Planting potatoes with seeds, including when it is best to carry out, as well as how to grow seedlings at home

Growing potatoes from seeds is not an easy, but interesting activity. Seedlings behave capriciously: stretches out, lays on the ground, gets sick with a black leg. As a result, units reach the garden, but the struggle for survival continues there. It's amazing that potatoes that sprout so easily from a tuber are so hard to grow from seeds. However, with a great desire, this can be done.

Why plant potatoes with seeds

Most gardeners get acquainted with seed potatoes in stores and departments for summer residents. Impressed by the very high prices for such planting material, inquiring minds begin to look for the reason for the high cost. Producers are aware of this and regularly publish articles on the benefits of super-elite seeds in specialized magazines and on Internet portals.

The main thing is that they don’t get sick.

Usually, from year to year, vegetable growers grow the same potato, take tubers for seeds, which take over all ailments from the mother bush (scab, late blight, etc.). Diseases gradually accumulate, productivity decreases. Potatoes grown from a tuber extend the life of the old bush, as it propagates vegetatively. And from the seeds a new plant grows.

According to GOST, potato seeds are divided into basic:

• super-superelite - mini-tubers obtained from seeds;
• superelite - tubers grown the next year from mini-tubers;
• elite - tubers obtained from the super elite.

Next are reproductions: first, second, etc. The fourth reproduction is allowed for further reproduction only if there are not enough seeds of higher reproduction. In other words: mini-tubers from seeds should be grown every 6–7 years and replaced with them all the planting material of potatoes. After such explanations, many people buy an expensive super elite, but even more gardeners decide that they themselves can grow it.

Video: potato seed crop

She also decided last year to grow potatoes from seeds. Being an amateur grower with 20 years of experience, I did not even doubt that I would succeed. While I want to refute the advertised advantage.
Potato from seeds is sick and how! I planted my own seedlings of potatoes in the garden. It was a little - 12 bushes. Only four survived until August, the rest, one by one, became stained, yellowed and died. Perhaps the seeds were infected by some kind of virus or the infection was caused by pests. Such a thought appeared because I planted potatoes in the area after the cabbage, where the potatoes did not grow for more than 5 years. Crop rotation has been observed. Therefore, the argument that potato from seeds is not sick for me has ceased to exist. There was only one - elite seeds are more productive, so I continue the experiment.

It is not enough to grow or buy superelite seeds, you also need to heal the earth. Indeed, scab and late blight fungi also live in it. Perhaps the potato from the seeds does not take over the diseases of the mother bush, but it is an ordinary plant that can easily become infected on the site. Spores of fungi are carried by wind, insects, fall on leaves from the ground or neighboring bushes.

Seed selection

There are many seed companies in Russia, but not all have earned the trust of gardeners, many allow re-grading and sell not what is written on the bag.

You can collect your seeds from bulbs formed on potato tops after flowering.

In potatoes, flowers often open already pollinated, that is, pollination occurs inside the flower, even before it opens. When breeding new potato varieties, breeders have to remove stamens from unopened flowers to avoid self-pollination. To do this, gently push the petals of the unopened corolla and remove the anthers of the stamens even before they ripen. As a result, when the flower opens, there are no stamens in it, but only a pistil, respectively, self-pollination could not occur, and scientists produce artificial pollination with the pollen that they need it.

Without outside interference from the potato bush, you will get its native seeds. From one bulb, bushes can grow slightly different in characteristics, so the best plants that match the variety.

In the first year of her experiment, she grew potatoes from seeds: Lada, Empress, Ilona of the Zedek company. Shoots appeared sparse, half did not sprout. Ascendants, despite the illumination with a phytolamp, stretched to the window pane, lay down. Most of the contact with damp earth rotted, and you can’t not water it, otherwise they will dry out. I was tormented with them, constantly pouring earth, dusting with ash. I grew vines, not potatoes. It did not go well after landing on the site. Seeing my torment, my husband advised me to collect seeds from our bushes. To be honest, I decided for myself to never grow potatoes from seeds again, but I collected the bulbs.
The following spring came. Through force I forced myself to get the seeds of my potatoes and sow. I was expecting another season of torment with potato vines. Sowed denser, remembering the poor germination last year. And what do you think? Sprouts appeared together, rose like moss with a thick brush. They didn’t go anywhere, stood on thick, juicy legs and were crowned with dark green round caps of leaves, so elastic that they began to remind me of mushrooms on a stump. Moreover, the varieties were different: Nevsky, Impala and all kinds of folk without a name, which I collected several tubers from relatives. But in the fall, I just collected bulbs so that only my husband saw. All seeds are mixed. It turns out that all varieties sprouted in one pot together, as one, aligned. So better collect your seeds from the bushes you like.

Sowing and harvesting dates

I had seeds of early and medium early varieties. On the bags it is written that you need to sow in March-April, harvest in August, that is, 120-150 days after germination. I was eager to grow seedlings, so I sowed potatoes in early March. And in August she received overgrown tubers. That is, nodules of the second have already grown on potatoes of the first crop. In the hole there were large clumsy potatoes with growths, and small, connected by roots, like beads.

No need to rush, sow potatoes in mid-April, when there is already enough sunlight. In addition, in the second half of spring you can keep seedlings in greenhouses and summer greenhouses. Then the plants have enough light, they will not stretch.

The Gavrish firm recommends sowing seeds of mid-season potatoes in April, planting seedlings in the ground at the end of May-June, and harvesting at the end of August-September. Early varieties, respectively, are ready for harvest in early August.

Soil preparation and sowing

Seedlings will certainly be at risk of black leg infection, so be sure to disinfect the soil and planting material. Buy land universal for seedlings, but not the cheapest. Choose a proven brand.

It is not clear where cheap soils are gaining where, from what layers and depths. I took the sale land, inside were found: pieces of clay, shells of snails, fragments of cuttings from a shovel. Peat is added to all this rubbish for bulkiness and volume, but nobody cares about restoring the pH. The soil is acidic, and plants can absorb nutrition only from neutral and slightly acidic. Responsible producers add dolomite flour to peat soils to neutralize.

If you do not want to spend money on dubious soil, make your own. On the virgin land, raise the turf and collect the land under it. Mix it with humus or compost from your site (in a 1: 1 ratio). It is done simply, but in advance, in the previous season: all summer put the weed weeds in one place. In autumn, compost rich in humus will be ready at the bottom of the heap. The land under such a heap will also become fertile.

Video: recipe for a mix of purchased ingredients

A week before sowing the seeds, warm the soil mixture to 100 ° C:

• in the oven,
• in the microwave
• on the stove
• pour boiling water.

So you get rid of the spores of pathogenic fungi and insect larvae. On the day of sowing, use Fitosporin solution (1-2 tbsp. l concentrate per 10 liters of water). Pickle the seeds in a proven way: hold for 5 minutes in a solution of potassium permanganate, and then rinse in clean water.

It is not necessary to process with boiling water. The seeds of the potato are small, the shells are thin, when exposed to high temperatures, the seeds can be welded. Moreover, they do not sprout for long, especially their own, collected last year - in 5-7 days.

If you are late with sowing and in a hurry, it is better to soak in a growth stimulator (Epin, Energen, etc.).

Sow the seeds with a small depth - not more than 3-5 mm. The optimum temperature for potatoes is 18–22 ° C.

Last year I saw enough videos and sowed seeds superficially. It was scary to see white roots appear on the ground, crawl somewhere, stretch. I could not stand it and sprinkled them with loose earth. This year, she sowed, as usual: spread it in rows and immediately covered it with a thin layer of earth. I didn’t observe any more nightmares. Roots grew in the ground, stems and leaflets - on the surface, as expected.

Different ways of sowing potatoes

Sowing potatoes can be done in several ways:

• In a regular box or plastic container in rows with a distance of 2 cm between them. In the phase of two true leaves, seedlings dive into cups or pots.
  

  Seeds can be sown in rows in a container

• In peat tablets. Take those in the grids, in them the root system remains compact, does not creep. Sow 2 seeds in small tablets, 4-5 in large ones. When the plants grow, transplant into cups, having previously cut and removed the nets.
  

  You can not remove extra seedlings, but grow seedlings with a bush.

  

  Mesh tablets hold their shape better, but they must be carefully removed before transplanting.

• In the diaper. This method has not been tried except perhaps by the laziest gardener. A strip of toilet paper spreads over the diaper, gets wet, seeds are laid out along the upper edge. Everything is twisted into a roll, fixed with an elastic band or with adhesive tape and put in a glass of water with a layer of 1-2 cm. For picking, the roll is untwisted and the plants are planted in individual containers.
  

  Seed rolls held bottom in water

• In the cochlea (this is a continuation of the previous method). When the first leaves appear, the roll is unwound, the earth is poured with a layer of 1.5–2 cm, moistened and twisted again. You can immediately sow the seeds in a snail with the ground. The method is convenient in that, as the seedlings grow, you can unwind the structure, pull the plants to the lower edge, deepening, and even pour the earth. So the seedlings, as it were, spud and get more nutrient soil. The snail from this every time becomes more voluminous.
  

  A snail is the same diaper, but with the earth

• In individual containers - cups or pots. Ordinary one-time cups (180-200 ml) are filled into 2/3 of the earth. 4-5 seeds are sown in each. In the phase of two true leaves, they do not dive, but add loose soil. When the seedlings become crowded, it is transplanted in larger containers, for example, in halves of plastic bottles.
  

  You can sow potatoes immediately in separate cups, pots, boxes

Potato seeds are also sown in eggshells, in egg cells, home-made cups from a film or newspaper. The range of containers is limited only by your imagination. Potato seedlings are not afraid of transplanting, so you can sow it anywhere, and if necessary move to another container.

Video: sowing potatoes in a diaper-transformer

Growing potato seedlings at home

Potato seedlings need a lot of sunlight. Keep the soil constantly moist, and there should be no stagnation of air at its surface. Ventilate the room with seedlings regularly. Avoid thickened landings. Glasses and rows in a common drawer should be at such a distance that the leaves of adjacent bushes do not close.

Video: picking potato seedlings from an egg cassette into cups

Potatoes love fertile soil, therefore, in addition to watering, they need fertilizing. Every 7–10 days, give her nutrients in the form of a solution of Fertik Lux complete complex fertilizer: 2 g per 1 liter of water or 1 tbsp. l for 10 liters Before planting in open ground, begin to temper the plants, taking them out into the fresh air under the sun's rays. The first days, leave the seedlings on the street for 1-2 hours, then double this period of time every day. After a week of such walks, plants can already be left for the whole day and brought only at night.

Landing and further care

Prepare the place on the site in advance: dig it up, scattering it for every 1 m² 1-2 buckets of compost or humus and a glass of ash. You can bring in a hole - a handful of humus and 1 hour. l ashes.

If you don’t have your fertilizers, buy ready-made mixes for potatoes, for example, Gumi Omi.

Potato bushes from seeds will grow the same size as usual, so the planting pattern is almost the same - at least 60 cm between rows and 30 cm in a row. For more precise parameters, see the packaging of your seeds. Deepen seedlings, leaving 2–4 leaves on the surface.

The first 2–3 days, protect plants from scorching sunlight. The ideal solution is to schedule the landing in rainy weather. Keep track of weather forecasts in order to protect potatoes in time from possible return frosts.

Young plantings need watering, they should be regular at the initial stage, until seedlings get stronger. Continue to feed, but now you can use nitrofoska, azofoska, potato Fertik - 1 tbsp. l one of the fertilizers on a bucket of water. As the bushes grow, spud them with moist soil, spray from the Colorado potato beetle and diseases.

Collection and storage of tubers

Harvest at the time recommended by seed producers. Even if it is autumn, and the bushes are still green and blooming, you need to dig them up. Often, yellow tops does not indicate ripening, but a disease. Healthy potatoes, which are watered and fed, can grow the leaves for a long time, re-bloom, and the next generation will appear on the already ripened tubers. This cannot be allowed, as the presentation of the product deteriorates, starchiness is reduced, which means that taste is deteriorating.

Video: harvesting potatoes from seeds

I managed to keep the mini-tubers until spring. Although in the autumn I mentally said goodbye to them, but to clear my conscience I did the same thing as with ordinary seed potatoes. Dug up, washed in a solution of copper sulfate - 1 h. l on a bucket of water. Laid out in the sun to dry, then kept in partial shade for landscaping. I got few potatoes - 16 pieces from three packs of seeds. I did not divide it into varieties, put it in one fabric bag and stored it in the cellar along with the rest of the seed tubers. In the spring I had 12 tubers left, sprouted them like ordinary potatoes, and planted.
Shoots appeared powerful, the stems are thick, the leaves are juicy, but now I regretted that I did not divide into varieties. Bushes with round leaves again began to become stained and yellow, and with spiky ones they are still healthy. I know from last year’s experience that there will be no more sense from patients, so I pulled out these bushes with roots and carried them away from the garden. Here I have such a sad experience in growing potatoes from seeds, which supposedly does not get sick. Although the packages say that the varieties are resistant to viral and fungal diseases. Now is June, I continue to grow potatoes from my own seeds and the one that I planted with mini tubers from store seeds. In the fall, I will have something to compare and draw conclusions. But I already know for sure: the bushes from my usual selected tubers, which reproductions are unknown, are much healthier and more productive. Perhaps they will be surpassed by potatoes grown from their own seeds. The experiment continues.

Reviews on growing potatoes from seeds

Many years ago, he was obsessed with the idea of ​​cultivating varietal potatoes from seeds, buying different seeds, growing seedlings, watering and fertilizing all summer long... eventually got a handful in the fall tubers of medium size (10-15 mm). Winter storage of this crop was not good, in the spring planted what remained and by autumn, already the second year, something was obtained for further landing. And only in the fall of the third year it was possible to evaluate the yield of the variety, resistance (and even very approximately) to diseases and the varus characteristics. Frankly, most of the varieties went to feed chickens, sorry for the time spent. It’s cheaper to buy, not even the elite, you can immediately evaluate the potatoes visually and boil 1 potato and try. If you like, improve the planting material through propagation by sprouts and enjoy the harvest of 5 years.

I tried to grow potatoes with seeds for a long time. I don’t remember the variety, but from a bag of 25 seeds, 12 pcs. Survived to planting in the ground. In the fall, I collected about half a kilogram of tubers the size of a pea to a chicken egg. Greened and stored in the cellar, sprinkled with straw cutting. Not a single tuber survived the winter, the little thing dried up, rotted larger. That's all.

My neighbor collected uh-uh cones?, what happens after flowering potatoes. Last year. She laid, waited for softening, gathered seeds. Planted in the spring on seedlings, in May planted seedlings in the garden. In the autumn I dug up a good potato. The seeds were mine, planted for the sake of experiment. Why am I writing - suddenly a good variety grows in the neighbors, collect seeds from it.

I grew my potatoes from seeds. When I took the plot, I took the potatoes for planting from my parents, but I didn’t really like it - when boiling, I boiled it in mashed potatoes. And in 2004 I bought 4 bags of seeds - 2 varieties of white and 2 red, unfortunately I did not record the names of varieties anywhere. In February he planted them in pots at home. All rose well, such small shoots - like duckweed. In May, planted seedlings in the country. In the fall I received tubers of all 4 varieties. The tubers of the same variety turned out to be pink oval with white flesh, which I later bred. The second grade - raspberry tubers rounded with yellow pulp, also gave a good harvest, but gradually I transferred it because of the yellow color of the pulp. And two white varieties in the second year of planting already tubers again yielded a crop in the form of "peas" - a trifle - I did not plant them anymore. For 4 years I have already fully planted potatoes grown from seeds, relatives liked the variety, and parents and brothers now also plant it. Harvesting depending on the year is better, it is worse, I plant about 1 hundredths - 30 buckets of potatoes are obtained on average.

Last year, the neighbors bought some new sort of potato and in the autumn there were a lot of rather large seed plants on tops, they allowed me to take them. In the spring I sowed the collected seeds in buckets from under mayonnaise, as there were a lot of seeds sprinkled from the heart (they weren’t purchased, and I didn’t know what germination they had). A few days later I saw that the earth in the buckets rose, as if a bear had walked there, it turned out that all the seeds had hatched and raised the soil. The sprouts were tiny and there were a lot of them, I did not expect this and did not know what to do with them. All wanted to dive them, put off for tomorrow, but there was not enough time, and all places were already occupied by other seedlings. Left for survival, did not even thinn. And so she grew up in buckets with "thick stubble," as she warmed up warmly for several days, and then planted them in the garden. I made grooves with a rag, spilled warm water and planted one sprout, but there were a lot of them, I was tired of it and the last ones were shoved in two, or even three. Then it turned out that in these bushes the potatoes are larger and larger in number. Although the seedlings were tempered and brought out into the street, and the last week before planting, I did not bring them into the room at all, having got on an open place, where the sun also roasted harder and the wind shook a little, several sprouts were gone, but the bulk survived. The husband laughed at first, and then he was surprised, the bushes grew, as if planted from tubers, and large ones even began to bloom. I spud them. In mid-August, they started digging potatoes (from tubers) and this one was still green, they were tortured to fight back from Colorado beetles. Now I dug it up, treated it with phytosporin and put it under a canopy so that it would turn green. It is very interesting what will grow out of it next year, and I’ll probably buy varietal seeds and experiment more.

I tried to grow potatoes from seeds. The variety was seems "Farmer." He took the soil that he had been harvesting from the fall for planting seedlings, and kept it in the country. Prepared it (calcined in the oven and spilled potassium permanganate). He sowed seeds in peat pots 3-4 pieces per pot, poured soil not to the top and sprinkled a little loose soil. I poured it, covered it with glass from above and put it on the battery. Shoots appeared on the 4th day and by the end of the week all the seeds had already sprouted, of course the plants did not have enough light and they stretched out, then he added the earth. Then he brought to the balcony (it is insulated with me) there is more light and cooler than in the room, so hardening began. When potatoes came up already at the dacha, planted by tubers took this one, planted it in open ground. He did everything else like ordinary potatoes: watering, cultivating, fertilizing, and hilling. In the autumn I dug up nodules and it turned out that they were severely affected by scab, in general threw them away so as not to infect the site.

Plant the seeds you find, you will not regret it anyway. This is a very interesting activity. This year I grew from the seeds “Empress”, “Ilona”, “Assol”, “Farmer”, “Ausonia”. She shared nodules with her neighbor. They are of various sizes, will be stored until spring. It is better to grow in a high bed, mulch. And from the super-super-elite she grew up Lyubava, she was from the Arkhangelsk experimental station. I have not tried any more delicious potatoes... She considered "Adretta" the most delicious. Wrong. I gathered the seeds of "Adretta", I will try to sow next year. The north of the station, the better the potatoes! https://7dach.ru/panytany/kartofel-iz-semyan-podelites-opytom-41613.html

Growing potatoes from seeds is a laborious task. The result may not please you. If you want to experiment, start by planting your own seeds or ask the neighbors for bulbs. They grow better, grow together. If you need an elite planting material of a specific variety, then buy ready-made mini-tubers in the store. They may be expensive, but a dozen potatoes are enough for you to grow a whole field of them in 2 years. About the same amount of time you will spend on independently obtaining full planting material from potato seeds.