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For the last 50-80 years in a row, the method of planting cut potatoes has remained popular with farmers not only in Russia, but also in many other countries. The technique has its advantages and disadvantages and gives good results only if it is cut correctly.
Why cut potatoes
Potatoes are one of those vegetables without which Russians find it very difficult to plan their weekly diet. Therefore, it is not surprising that many owners are so interested in the question: is it necessary to cut potatoes before planting. Of course, this technique is completely optional. If you put a whole (or even better a few) properly prepared potatoes in a garden bed, then the harvest also promises to be good.
Shaped potatoes for planting
It should be indicated whether the potatoes need to be cut before planting at all. The main reason why farmers do this is the lack of planting material. Of course, if you have to grow a vegetable on an area of 5-10 acres, then there is no special need for savings. If the farmer has several vegetable gardens or one, with an area of 40-60 acres, then it is worth asking about how to properly cut seed potatoes. This method will reduce the costs of planting material by at least 1.5-2 times.
This method, as agronomists assure, can be called justified from the point of view of plant physiology. A healthy tuber is capable of producing from 4 to 16 shoots. Therefore, the potato bush is too thick. The stems begin to grow and create shade for each other, which is the best breeding ground for fungi. In addition, serious competition is also seen in the root system.
As world experience shows, cutting potatoes for planting is not carried out in every country. So, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries do not even know about this method. But in Canada and the United States, it takes more than 90%. These countries even have special machines that can cut the potato tubers correctly.
When to cut
It is allowed to cut the fruits for planting from late autumn until planting time. At the site of the incision, a protective tissue should form - a wound dermis. If cutting takes place before winter, the wound tissue turns out to be quite strong, resembling an ordinary peel, albeit with a slightly different color. Spring cutting also provides a protective film, but this will be significantly thinner.
It is worth starting to perform such work only after the tubers have warmed up to a temperature of + 15-20 ° C. The cut parts will heal much faster if the air temperature in the room warms up to 25-30 degrees Celsius, because this way the moisture will leave the material faster.
That is why, if it is autumn or winter outside, in the basement or utility room, where this whole procedure will take place, you need to turn on the heating.A little later (after a few weeks), the tubers can be taken to a regular cellar.
Process
Just as with a medical operation, cutting the planting material should be treated with particular care. Answering the question of how to plant cut potatoes, it should be pointed out that this process is preceded by several more stages that are especially important for a good harvest.
Disinfection and preparation
You need to put the cut potatoes on clean shelves, in clean boxes. It is better to disinfect the premises with copper sulfate. A five percent solution of it is the least harmful to humans, but it can effectively destroy bacteria and viruses that can attack the planting material.
Correctly cut tubers for planting
Experts call the usual convenient kitchen knife the best tool for doing the job. Meanwhile, other sharp stainless steel instruments can be used.
To disinfect instruments, you can use a solution of salicylic acid, or lysoform, lysol, or you can simply sterilize the knives with high quality over an open fire.
Cutting the tubers
Coming to the question: how to properly cut potatoes for planting, it is worth remembering the structure of the potato itself. The eyes in this vegetable are very unevenly placed. The crown has the most. There are significantly fewer eyes at the base, that is, the place where the fruit was connected to its mother plant.
As for the separation techniques themselves, the following are called the main ones:
- across;
- along.
Of course, in the first case, the potato planting material will be very heterogeneous. If you cut the fruits across, some parts of it will be strewn with dormant buds, and others without them at all. It is unlikely that it will be possible to grow a particularly rich harvest from such material. Thus, experts recommend splitting along the potato.
Foreign cutting machines are designed in such a way as to divide one fruit into 2, 4 or 6 parts. Agronomists assure that the best option would be such a separation in which each potato particle will contain at least one bud of the top and a few others (lateral).
Landing scheme
How to plant cut potatoes with the cut up or down is also an important question for farmers. Experienced owners assure that the placement of potato pieces has little effect on the harvest, because even so it will be surrounded by earth on all sides. Therefore, potato particles can be planted both up and down.
It is allowed to plant potatoes in open ground after active germination has begun, and the ground has warmed up to at least +5 ℃. It is important that the sharp temperature drop has already been completely completed by this time.
Deep into the ground, potato particles are placed 6-8 cm (that is, less than when planting whole tubers). If the wound side has not yet healed completely, it is placed a little deeper - about 10 cm.
Planting potatoes with cut tubers
As for the distance between rows and tubers, it depends on the particular variety and, in fact, should be the same as when planting whole potatoes.
What varieties can be divided
Not all potato varieties can be divided, so it is appropriate to tell in more detail which potato varieties can be cut during planting.
Having checked on their own experience, farmers note that the following varieties give absolutely the same harvest with cut tubers and whole ones: Panda, Symphony, Romano, Borodyansky pink, Nevsky, Berlichengen.
More sense from cutting across than along, will be from the following varieties: Karlena, Yugan, Bellarosa, Platinum, Antonina, Zhivitsa, Saturna, Innovator, Asterix, Karlena. More than half of them are characterized by an elongated shape of tubers, which probably affects the quality of the cut material.
You should not think about how to cut potatoes for planting if the following varieties are used: Zhuravinka, Valor, Jelly, Mozart, Red Star, Courage, Yenisei, Darenka, Ideal, Jarla, Safo, Baritone, Rosara, Fabula, Memory of Rogachev, Lugovskoy , Tunic.
