Currently, there are many excellent varieties of potatoes of different ripening periods: early, early, mid-ripening, late. Each variety has its own growing characteristics, advantages and distinctive qualities. But in order to preserve the unique properties of root crops and get an excellent crop, you need a quality planting material.
Seed Fund Preparation
It begins in the fall when harvesting potato tubers. It is important to make sure that the prepared parts are cleaned of mechanical impurities and dirt, and the mother tubers are completely removed. Planting material must be free of physical damage and deformed areas, and tubers must be selected in size - too small or too large for planting are not suitable.
Some households practice chopping large potato tubers into several parts to produce more seeds. However, for highly productive crops, this method cannot be recommended. The risk of infection of the culture with bacterial, fungal and viral diseases is too great. They subsequently lead to significant crop losses - up to 80%.
Chemical treatment from pests
Growing planting material of potatoes will be ineffective without chemical treatment with special preparations. Tubers will not produce a large crop if they are affected by diseases and pests. The most common drugs based on thiabendazole and imidazole.
The planting material of the most susceptible to disease varieties is additionally treated with antifungal agents before planting. Special attention is required to protect seed potatoes from viral diseases. The treatment of tubers with insecticides is widely practiced, which begin to protect young plants already during germination. Etching is also effective against the Colorado potato beetle and the ubiquitous aphid.
Biological preparation
Planting potato material sprouts on average about 20-40 days after being placed in the soil. Germination rate and, consequently, harvesting time are affected by both varietal affiliation (early varieties ripen faster) and the effect on tubers of specially applied biological products. They are used to shorten the growing season from about two to four weeks.
The principle of biological preparation is to force the tubers to awaken from hibernation and create healthy sprouts. The main objectives of the biological preparation of seedlings are:
- obtaining the optimal number of sprouts;
- acceleration of plant germination;
- providing an earlier crop with a large size of tubers;
- reduced risk of attack by pests and viral diseases.
Tuber distillation
Seeds and planting material are often subjected to this procedure. Forcing allows you to "wake up" the tubers and form healthy sprouts. The total duration of the process at a suitable temperature of 8-10 ° C is from one to three weeks. The procedure does not require any special equipment and can be implemented at minimal cost even in the case of bulky tubers. Distillation is used in all commercial potato growing lines .
The first option is to place the material under diffused light three weeks before the planned sowing. It is better to build shelving with drawers in advance, to ensure uniform access to light and ventilation. In the case of low outdoor temperatures, it is necessary to protect the tubers from freezing by covering them with spanbond or straw.
The second option is to limit the access of light two weeks before landing. Shelving is similar to how it is done in diffused light, with the only difference being that folded tubers are immediately covered with a dense tarpaulin or dark film. After the planting material “wakes up” (white dots form on the surface of the potatoes), you need to remove the tarp and ventilate the room.
The third option is a gradual increase in temperature in the room where the seed stock is stored. This distillation begins three weeks before planting, the temperature gradually rises to 8 ° C. When the length of the sprouts reaches 1-2 mm (no more than 5 mm), it is necessary to limit a further increase in temperature. Next, keep the standard storage temperature in the room.
Additional growth stimulation
In the first ten days of the process, planting material should be left at a temperature of 8-12 ° C in the dark. After the emergence of sprouts of 3-5 mm in length, it is necessary to start illuminating the tubers 8-12 hours a day and increase the temperature to 12-18 ° C, while the relative humidity should be 80-90%. As a light source, you can use both natural and artificial light or fluorescent lamps. This mode of storage is kept for 20-25 days.
A common mistake made by manufacturers of potato planting material is planting from a warm room directly into the open ground. About a week before planting, the tubers should cool at a temperature of 6-8 ° C, which will avoid temperature stress after planting in cold soil in the spring. For cooling, tubers can be placed in containers in special pallets or in transparent plastic bags with ventilation holes.