I asked the agronomist why I was digging out bad potatoes. And he immediately gave me 4 reasons. Now I'm tired of carrying bags

Flaming fireworks, comrades summer residents, gardeners and potato growers in particular! Today on the agenda is the battle for the potato harvest, which after some 2 spring months each of us will have to enter. In addition to the unequal battle with bad weather, the vegetable grower has to butt with his own personal mistakes in growing potatoes.

The main thing is to know them in time. Once I asked a question to an experienced agronomist, albeit one who specializes in growing a slightly different crop. Why, eprst, despite all my efforts, I sometimes dig out trifles that I am ashamed to take to my mother-in-law's cellar. After listening to my report on planting and caring for a potato plantation and asking a couple of leading questions, the uncle with the beard immediately told me 4 main mistakes.

Don't expect a good tribe from a bad seed. Or where do all the diseases and pests of potatoes come from, if they were not in the country before

No matter how good and beloved the potato variety is, it needs to be updated periodically. The tubers that we leave for sowing next season accumulate pathogens of fungal diseases (it would seem, what does late blight have to do with it) and pests every year. Typical for one single site. A problem growing like a snowball will sooner or later take away a good part of the harvest.

Therefore, once every few years, you need to renew the seed fund, comrades. Buy new tubers for planting or take from other citizens. In addition to the variety, another issue is important - zoning. That is, the acquisition should be grown in your climatic zone, better - in the region.

I confess. Earlier, over the winter, I selected the best tubers for food, and left small things for seeds. Now I give the small things to the neighbour's pigs. Planting small or spoiled potatoes - deliberately pushing your varieties to degeneration.

"Take seed from the best nests, and no less than a chicken egg!" - said my friend. But you should not rush to the other extreme - sowing large tubers from the palm of your hand: they do not take root for a long time, spending their own reserves. "Chop the large grain with a shovel into 2-3 pieces!" - summed up the agronomist.

Watering the potatoes? I have nothing to do

Let's be honest: which of us has a responsible approach to the issue of watering potatoes? I occasionally condescended to watering with a hose, when there was no rain for 2 weeks. As a result, the plant dried out both tubers and tops. And on the health of the latter, for a minute, the synthesis of starch and the harvest as a whole directly depend.

According to the agronomist, potatoes most of all need moisture from the start of flowering. "2 times a week - the most it! It was raining - we skip watering "- the interlocutor said categorically. "Lei more - for a good harvest you need 15-20 liters per bush! - he finished me off, forcing the brain to draw a not very rosy picture of "summer vacation in the country."

I confess, comrades: I did not follow this recommendation exactly. I just started to water the potato plantation "more often".

Fraer's greed ruined: how I tried to get more potatoes by planting more potatoes

When I say "potato plantation", this is not an endless field at all, but a piece of land. Trying to get the maximum out of it, he shoved the tubers as needed: the more it fits, the better.

Far from it! Poor potatoes had to compete with each other for territory, water, nutrients. The dense plexuses of tops represented an ideal environment for all kinds of insects and microbes, which did not fit in with the conditions of a large and large harvest.

The interlocutor advised me to keep the distance between the planting holes at 40 cm, and leave 70 cm between the rows. By the way, then I found similar landing patterns on the Internet. Here you go, comrade:

Aromatic top dressing: how potatoes relate to manure

As it turned out, the destruction of the potato crop is manure, which I sincerely considered from childhood the best fertilizer for a generous vegetable garden. I was wrong! Potatoes cannot stand fresh manure. Her indignation results in watery and almost tasteless tubers. And the potato itself grows fat and goes to the tops, instead of working on increasing the underground part. Moreover, he gets sick more often.

I remember and you, comrade, remember: if you want to feed the potatoes with manure, act in the fall. Over the winter and spring, fragrant organic matter will crush and actually increase fertility, without any of these unpleasant consequences.

Since I heeded the advice of a hardened agronomist, the potato harvest has really gotten bigger and better. Fate turned out so that there is only a cellar in my mother-in-law's house, and I have to carry bags of loot to her. I'm tired! According to my observations, the yield increased 1.5 times.

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