4 sure signs that the potatoes are ripe and it's time to dig them. My family is already sharpening shovels
Do you want to make a mistake with the long-suffering potato harvesting? Then a fiery salute, comrade hasty vegetable grower! Signs of ripeness of potatoes are on the agenda todaywho poke our noses into the need to put on their festive sweatpants, where the hole is only on the knee, and go to the potato marathon.
Clever people from the Internet advise to calculate the days from planting, guided by dry numbers: they say, ultra-early - dig after 40 days, late - after 140. Okay, the landing date can still be remembered. But what about the fact that the inhabitants of our village know only 3 varieties: "white", "pink" and "blue-eyed"?
I imagine Grishka's face when I say to him: "Dear Grigory, are you ultra-early or mid-late potatoes?"
Do not forget that a bunch of factors like diseases, rains, neighbor damage delay ripening. Let's just remember the signs of ripeness: let the potatoes say themselves.
First sign: look at the tops
The potato tops fulfilled their main function - they fed the tubers until ripening. First, it is laid out imposingly in rows, and then it begins to dry out to a greater or lesser extent. A sure sign that the mystery of the birth of the potato has come true!
Comrade! Here it is important not to confuse wilting due to the readiness of the product with wilting due to drought, phytophthora, or the loathsome ring rot. Due to unfavorable factors, the tops wither much ahead of time and often rapidly, and when ripe, gradually. In doubt, look for other signs of potato ripening.
The second sign: "roots" give a hint
Look at the potato rows. If the tubers seem to want to jump to the surface, then, most likely, in the near future you will still have to get the ceremonial garden pants from the barn.
The potato bush begins to lift up the ground, which is cracking. I saw such a picture - be sure: ripe tubers are already bursting with soil from the inside.
The third sign: control digging
To make sure that the potatoes are exactly ready for a shovel, look into the epicenter of events. Dig up a couple of bushes in different parts of the plantation and evaluate the production. In a ripe plant, the tubers themselves fall off the roots, it is worth shaking a little.
At the same time, you can fry young potatoes and appreciate the taste. I like this sign the most.
The fourth sign: a joke with a grain of truth
Nothing brings potato ripening closer than the proximity of a vacation or a long weekend. You should not lose this luxury, because you need to have time to dig up the harvest, and celebrate this matter. It's great if relatives are also going to visit. You can blatantly lie to them: "Now we will quickly dig it up together, and then - to the river for barbecue!".
Now, seriously. If potato planting hints at readiness, it is not necessary to dig at once, headlong. Better to actually pick a convenient date and remember to stick your nose in the weather forecast.. Digging in the rains is still a pleasure, and drying the potatoes well is also useful.
Do you respect "your" potatoes and was the article useful? Press, comrade, "Thumbs up"! Sincerely yours, Fyodor Tyapkin-Sklyankin, a potato grower-early maturity.