Planting potatoes: planting potatoes under straw

Recommendation points

• Choosing a landing method
• Garden layout
• Autumn preparation of the beds
• Work in the spring before planting
• The choice of planting material
• Landing
• Straw mulching
• Care
• Fertilizers
• Harvest
• The advantages of this planting method

The method of growing potatoes under straw has been known for a long time; back in the 19th century, peasants used it and received a rich harvest. Over time, this method was forgotten a little, but now gardeners are quite successfully using it on their plots, and everyone is trying to add something of their own to this method.

Growing potatoes under straw, you do not need to spend energy on hilling, watering, loosening, weeding and fighting the Colorado potato beetle. You just need to stock up on straw or hay and have good material for planting. As a result – an increase in yield and an improvement in quality: the potatoes are crumbly and very tasty.

Choosing a landing method

As a rule, with the classical method of planting potatoes, work begins with digging up the beds, while the soil layer is turned over. This work is quite laborious, and with a sufficient area for planting, labor costs increase. With this method of processing, the yield is stable, but relatively small..

But there is an interesting way of planting potatoes under mulch, for which you can use straw, best of all wheat, or hay, a fairly thick layer. Labor costs with this method are low.

Garden layout

Experienced gardeners, using the method of growing potatoes under straw, advise making small beds, 140–150 cm wide. There are 2 rows in the garden bed (A and B), the distance between them is 30–40 cm. The width of the rows is 50–60 cm, the distance from the center of the hole to the middle of the bed – 45 cm. The depth of the hole is 5–10 cm. Potatoes are planted in holes A and B in a checkerboard pattern. Planting holes with a diameter of 8 cm are dug out with a garden trowel after 36 cm in a row.

Autumn preparation of the beds

It is best not to dig up the beds, but to loosen with a shovel with an elongated handle. Without much effort, at an incline of 30-40 ° C, cutting the soil layer to a depth of 5 cm, while cutting the weeds.

After that, the beds are mulched with compost, and microbiological fertilizer can also be added to the soil to improve the composition of the soil and accelerate the processing of organic compost residues. After a week or two, the beds are loosened again, the mulch is mixed for better aeration. That’s it, this is the end of the winter work.

For your information!If you do not add organic matter (compost) to the ground, then you can sow siderates before the first snow, for example, white mustard or oil radish, but then in the spring you will need to dig up the ridges with small, 5-7 cm siderat shoots.

Work in the spring before planting

In mid-April, when the weeds grow a little, the beds need to be loosened. A week before planting, cut the weeds and loosen the beds again.

Before planting, the soil is fertilized with a mixture of peat and compost: a layer of mixture, about 10 cm thick, is laid out on the ridges. You can also use a mixture of compost with ash or mineral fertilizer as fertilizer.

The choice of planting material

For planting, it is recommended to use the varieties Golubizna, Rossiyanka, Luck, Master, Crown. In autumn, select egg-sized tubers, and in February, put them in the light for germination. Ideal when the shoots for planting are powerful, thick.

Landing

Arrange the potato tubers in the hole so that the small shoots are directed upwards, and the long ones to the sides, in order to even out the growth. The beds are not watered after planting. Seedlings with this method of planting appear simultaneously, even. Strawing can be started when the shoots are 5–7 cm tall.

Straw mulching

On top of the potatoes, a layer of hay or straw is laid out, quite thick, 25-30 cm. With dry straw, the bed is pre-watered well with water.

Care

There are no special labor costs during the period of potato growth under the straw. Remove flowers and berries, and there is almost no Colorado potato beetle on the potato, well, perhaps quite a bit and it is quite enough to collect beetles by hand. It is not necessary to water, weed and huddle too, since the layer of straw prevents weeds from germinating.

If the straw layer has subsided over time, then it must be added, otherwise the growing roots will turn green in the light. With a lack of straw, freshly cut grass can be used, but, observing the necessary conditions: lay the tubers with a thin layer of grass, and then, when the grass dries up, add more, maintaining a layer of hay about 30 cm.

Watering during the formation and growth of potato tubers is not required; mulch retains moisture well in the ground. But in especially dry times (in the evening or early in the morning), you can spill the earth abundantly. This is best done through the holes in the mulch, which are formed by the sprouting potato tops..

Fertilizers

When growing potatoes under straw, no special treatment is required. Some gardeners advise using microbiological preparations. But in general, a mixture of compost and peat, as well as rotten straw, is enough to get a good harvest..

Harvest

Harvesting is very pleasant: picking up the straw, you can find clean, even tubers. You can start harvesting potatoes already at the end of August – these are early varieties, and end in mid-September – early October (of course, it depends on the climatic region).

The advantages of this planting method

The crop harvested from the straw mulched beds is much higher than with the usual method of planting, and the potatoes are better in taste. And all thanks to the straw used as mulch.

Why mulch the beds with straw potatoes:

• the soil is looser than with the usual planting method;
• the soil is moist, but not soggy;
• enrichment of soil with air;
• organic matter from compost, straw or hay enters the soil as fertilizer.

Negative aspects of the method of planting potatoes under straw can also be, for example, rodents or slugs can start under the straw, it is also difficult to find so much straw, with a lack of which the potatoes can turn green, but these are insignificant disadvantages compared to an excellent harvest with little labor.