When to dig out potatoes: we determine the optimal period for exact signs. It's time to sharpen your shovels

Flaming fireworks, fellow summer residents and vegetable growers! Potato passions are on the agenda today. Everything is on schedule!

Xwant to get the maximum yield that will keep well? Choose the right cleaning date. After reading the article to the end, you will learn how to do this.

My potato beds, like those of many gardeners, occupy an impressive part of the land. I cook a huge number of delicious dishes from potatoes, and you can store it until the next harvest. Therefore, I boldly call this tuber a strategic reserve of our family.

Knowing me as an inveterate and, I will not be modest, an experienced gardener, my niece turned to me with a question about how to understand that it was time to dig up potatoes. If with other vegetables it is completely clear when they reach maturity, then with potatoes everything is much more complicated.

The average ripening period for early varieties is about 70 days, for late varieties - 100 days. But this does not mean at all that the early ripe potatoes dug out on the seventieth day or late potatoes on the hundredth day will be quite tasty and will be perfectly preserved throughout the winter.

That's what, as they say now, the "trick", comrades. Harvesting prematurely, the tubers will be damaged when dug up and stored and will start to deteriorate. If you are very late in digging, their taste will suffer. This is because the tubers begin to sprout and the sprouts draw out nutrients from them.

In general, the question is serious and requires a separate conversation with interested summer residents. Harvest time depends on many nuances:

• whether the summer was hot or cold;
• how much precipitation fell while the potatoes were ripe;
• in what month the potatoes were planted;

• what was the soil temperature when the tubers were laid;
• what were the sprouts on the tubers during planting;
• the selected variety of potatoes.

All this greatly affects the timing of harvesting, so the best way to determine the maturity of a potato is visual.

The young potato that starts it all

I always look forward to when flowers begin to crumble on potato bushes. This means it's time to dig them up a bit and see if you can pick young potatoes.

It has a very thin skin that is easy to peel, but not suitable for storage. My family simply adore it boiled and fried, so a small part of the garden is left before the main harvest.

How to understand that the main potato plantation is ripe. Shall we sharpen the shovels?

In some cases, this is indicated by a yellow lodged tops. But I had several varieties that ripened and remained green. In addition, it happens that the bushes turn yellow when damaged by late blight or with improper feeding.

Therefore, having estimated the ripening time by timing, I dig out several bushes in different places of the garden and examine the tubers. When you shake the bush, you can already understand whether the potatoes are ripe or not. Mature tubers break away from the bush, and young ones hold tight to it.

And, so that there is no doubt, I examine the tubers. If their the skin is dense enough and does not leave the tuber when rubbed, then, comrades, feel free to choose a sunny day and harvest.

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