Potatoes (potatoes) are cultivated all over the world. Potatoes are cultivated in most countries from 71° north latitude to 40° south latitude. Below is the potato planting method that I have carefully compiled for you. Let’s take a look.
How to grow potatoes
Seed potato processing:
(1) Selected seed potatoes
On the basis of selecting improved varieties, select healthy seed potatoes with regular shapes, typical characteristics of this variety, smooth skin, bright color, and a weight of 1-2 taels of moderate size for seeding. When selecting seed potatoes, strictly remove tubers with cracked skin, deformities, pointed heads, necrotic bud eyes, diseased spots or black rot at the navel.
(2) Cutting and small whole potatoes for seed planting
Cutting and planting seed potatoes can promote oxygen exchange inside and outside the tuber, break dormancy, and advance germination and emergence. However, when cutting into pieces, diseases can easily be transmitted through the cutter, causing rotten seeds, lack of seedlings, or increasing field morbidity and accelerating variety degradation. If the pieces are too large, a large amount of seeds will be used. Generally, it is appropriate to cut into 20-30 grams. When cutting into pieces, cut them lengthwise so that each piece has an edge at the top. Diseased potatoes should be removed when cutting into pieces, and cutting tools should be strictly disinfected to prevent the spread of diseases.
Using small whole potatoes for seeding can avoid diseases transmitted by cutters, and small whole potatoes have strong vitality and drought resistance. After sowing, the seedlings emerge early and neatly, with the number of buds, main stems and tubers per hole. increase. Therefore, using about 25 grams of healthy small potatoes as seeds has a significant effect in preventing diseases and increasing yields. However, small potatoes generally have a short growth period, low maturity, long dormancy period, and often suffer from premature aging in the later stages. In cultivation, it is necessary to control the appropriate density, carry out germination treatment, increase the application of potassium fertilizer, and cooperate with the corresponding nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers to realize the production potential of small potato seeds.
(3) Germination
Germination is an important measure for disease prevention and high yield in potato cultivation. Germination before sowing can promote early maturity and increase yield. At the same time, during the germination process, diseased and rotten potatoes can be eliminated, reducing the rate of diseased plants or missing seedlings and broken branches in the field after sowing, which is conducive to the growth of whole seedlings. Germination method: Place seed potatoes and sand alternately in layers with a thickness of about 3-4 layers, and keep them at an optimal temperature of about 20°C and in a regularly moist state. The seed potatoes can germinate in about 10 days. When accelerating germination, soaking seed potatoes in 0.5-1ppm gibberellin solution or 0.1-0.2% potassium permanganate solution for 10-15 minutes or soaking seeds in 2% thiourea for 20 minutes can improve the germination effect.
Site selection and preparation:
Potatoes are not tolerant to continuous cropping. Plots for planting potatoes should be chosen to be plots that have not been planted with potatoes or other solanaceous crops in the past three years. Potatoes are very sensitive to continuous cropping, so continuous cropping must be avoided during production. If potatoes are continuously planted on a piece of land, it will not only cause serious diseases, such as bacterial wilt, but also cause soil nutrient imbalance, especially certain trace elements, resulting in poor potato growth, short plants, low yield, and poor quality. Rotating potatoes with corn, wheat and other plants has a better effect of increasing production.
Potato tubers need loose and fertile soil to expand. Therefore, it is best to choose a plot for planting potatoes that is flat, has irrigation conditions, has good drainage, and has a deep and loose sandy loam soil. After the previous crop is harvested, deep plowing and fine harrowing must be carried out, and then the borders must be made. The width and height of the border depend on the terrain and soil moisture. Those with high terrain and good drainage can use wide furrows, while those with low terrain should have narrow or high furrows with poor drainage.
Apply sufficient base fertilizer:
Potatoes form a large number of stems, leaves and tubers during the growth period, so they require more nutrients. Among the three elements of fertilizer, potassium is the most needed, followed by nitrogen and phosphorus. Applying sufficient base fertilizer plays an important role in increasing potato yield. The base fertilizer for potatoes should account for 3/5 or 2/3 of the total fertilizer amount. The base fertilizer is mainly decomposed manure, human and animal manure and other organic fertilizers, combined with phosphorus and potassium fertilizers. Generally, 1000-1500 kg of fertilizer machine, 15-25 kg of superphosphate and 100-150 kg of plant ash are applied per mu. Basal fertilizer should be applied in the soil layer below 10 cm in combination with the borders or dug holes to facilitate plant absorption and loosen the tuber layer. When sowing, use 20-30 tons of decomposed human and animal manure per acre, or 5-8 kg of nitrogen fertilizer as seed fertilizer to make the seedlings emerge quickly and neatly, and promote the healthy growth of the seedlings.
Timely sowing:
An important condition for determining the right time for potato sowing is the temperature during the growth period. In principle, potatoes should be kept at an average daily temperature of 15-25°C during their peak fruiting period. The longer the period suitable for continued tuber growth, the higher the total weight. Most of them are planted after harvesting late rice or mid-season rice. It is best to sow autumn potatoes from late September to late October, and sow winter potatoes from late December to mid-January.
Reasonable dense planting:
The yield factor that constitutes potato is the product of the number of plants per unit area and the yield of a single plant. The yield per plant is determined by the number of tubers per plant and the weight of the individual tubers. There is a contradiction between increasing the yield of a group and increasing the yield of a single plant. When the number of plants per unit area increases, the yield per plant decreases accordingly, both of which have a certain dependence on planting density. Within a certain density range, the yield of the population increases with the increase of density; the yield of a single plant decreases with the increase of density. Therefore, when determining density, the two conflicting factors of population yield and individual yield must be considered and coordinated. If the density is small, although individual plants develop well and have high yields, the total number of plants per unit area is small, resulting in fewer tubers and low yields. If the density is too high, although the total number of plants is large, the weight of individual potatoes will be very low, and the yield will also be low. Therefore, reasonable dense planting is to have a reasonable group structure per unit area, which can not only enable good individual development, but also play the role of increasing the yield of the group, so as to make full use of light energy and soil fertility, thereby obtaining high yields. Considering the coordinated development of groups and individuals, under general cultivation levels, it is more appropriate to plant about 6,000 potato plants per acre, with 2-3 stems per plant.
Field management:
(1) Check and replenish seedlings
After the potatoes have emerged, check the seedlings in time, and replenish the missing seedlings in time to ensure Whole seedlings. The method of replenishing seedlings is: during sowing, excess potato pieces are planted densely in the fields to replenish seedlings. When replenishing seedlings, if there are diseased and rotten potatoes in the defective holes, the diseased potatoes and the surrounding soil must be dug out before replenishing the seedlings. When the soil is dry, holes should be dug for watering and seedlings should be planted after applying a small amount of fertilizer to reduce the time for seedlings to slow down and resume growth as soon as possible. If there are no spare seedlings, you can select holes with many seedlings from the ridge rows where seedlings have emerged in the field, break off the excess seedlings from the base of the mother potato block, and transplant the seedlings.
(2) Cultivating and cultivating the soil
Cultivate and loosen the soil to loosen and ventilate the soil in the tuber layer, which is beneficial to root growth, stolon elongation and tuber enlargement. If the soil board is knotted before emergence, the soil should be loosened to facilitate emergence. After the seedlings are collected, the first cultivating is carried out promptly, with a depth of 8-10 cm, combined with weeding. The second cultivating is carried out 10-15 days after the first cultivating, and it should be slightly shallower. When budding occurs, the third cultivating is carried out, which is shallower than the second cultivating. Combined with soil cultivation, the thickness of the soil should not exceed 10 cm to thicken the potato layer and avoid exposing the potato pieces and reducing the quality.
(3) Top dressing
Potatoes take a long time from sowing to emergence. After emergence, it is necessary to topdress the sprouts with clear manure water and a small amount of nitrogen fertilizer as soon as possible to promote the seedlings. Grow rapidly. During the budding stage, a top-dressing application of potato fertilizer is used in combination with soil cultivation, mainly potassium fertilizer, combined with nitrogen fertilizer. The amount of fertilizer applied depends on the growth and appearance of the plant. After flowering, fertilizer is generally no longer applied. If the phenomenon of premature aging due to defertilization occurs in the later period, phosphorus and potassium or combined with trace elements can be sprayed on the leaves.
(4) Prevention and control of pests and diseases
There are many diseases in potatoes. Common diseases include viral diseases, late blight, bacterial wilt, ring rot, scab, cancer, etc. . Late blight often occurs during periods of heavy rainfall and around the flowering period of plants. Therefore, attention should be paid to early control with Bordeaux mixture or remnant. Bacterial wilt is currently difficult to control with chemicals. Prevention and control methods mainly include reasonable crop rotation, selection of disease-resistant varieties, and use of small whole potatoes for seed planting.
Potato pests mainly include ladybugs, soil silkworms, aphids, grubs, mole crickets, etc., which can be controlled with pesticides or manual killing.
Harvesting fruits:
When the potato plant growth stops and most of the stems and leaves turn yellow, the tubers are easily separated from the stolons, the periderm becomes hard, the specific gravity increases, and the dry matter content reaches The highest limit is the optimal harvest period for edible tubers. Tubers should be harvested 5-7 days in advance to reduce the adverse effects of high temperatures in the late growth period and improve seed quality.
Potato growth conditions
Potatoes like cold weather and are a crop that likes low temperatures.
The formation and growth of underground tuber tuber requires loose, breathable, cool and moist soil environment.
Potato temperature requirements: The suitable temperature for tuber growth is 16℃~18℃. When the local temperature is higher than 25℃, the tuber stops growing; the suitable temperature for stem and leaf growth is 15℃~25℃. Growth stops above 39°C.
Potatoes were introduced to China only over 300 years ago. It is said that it was introduced by overseas Chinese from Southeast Asia. In the 21st century, China's potato planting area ranks second in the world. Potatoes have high yields, rich nutrition, and strong adaptability to the environment. They are now spread all over the world. In tropical and subtropical countries, they can be cultivated and obtain higher yields even in winter or cool seasons.
Harvest at the right time