Potato yield, of course, depends on the soil and variety. Fertilizers alone are often not enough, since it is possible to collect 5 buckets of potatoes from one bush only using modern technologies. If this is your first time developing a plot, it is possible that the harvest will please you in the fall, but in the future the number of harvested potatoes will decrease.
How to grow a bucket of potatoes from one bush?
What is difficult in growing potatoes? Having dug up a large area, we generously fertilize it with manure. Now we plant good and large potatoes in the ground. With this method, we usually grow a bucket of potatoes per square meter and consider it sufficient. If we discard spoiled and diseased tubers, then in the remainder we get a very disappointing figure. Continuing to work the old fashioned way, we break our backs to eat our potatoes only at the end of summer - the beginning of autumn. Meanwhile, a bucket of potatoes from a bush is a completely common thing. Harvest may be more. There are several ways to significantly increase it.
What does yield depend on?
First, let's figure out what affects the final result. Of course, we need to take into account some nuances:
- The larger the potatoes, the higher the yield.
- The more root crops are planted, the more promising the potential crop.
- We need a healthy, undamaged potato - the less waste, the better.
- It is important to wait a certain time for the harvest. The number of potatoes can be large, but part of it is peas, while other root crops can be quite ripe. It is important that all potatoes have time to grow.
How to ensure each of these conditions, we will analyze in more detail.
Potato sizes
There are specially bred large-fruited varieties. For instance:
- Idaho potatoes can be found in fast food restaurants. This variety gives perfectly even, elongated and fairly large tubers. It has an atypical taste, which is why restaurant potatoes are very different from homemade food. To get 550 centners of such potatoes from one hectare of land is quite realistic. In Russia, it is successfully cultivated, not only for the purpose of selection. The variety is precocious, resistant to diseases. Idaho is very nutritious and contains a lot of starch.
- Bellarosa is a Slovak variety cultivated in Russia, Poland, Belarus. It has a large yield and large size. The variety is highly starchy (up to 19%). It boils quickly, has friable white pulp. The peel of the Bellarose variety is brownish. With regular watering, potatoes can reach 500-600 grams.
- Gala - Potatoes grow 400 grams each. And there are 5-6 of those on the bush. In addition, the variety is quite early. Large are up to 80% of all potatoes. Characteristically, nothing seems to be said about high yields. Outside, Gala is a bush with a height of 45-50 cm.
- Good luck - the variety is not only large-fruited, but also productive. 25 root crops on a bush with an average weight of 180 grams allow you to get a crop of up to 960 centners per hectare.
- Rosar also has many tubers. 20-30 pieces you dig up easily. Each has a good size - at least 150 grams. The variety is starchy, resistant to disease. The stems are large, but are susceptible to attacks by the Colorado potato beetle.
- Slavyanka is a Ukrainian variety with very large tubers. Potatoes up to one kilogram in weight are a reality. It grows even on poor soils. Starch contains a little - 12% of the force. It is used as a fodder crop due to its low palatability.
The use of high-quality and modern planting material greatly facilitates the cultivation of potatoes. How to get a bucket from a bush with a good grade, they know in any village. The cost of varietal potatoes for planting, of course, is higher. So why not increase the crop by an order of magnitude?
What determines the number of potatoes on a bush?
On average, two dozen potatoes are formed on the bush, but there can be five or forty. Back in the eighteenth century, the Russian agronomist Bolotov totaled one hundred potatoes on one bush. If everything is clear with the size of root crops, it depends on the variety and suitability of the soil, then it is more difficult to increase the number of potatoes. Of course, the variety plays a big role. Also, the number of tubers directly depends on the looseness of the soil. In heavy clay, the roots simply have nowhere to grow.
A certain dependence of the number of tubers on the number of trunks in the bush is observed. The more branchy and lush the plant, the more active photosynthesis, the more it stores nutrients in tubers. For more trunks you need a larger number of eyes. Folk methods of selection and preparation of seed material in this case are fully justified.
Potato ripe
Before you grow a whole bucket of potatoes from one bush, you must select the appropriate variety. It is advisable to focus not only on productivity, but also on the climatic features of your area. For the middle strip, mid-ripening and mid-early grades are suitable.
Large root crops will grow longer. On average, mid-season and late potatoes are slightly larger than the early ones. Do not expect high yields if you decide to dig up a potato bush immediately after flowering.
Most often, ripeness of potatoes is determined by the tops. Agronomists believe that this is not entirely true. The tops can also dry out due to a lack of nitrogen or heat. It does not make sense to overexpose “dried” potatoes. Fading tops will draw moisture from the tubers, and the quality of the crop will decrease.
It is recommended to cut the fallen tops a few days before harvesting. The potato still has time to absorb the juices. You can check the readiness of the crop by digging one bush. Maturity is indicated by the density of the peel. It should not come down with friction.
Crop preservation
In addition, care must be taken to ensure that your entire rich harvest is not destroyed by diseases and pests. As mentioned above, cutting the dried tops before harvesting additionally helps protect the tubers from disease. The most important enemy of potatoes is late blight. Varieties resistant to it are practically not bred. Chemicals are used to protect the plant. It is also recommended not to plant potatoes in one place using crop rotation. A minimum of 3-4 different crops should precede a new potato planting. Among the precursors should not be a tomato and other plants susceptible to late blight.
Fertilizers
There are many proven folk remedies and tips on how to grow a bucket of potatoes from one bush and not lose the crop. Hardening of planting material in a special solution gives good results. Usually use water with the addition of potassium permanganate. The solution should be slightly pink. Boric acid, Bordeaux fluid is also used.
Potato fertilizer gives excellent results and significantly increases the yield. The best for the plant is considered a combination of organic and mineral substances. In the old fashioned way, potatoes are fertilized with manure, ash, and crushed egg shells are added . You will find such tips when wondering about how to grow a bucket of potatoes from one bush. This is not entirely correct. The benefits of eggshells have not been proven at all. Manure can become a source of disease and an excess of nitrates. Rotted manure is brought under autumn plowing at the rate of 400-500 kilograms per one hundred square meters of land. Potash and phosphorus fertilizers are applied in a ratio of 1: 1. The best effect is achieved when fertilizing the soil with organomineral complexes.
The most important role for the potato crop is played by soil preparation, cultivation and watering. You practically do not need to dig up the field in the spring if you dug it in the winter. Hilling removes excess weeds and prevents the formation of excess moisture in the soil. Regular watering can increase yield. The tubers absorb moisture well, but the quality of the potato and its keeping quality are reduced.
Potato growing experience: 20 bushes - 40 buckets
Experienced vegetable growers have a similar secret. To some, it will seem very unusual.
The bottom line is to properly prepare the planting material, and then let the bush grow as much as possible. For the experiment you will need:
- 20 seed potatoes with eyes. If there are a lot of seedlings - you need to cut the potatoes so that they are left in 2-3 pieces per piece.
- Mixture for processing planting material. A glass of ash, 1 teaspoon of boric acid and one tablespoon of Bordeaux mixture are taken for 10 liters of water . In the solution, soak the seed for 15 minutes.
- Throw a teaspoon of Amofoski into the intended wells.
We plant potatoes at a sufficiently large distance. Drop lightly. After the sprouts appear, gently part them to the sides, sprinkling each with earth in a circle.
When the stems grow, the procedure must be repeated, carefully bending the tops. It turns out that we divide the bush into several parts, and each will grow as an independent plant. Well, how to grow a bucket of potatoes from one bush, you already know. It is better to dig such a bush with a pitchfork so as not to damage the tubers. Carefully undermining it from all sides, lifting the ground. There will be a lot of potatoes!
Conclusion
If we add high-quality fertilizers, a good variety, watering and top dressing to this method, leaving not 2 eyes, but all available ones, then we can get a bucket from each sprout.
Theoretically, you now know how to get 5 buckets of potatoes from 1 bush. This bush will take about a square meter. That is, the question of whether or not to divide potatoes during planting remains a rhetorical one. From the same area you will receive approximately the same yield. The choice remains - what do you like more: hilling of beds in the fresh air or germination of eyes in the room.