I propose to get acquainted with the experience of my countryman amateur vegetable grower N.F. Lesovoy, who believes that planting potatoes in furrows - firstly, increases productivity, and secondly, is the most effective in the conditions of heavy chernozems of the Kuban. One of the fundamental laws of agricultural technology asserts, and practice confirms that for the best development of potato bushes, a good harvest, up to 40% of the volume of the habitat of the plant should be occupied by land, water and 20% air. That is, in other words - the soil should be loose, airy.
How to achieve this optimum, especially in the central part of the region, where dense “fat” layers of chernozem lie, in which it is difficult to achieve airiness?
Nevertheless, this problem can be resolved. When N.F. Lesovoy learned about the above law, then he began to plant part of the rows with the old grandfather method under a shovel, square-nested method with distances of 60 × 60 cm, and a new one (for him) - in the furrows.
The latter turned out to be more progressive, as it always gives a good, and most importantly, stably guaranteed yield of the “second bread”. What is the essence of this method? What furrows do you make for potatoes?
In the fall, he digs furrows under the potatoes onto a full bayonet of shovels (about 25 cm) along the cord from north to south at a distance of 55-60 cm. You can cut the furrows with a cultivator. By spring, frost, rain, thaw and snow are loosened, and then the heat that comes then warms up the soil well.
In the spring, with the sharp end of the chopper along the furrow, he makes a groove 5-8 cm deep. Lays the tubers at a distance of 20-25 cm from each other. Sprinkles them with a handful of nutrient mixture (over a bucket of humus and sand + a third of a bucket of ash) and sprinkles with earth on the sides of the furrow. Such a soil mixture and planting potatoes along the furrows doubles the yield, increases starchiness, improves the taste of tubers.
Plants Lesovoy N.F. tubers germinated in the light three months before planting. If you have long sprouts formed on the tubers by spring, they should not be broken off, as this reduces the yield by 20-30%. In such cases, the sprouts must be cut off, leaving 5-6 cm near the tuber.
The second method (but it is less productive than in furrows) is planting tubers on already dug up (plowed) soil, better, of course, from the fall.
Its essence is this. At a distance of 55-60 cm from south to north, he makes grooves to a depth of 5-10 cm. They lay tubers at a distance of 20-25 cm from each other, sprinkle them with the above mixture. If it is not, then it is dusted with ash and covers the potatoes from the sides with earth.
What is the advantage of planting potatoes in a furrow before planting tubers under a shovel in a square-nesting manner?
It was said above that not only humidity is important for the crop. The presence of air in the earth is also important, and it can only be in loose soil.
What do we usually do? When planting potatoes under a shovel in a square-nesting manner, we make a hole, and we put tubers at the bottom of it. That is, we remove the loose layer, and put the tubers on hard, cold soil, where there is no air. Now the root system must overcome the resistance of compacted soil in airless space, losing strength for this. The optimum guaranteed crop can be achieved only by planting potatoes in the furrows, after two hilling plants with a chopper or one with a shovel. The ground between the rows is loosened with a shovel to a depth of 25 cm and poured on the planted potato, so the crop is formed and accumulates on the ridge.
This comb contributes to the discharge of excess moisture after rains into the furrows of the aisles. And in dry times, the plants on it, like a wick, raise water from the deep layers of the soil.
How to plant potatoes: from north to south or from east to west? It is recommended to plant potatoes in furrows with a direction from the north to the south. Why? In this case, the rows are evenly lit first at sunrise, then at noon, and then from the west. The heating of the ground in the bushes is uniform. For the experiment, he planted several rows from east to west. And what? The southern side of the plants is illuminated most of the day, and the northern side is almost always in shadow.
The land on the south side of the bushes in June and July has a temperature of 10-15 ° higher than on the north. Now tell me, how do you feel when the temperature drops during the day? That's not comfortable, but potato is also a living organism. As a result of this experience, N.F. Lesovoy received a 50% lower yield from these rows than from those located from south to north. You can check it on your sites.
And further. With the regular removal of green buds on the bushes, the yield increases to 20%, since during flowering the plant consumes part of its nutrition, thereby depleting the tubers, that is, it “steals” what is intended for their growth. Now there are many varieties of potatoes that do not bloom. Naturally for them, this method of increasing productivity is not suitable.
A particularly good crop can be obtained if potatoes are planted after legumes, since they accumulate nitrogen in the soil.
So, the conclusion suggests itself from the above. A stable crop can be obtained annually by digging furrows in the fall and planting tubers in the spring.
Then of course you will need ordinary care: cultivating row-spacings, hilling, feeding, protection from pests and diseases. But the beginning of everything is planting potatoes.
Finally, you have a good harvest. Now the problem is how to save planting material until next year, how to protect ware potatoes from sprouting, decay.
To preserve the harvest, prepare 2-3 buckets of boiling water, pour 0.5 teaspoon of potassium permanganate into it and lower the tubers in the net for 4 seconds (one, two, three, four), and then remove, dry . Sprouts die from such a font, and tubers will only benefit.
Niva Kuban, April 1998
P.S. I tested this method of planting potatoes in a furrow. The results pleased, but it would probably be even better if I could comply with all the conditions of N.F. Forest. Read "My method of growing potatoes in a furrow - mistakes, failures, achievements."