Germination of potatoes before planting, including at home, when to start and how to do it right

click fraud protection

The early varieties of any garden culture have always been in special demand among farmers. And this is understandable: getting the crop as quickly as possible is always profitable. But later varieties are more productive and much better in taste. Germination before planting helps to accelerate the maturation of potatoes with a long growing season.

Content:

  • How to prepare potatoes for planting
    • Vernalization
      • Preparing potatoes for vernalization - video
    • Sprouting in the dark
      • How to sprout potatoes under a layer of sawdust - video
    • Warming up
      • Germination of potatoes in the light and planting - video
  • Terms of preparation, planting and emergence of seedlings

How to prepare potatoes for planting

You can prepare potatoes for planting in three different ways:

  • vernalization in the light;
  • germination in the dark;
  • simple warming up.

But whichever option is used, in any case, you first need to select healthy tubers, calibrating them to size. The best planting material is potato with a chicken egg.

Larger tubers, weighing 90–120 g, already need to be cut into halves. You can grow both early and late varieties - in any case, you will collect the crop faster.

Vernalization

This is the best way to shorten the ripening time of marketable tubers and increase the yield of all varieties. During vernalization, root tubercles begin to form on the lower part of the potato, a large number of buds grow, the plant "wakes up" from hibernation. Seed prepared in this way gives quick and friendly seedlings, and the number of shoots is much larger than that of unprepared potatoes. And each new sprout for the season gives an additional ovary of tubers. Therefore, vernalization not only accelerates maturation, but also increases productivity.

The vernalization is a fairly simple operation. Potatoes begin to be prepared 20-30 days before planting, which in Central Russia usually falls on May 1-10. Based on this, we assume that you need to start preparing tubers from about April 1 to 10.

  1. You can simply sprinkle the potatoes on the floor in a bright room in one or two layers at a temperature of + 12-15 ° C or put tubers in boxes. The main thing is the growth points, the so-called "eyes", up.
  2. Once every 5–7 days, tubers need to be sprayed with water to prevent wilting and accelerate the growth of shoots and roots.
  3. Sprinkle with wet sawdust or peat a week before planting. This is done so that the tuber can release roots into the substrate.

Preparing potatoes for vernalization - video

For the prevention of diseases, backfill can be impregnated with solutions of copper sulfate (2 g per 10 l of water), boric acid (2 g per 10 l of water) or methyl blue (3 g per 10 l of water). You can also use other recommended drugs that you fully trust.

Spring potatoes

Only in the light sprouts acquire a normal green color

Tubers correctly vernalized in the light have thick green shoots 2-3 cm long and roots of the same length.

Sprouting in the dark

Germination is carried out in a dark room at a temperature of + 12-15 ° C.

  1. A moist litter layer of peat or sawdust 2-3 cm thick is poured on the floor, or in boxes, or on shelves. On it, the seed material is laid out in one tuber.
  2. Top covered with a covering layer of the same substrate.
  3. Potatoes are laid again on top of it, then wet peat or sawdust.
    Potato under a layer of sawdust

    Put a layer of potatoes on the bottom of the box or on the floor, a layer of sawdust on top, then again the potato and on top of it sawdust or peat

Placing in several layers allows you to prepare on the same area twice as much seed.

Laying three or more rows is not recommended for several reasons:

  • sprouts from the lower layers in the heat will rapidly grow and tear to light, and as a result they will stretch and break when transferred to the field and planted;
  • deep layers (third and lower) are difficult to control. With two-layer placement, it is enough to remove one or two upper tubers to see in what condition the sprouts of the lower layer;
  • multilayer styling is poorly ventilated, and decay processes can begin rapidly below. that spoils the planting material.

Darkness and a wet layer of the substrate create conditions for faster formation of sprouts and roots. Tubers sprouted in this way can be planted in just 12-15 days. Therefore, seed material begins to be prepared 10–14 days later than during vernalization. The main risk here is to overexpose the potatoes for more than this period. It often happens that weather conditions unfavorably develop, frosts or rains occur and there is no way to plant ready-made seed material on time. In the dark, the sprouts and roots quickly lengthen, get confused and either break off when planting themselves, or they have to be torn off. After planting in the soil on the tubers, shoots and roots will grow again. And this, of course, will lead to a lag in development.

How to sprout potatoes under a layer of sawdust - video

When stored in basements with temperatures above + 5 ° C closer to spring, potatoes sprout in the same way with long brittle shoots, which are then simply removed.

If due to weather conditions or for other reasons with this method of germination, the planting dates are delayed, and the sprouts are already too long (more 5–7 cm), the growth of shoots can be stopped only in one way - lower the temperature to + 4–5 ° C and ventilate the room to reduce humidity.

Potatoes sprouted in the dark

Potatoes germinate in the dark in about two weeks, if the room is maintained at a suitable temperature, + 12-15 ° C

With vernalization, preparation takes 20–30 days, for germination in the dark it takes only 12–15 days, that is, almost half as much. This is important to consider, because 30 days before landing there is a real threat of frost returning or it is still winter outside. Therefore, a special room with a temperature of + 12–15 ° C is required for preparation. Such empty areas are not always available, especially when there is a significant amount of seed. But 15 days before planting, as a rule, it is already quite warm, and potatoes can be sprouted anywhere, even on the street in the shade. Darkness of the tubers will provide the upper covering layer of the substrate. In case of frost, you can simply cover the collar (storage) with any improvised material, up to old clothes.

For the prevention of diseases of potatoes, peat or sawdust, as during vernalization (and in the same proportions), can be impregnated with a solution of copper sulfate, boric acid or methyl blue.

Warming up

Warming up is an accelerated or shortened germination, the easiest way to prepare tubers for planting.

  1. Sowing material is not removed from cold stores on the day of planting, but 7-10 days earlier and placed in the shade at a temperature of + 8-15 ° C. As a rule, in the pre-landing period this is already the usual temperature of the street or unheated room, then it can rise higher. If on the second or third day of such germination it warms up to + 20–25 ° C, this will speed up the process.
  2. It is undesirable to immediately pull out planting material from cold basements in the heat: the peel and top layer of potatoes quickly heat up and dry out, tubers will decrease in volume due to moisture loss and wrinkle, and inside will remain cold and wet. Therefore, if the planting material is heated to + 25 ° C, it is better to do this gradually.
  3. For 7-10 days of heating, the potatoes will not have time to give the same sprouts as during vernalization and germination. But hatching small white dots mean that the tubers are “awake” and ready to plant.
    Basement seed

    In a week of simple warming, the tubers will not have time to germinate, but will wake up and be ready for planting

Compared with unprepared potatoes immediately from cold storages, such a simple way accelerates the emergence of seedlings by 4-6 days and increases the yield by about 10%. For spring-grown and sprouted tubers, these figures are higher.

Germination of potatoes in the light and planting - video

Terms of preparation, planting and emergence of seedlings

The usual time from planting to the appearance of the first seedlings, if the seed is not prepared, is about 21 days. Violetized potatoes, planted in well-heated soil, sprouts in 7-12 days.

In practice, there have been cases when tubers with green sprouts, planted in warm soil, germinated on the third day after planting.

Potatoes sprouted in the dark in the same thawed soil hatch more slowly, after about 12-17 days. For warmed seeds under equal weather conditions, the first seedlings appear for 15–20 days.

The preparation of planting material is very important, although it does not determine what the crop will be. The growth and development of potatoes is influenced by many other factors - which variety is planted, how warm the ground is, how will the weather conditions be, what is the structure and nutrition of the soil, is it correct and timely agricultural technology. But how quickly the seedlings appear depends on how carefully the seed is prepared.

© 2019, homeli.ru. Copying is allowed only with a link back to the source

instagram viewer