To cut or not cut potatoes before planting

I always believed that seed potatoes were cut solely for the sake of economy. And suddenly the friends were surprised. For 40 years, they sowed potatoes like everyone else, with whole tubers, and suddenly, this year, they decided to cut everything (!).

Friends don't just do stupid things. Some information is behind their decision to cut all the tubers. They did not complain about the harvest; they fed several families.

They always approached the seed carefully. Like this:

“We wash the tubers in several waters. We dry it. We put them in boxes for storage, looking at each tuber. We discard the cut into a separate box, and those that have green spots, we leave in the clearing to turn green even more. The tubers quickly turn dark green in color. These are our future seed potatoes. We store all potatoes, both seed and ordinary, in the cellar. In the spring we put boxes with green potatoes in a warm place. Two weeks before landing. During this time, sprouts appear. And this is already our planting material ”.

Decided to look for information, what influenced them so? How to solve the riddle.

The first thing that I found interesting is how potatoes are planted in different countries (this or that):

• Whole potatoes are planted in Europe because of the humid and cool climate.
• In the United States and Canada, 95% of potato fields are planted in halves.
• The Japanese buy seed potatoes from the USA, which have already been cut into 2 parts by special machines. Then each part is cut in half.
• Well, in the USSR, during the famine, there was an involuntary effective way of sowing pieces of peel with eyes.

So is there any point in cutting, other than saving

1. If the variety has many eyes, a thickened bush may form. These are fungal diseases and competition for food. If we cut the tuber, the bush develops better, it is no longer a competitor to itself

1. As many stems as eyes are not always formed. Most usually remain asleep. And if the tuber is cut correctly, all the eyes wake up.
2. There is enough nutrition in the “right” cut tuber. Worse when planting medium and small potatoes.
3. The most important: during the cut, a wound reaction occurs, substances are released that not only promote healing of the cut, but also create a barrier to infections. I.e, cut tubers better resist fungi and bacteria.

So, if everything is done correctly (create the necessary conditions, cut the tubers correctly), the yield will be larger! And planting material will be needed 2-3 times less.

Not all varieties can be cut. When planting in parts, the development of the bush in some varieties slows down, the yield is less.

In total, about 200 varieties are allowed to grow in Russia, which of them will behave as a matter of separate studies.

So, why is there not a good result?

It turns out that there are four reasons for failure when planting potatoes in parts:

1. Wrong grade
2. Not so cut
3. Drying incorrectly
4. Small or diseased tubers
5. Incorrect fit

There will always be readers who will say that the problem with cutting potatoes is not serious. If it is within our 10 acres, then it is not serious. And what about the scale of Russia?

Little statistics:

Russia's annual need for seed potatoes is 9 mln. tons, it is sown with 2.9 mln. ha. And also interestingly, about 90% of potatoes are grown in private farms. This is statistics about us!

I think I have solved the riddle of friends. I understood why they decided to cut all the potatoes.

I wonder now your opinion!

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