frozen ground. Nothing worse than the fact that they will sit there, waiting for warming, will not happen. If you hurry up and plant the potatoes too early, the tubers may start to hurt and the sprouts will not appear at all.
Another danger of haste is return frosts. They can spoil the young tops, which will also negatively affect the harvest. Some farmers advise checking the readiness of the soil by throwing an earthen breast on a hard surface. If it crumbles, then it's time.
If you, in spite of everything, really want to plant potatoes before everyone else, cover the ground with agrofibre. For cottages of six hundred square meters, this is quite acceptable, since not much covering material is required.
Rows and grooves
Potato cultivation according to Dutch technology is based on providing plants with air, heat and light. Therefore, you must strictly observe the distance between the furrows and plants in a row. The scheme for planting potatoes according to Dutch technology looks like this: between furrows you need to maintain a distance of 65 to 75 cm, and between tubers in a row - about 30 cm. In thickened plantings, the plants will not have enough sun and their tubers will not receive heat. In addition, if the potatoes are planted too densely, it complicates the processing of plants during the growing season.
Landing process
Farmers in many countries are trying to come up with something new in the cultivation of potatoes. The Chinese, for example, are advised to bury it in the ground for half a meter. Using this technology, they predict a crop of more than 2 kg from a bush. The Dutch took a different path and, one might say, do not plant tubers, but sow. Planting potatoes according to Dutch technology should be carried out in furrows with a depth of only 4 cm (maximum 8 cm). This is especially convenient for farmers who occupy large areas for this crop. In a small private economy, it is more convenient to make such grooves not with a shovel, but with a chopper.
Having spread the planting material in rows, you need to immediately carry out the first hilling, that is, build an earthen shaft up to 10 cm high above the tubers. The width of the shaft at the base should be around 35 cm.
Further care
The potato will sprout for about a week or two. Timing depends on weather conditions, on the size of the sprouts and on the depth of planting. Ideally, if after the completion of the process the rain passes. According to the Dutch technology of potato cultivation, the second hilling is required to be carried out a month after the emergence of seedlings. In this case, the hill should be 25 cm high and 75 cm wide at the base. It turns out that the potato tubers grow and ripen in these hills.
It is harmless for the formation of the crop to sprinkle seedlings with earth a week or two after they appear from the ground. So you can save potatoes from unexpectedly returning frosts and from crawling across the field in search of food for Colorado beetles that wintered in the ground and got out into the light of day with the first warm rays of the sun. Covering the seedlings with earth, you can treat the weeds in the aisles with the appropriate chemicals. However, many farmers try not to use chemistry again and remove weeds with their hands. If you still decide to fight sow thistle and other pests with the help of herbicides, you should pay attention to Titus, Centurion, Zellek super, Lazurit, or others that quickly decay in the soil.
How to water
The agrarians do not have a single opinion about the irrigation of potatoes. Some insist that the culture needs to be given a lot of water so that more tubers are tied. Others delegate watering to nature - how many times during the growing season the rain will go, so much will be. Growing potatoes according to Dutch technology involves only three waterings:
- Before flowering.
- 10-14 days after the buds fall.
- 3 weeks after the second watering.
It is believed that before flowering, water helps the growth of a strong bush. The second watering ensures the setting of potatoes, and the third helps them to grow in size.
Perhaps this is ideal for the Dutch, because in their country the summer, frankly, is not hot, and the rains drizzle almost daily. For our southern regions, where the temperature in the summer in the shade is +30 ° , and sometimes even reaches +45 ° in the sun, this irrigation scheme is very doubtful. Some farmers report cases when tubers literally baked in the ground. Therefore, irrigation even with the Dutch technology of growing potatoes in the country or in the farm should be focused on the climatic conditions of the area.
It is important to remember that after the rain, and after watering, the earth around the potato bushes must be loosened. In this way, air will be delivered to the potato tubers.
Since the Dutch growing technology involves the construction of a decent hill of land around each bush so that it does not creep, it is advisable to make drop watering.
Pest control
For potatoes, the main enemy is the Colorado potato beetle. Processing of tubers “Prestige” partly helps to save the crop from it. Beetles do not feast on such potatoes, and having tasted its leaves, they fall dead. However, farmers have questions about the environmental friendliness of the crop after such processing. Many people prefer not to experiment with tubers, but to spray plants with insecticides in the old way. Doing this is allowed only until the buds are formed. There are a great many drugs. You can choose by price, and by the number of treatments, and by the chemical consumption per hundred square meters.
If your potato bed is very small, you can pick the beetles by hand. This is a troublesome business, but in the end, the harvest will be 100% environmentally friendly.
The second potato pest is wireworm. If the Colorado potato beetle has leaves, then this one eats tubers, gnawing intricate moves in them. The wireworm is the larva of a small nutcracker bug.
You can fight wireworms with crop rotation. As you know, he avoids the soil on which legumes grew. Mustard can also help expel him from the site. Entomologists have found that wireworms damage potatoes that are not watered more. In this case, they take moisture not from the soil, but from tubers. Here is another reason why three-time watering per season is in doubt.
Larvae and fertilizers are scared away, for example, ammonium sulfate, ammonium nitrate. They are introduced into the soil during the second preparation for planting.
The same Prestige, as well as the Aktara drug, will help save the harvest from the wireworm.
Harvesting
To make sure that you have applied the high-yielding method of growing potatoes according to Dutch technology, you need to wait for the summer. Harvesting potatoes will show how effective it is. There is no exact date when to start digging up tubers. You need to navigate as the tops. If it turns yellow, and the bush begins to decay, then it is time to prepare for the harvest. The Dutch advise about 2 weeks before the start of the process to spray the tops with Basta or Reglon Super. This method can be recommended to farmers. In a small area, it is better to just mow the tops. As a result of this procedure, the peel of the tubers will become denser, which will increase the safety of the crop.
Reviews
Opinions vary regarding Dutch potato cultivation. Farmers living in central Russia are mostly satisfied with this method, since it fully justifies itself. In large farms, all processes are mechanized. Cultivation according to Dutch technology is very convenient, since the ridges are made using machines, and wide aisles simplify both the processing of bushes and the passage of equipment.
Owners of small farms are also happy with the method. Here, one of the advantages of the technology is that it is easier to dig potatoes from the ridges.
But farmers in the southern regions are trying not to use this method, since it is not suitable due to weather conditions. In case of great heat, watering the plantings is necessary more often. This is facilitated not only by the generous sun, but also by the fact that in the ridges of loose earth the tubers are heated more.
If there is no drip irrigation, irrigation of the soil in the classical way helps to erode the ridges. To restore them, additional labor is required.