How to plant potatoes at home with seeds for seedlings?
By the seed method, summer residents grow many flower and vegetable crops. But not everyone tried to grow potatoes from seeds. Meanwhile, this method has many advantages. Seed planting technology is not particularly difficult and can be used even by beginners.
Benefits of the seed planting method
The constant planting of potatoes with grown tubers leads to the fact that vegetables become smaller from year to year. This phenomenon is familiar to any experienced gardener. As a result, it may come to a situation where the weight of the harvested crop is less than the weight of the number of tubers that were used as planting material.
Even with full adherence to agricultural technology, the potatoes planted from year to year degenerate, their taste worsens and the risk of diseases increases. There are two ways to avoid this:
- buy new tubers for planting every 5 years;
- grow potatoes from seeds.
However, in the first case, there is not always a guarantee that high-quality elite or super-elite potatoes will be bought.
Seed planting has a number of advantages:
- low cost of seeds compared to tubers;
- no need to allocate space for storage in the basement;
- high yield of potatoes;
- plant resistance to diseases and adverse external factors.
In central Russia and more northern regions, you should not sow potato seeds directly into open ground, because in this case, sowing will have to be delayed until the threat of return frosts disappears. Therefore, summer residents who do not live in the south are advised to grow potatoes from seeds using seedlings.
In one season, it will be possible to get a harvest of potatoes and valuable planting material for use the next year. Each bush ripens up to 20 tubers. Large ones can be eaten, and small ones can be stored before planting in the spring.
Even tiny nodules should not be thrown away: a full-fledged plant will subsequently grow from each.
You can buy potato seeds or get them from your own garden. The preparation of seed material must be taken care of in advance.
After flowering, berries are formed on the potato bushes - they must be collected and hung in a gauze bag for full ripening. At maturity, the berries will become lighter and softer to the touch.
The seeds are removed from the pulp, washed, dried and packed in paper envelopes.
It is better to collect more seed material, as it does not have a very high germination rate. After 2 years of storage, the percentage of seeds capable of germination is significantly reduced.
Growing seedlings
The right time for planting potatoes by seed is late March or early April. The seeds are pre-soaked for 2 days, you can use a solution of fertilizers or growth stimulants for this. Inhabitants of cold regions, it is advisable to harden the seed, keeping it alternately in the refrigerator, then at room temperature for a week. Before planting, you can germinate the seeds by wrapping them in a damp cloth.
The seeding procedure looks like this:
- The container is filled with a mixture of sand and peat or ready-made seedling soil.
- Sowing is carried out at intervals of 4-5 cm in grooves cut in rows. The row spacing should be 10 cm.
- A layer of sand 5 mm thick is poured on top and slightly moistened with a spray bottle.
For seedlings, keeping at room temperature is suitable. Before emergence, plantings should be covered with glass or foil.After 8-15 days, shoots break through to the surface. From this moment on, the seedlings do not need shelter.
Potato seedlings need 12-14 hours of light for normal development. In April, the plants usually have enough natural light.
Seedling care
Plants need to be watered regularly to keep the soil moderately moist at all times. The water must be separated and at room temperature. The next day after watering the soil is loosened.
While the seedlings are in the house, they are fed twice.
- The first feeding is carried out 2 weeks after the emergence of shoots, using ammonium nitrate. The solution is prepared by adding 20 granules per 10 liters of water, then it is poured abundantly over the soil.
- The second time the same fertilizer is applied 14 days after the pick.
After the appearance of the first pair of true leaves, the seedlings dive into separate cups. Drainage holes must be made in the bottom. It is even better to use peat cups for picking: their shell will serve as a source of additional nutrition for the plants.
When planting in the ground, the seedlings are not freed from the peat cups, but only slightly tear their walls. This transplant option will be gentle on the potato root system. You can plant potatoes in the garden in the twenties of May, when the threat of frost has finally disappeared.
Possible problems
Sometimes potato seedlings are pulled out. This fact indicates a lack of lighting - you will have to install additional illumination for the seedlings with a fluorescent lamp or a special phytolamp. Plants must also be constantly turned with the opposite side to the window pane so that the stems do not bend.
There can be several reasons for such a phenomenon as yellowing and wilting of leaves:
- The seedlings may be lacking moisture or nutrition.
- The same symptom may appear when the temperature or humidity drops.
- Seedlings can turn yellow and wilt due to disease or pest attacks.
It should be remembered that pathogenic organisms and harmful insects literally "stick" to weakened plants. And the seedlings become weak due to improper care. While the seedlings are at a young age, you must strictly follow all the rules of agricultural technology.
Landing in the ground
In the selected area, holes are preliminarily formed with a depth of 10 cm.On the bottom of each planting hole, an organic fertilizer is laid (humus or compost is suitable) and 0.5 liters of water is poured. When planting, the seedlings are buried, leaving only the crown with 3 leaves at the top.
Now you need to provide young plants with proper care:
- At first, young bushes need a film cover. When it gets warmer, the film can be removed.
- In dry weather, the planted seedlings are watered every other day.
- The soil will need to be loosened regularly, while removing weeds.
- Potatoes are spud twice over the summer.
With proper care, the weight of individual tubers can reach 100 grams, but mostly potatoes are still 2-3 times smaller. In the second, third and fourth years, the harvest will be of excellent quality, and then it will decline again. Therefore, experts recommend re-growing potatoes every 5 years using the seed method.
No matter how troublesome the process of growing potatoes from seeds may seem, it is necessary for the quality of the crop to remain at a high level. You can buy elite tubers for planting, but in this case you need to be prepared for tangible costs without guaranteeing the result: anything can grow.
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