You need to plant high-quality seed potatoes. Every gardener knows this. Any tubers will not work. Therefore, the main questions of gardeners, potato growers - where and what seed potatoes to buy or how to grow, get your own. Seed potatoes are not a cheap pleasure. Growing it is not as easy as it seems, but it will still significantly reduce the cost of planting material. And then it is very important to properly prepare seed potatoes for storage, planting. This is a guarantee of the harvest of any crop. For potatoes - this is also the most important issue.
What kind of potato is called seed
The term "seed potato" may be confusing for some. Usually we call the seed material the seeds of a plant obtained from the testes after flowering. But with potatoes everything is different.
It has a complex life cycle. Like most plants, it produces seeds and from them you can grow a future crop. After flowering, testicles form on the peduncles - small green "tomatoes" - because potatoes, like tomatoes, belong to the nightshade family. After ripening, drying, small seeds are extracted from the testes. These are the seeds.
But unlike most plants, potatoes also produce tubers, which we usually use to produce future crops.
You can, of course, grow potatoes from seeds, but usually these are specially selected, or even specially grown tubers for planting.
Each gardener can get seed material for cultivation in two ways: buy or grow.
Where to buy seed potatoes, which one to choose
Based on her experience in growing potatoes in recent years, she came to the conclusion that it is best to buy it for planting in specialized stores selling seeds. In the store where I have been buying potatoes for planting for several years, a folder with quality certificates is in a prominent place from the seller. What data in this document should I look for?
Firstly, for the reproduction of potatoes - what is it - super-super-elite (SSE), superelite (SE), elite (E), the first reproduction, the second and other reproductions.
Secondly, pay attention to where it was grown and for which regions, experts recommend its cultivation.
I don’t want to load you with special terms, since they are useless for a simple gardener. But without them, it’s hard to understand where potato reproductions come from and how to figure them out.
I will try to present the material as popular and simple as possible.
In the middle of the last century, the technology of microclonal propagation of plants appeared, which made it possible to obtain microboots of potatoes under sterile conditions from a mother plant. Do not think that it is as simple as I wrote. This is a complex multi-step process with sophisticated diagnostic methods. As a result of growing microprobes mini tubers with a diameter of 1-3 cm are obtained.
These mini tubers are planted in the field. This is not an ordinary field, the conditions in it are almost sterile. Neither mini tubers, nor the crop that is planned to be obtained, should receive either disease or pests in the growing process. The resulting crop is the tubers of the first field generation.
Next spring, these tubers of the first field generation are planted and received a reproduction called super-super-elite (SSE) next spring.
The next generation received from the landed super-super-elite will be called the superelite (SE), and the next generation from the landed super-elite, the elite (E).
If you saw potatoes for planting with the designation “first reproduction” in the store, then know that you are buying potatoes received from the elite. And the designation "second reproduction" - means that this is the next generation from the "first reproduction."
With each new stage of reproduction, the risk of infection of the seed material increases.
Elite or superelite tubers can be used for planting for 3-5 years. And after that it is recommended to buy a new planting material.
The use of certified seed tubers for planting reduces the risk of infection of plants with viral diseases, such as dry rot, rhizoctonia, and other diseases.
I didn’t meet in potato growers so necessary for people like me who don’t have an agronomic education, like, for example, the preferred method of preparing this or that kind of potato - how tasty it is in boiled, fried, mashed or crisps. It's a pity!
And further. Carefully inspect the tubers you are about to buy as seed.
They should not be wrinkled - this indicates poor storage in an excessively dry room.
They should not be sprouted. You will not be able to protect it from breaking off sprouts. And some varieties, for example, Nevsky, do not tolerate breakouts - the yield at the same time drops sharply.
They should not have damage (cracks, cuts), stains, rot. Otherwise, you can bring the disease to your site. In addition, there is a high probability of not getting a good, healthy crop.
What potato tubers to leave for seeds
Many gardeners leave small tubers on the seeds, picking them from a common pile of dug out crops. This is mistake. When planting such tubers, you practically select the seed in the opposite direction.
If you decide to leave the seed tubers from your harvest, you should adhere to the following rules.
It is necessary to go through the site, select the most healthy, powerful bushes, with an average or higher average number of stems, the leaves should be healthy, not curled, not curled, without yellow or rusty spots. Choosing bushes for subsequent selection of seed tubers is best when it blooms.
In order not to forget which bushes you have chosen, it is best to note these bushes. You can stick a peg next to the selected bush or tie a bush with some noticeable ribbon-rope.
10-12 days after that, dig up one of the selected bushes, if 70% of the dug out tubers is at least the size of a chicken egg, then you need to cut the tops and two more weeks to dig out all the marked bushes. Let you lose a little in the weight of tubers, but quality will win.
You should not wait until the tops of selected bushes turn yellow. If you pick potatoes for seeds during harvesting, it is very likely that you will set aside tubers infected with diseases, viruses or aphids, the carrier of viruses. The longer he lies in the ground, the more he gets all kinds of sores. That is, you need to dig up potatoes intended for planting 2-3 weeks before harvesting. If in the hole you notice at least one diseased tuber damaged by the disease, then you cannot leave any of this bush on the seeds.
Preparing seed potatoes for storage
How to prepare tubers for storage, for future planting? They must lie down in a furrow on the field for one or two hours. The exposure time on the field depends on the weather on the day of digging. The tubers should not be kept in the open for long periods in hot sunny weather, as they can get sunburn, therefore, they will be poorly stored.
Then, potatoes, selected for seeds, it is recommended to plant greenery, holding it for several days (5-10 days) under a canopy in the shade. Green tubers contain many antibiotics, active immune substances, they are almost not affected by rot. In addition, green tubers are not damaged by mice and rats.
After that, it should be kept warm for one to two weeks. For this purpose, I scatter it in the barn, where my temperature is the same as on the street, but it is dark there - the sun's rays do not penetrate there. Then I lower it to the basement, where the temperature does not rise above 5-7 degrees Celsius.
Growing seed potatoes - my experience in getting tubers for planting
I mark in advance with a colored ribbon those bushes that I chose as seed. I choose the most powerful bushes, with several shoots.
About three weeks after the beginning of flowering, I dig them up.
I wash all the tubers well. This must be done to not only wash away the adhering land, but also diseases.
I spread the tubers for drying.
And then I sort it to discard too small, deformed, damaged potato digging. Tubers of any size except peas are suitable.
Practice shows that the size of tubers for planting does not affect the yield. The quantity and quality of the shoots on the tuber is important. Even if the skin is peeled off somewhere, but there are no other defects, they should not be rejected. The peel will dry out and renew.
The only thing you need to pay attention to is that direct sunlight does not fall on the seed tubers. I leave them under a canopy, in the shade in plastic boxes until the cold weather. Left in the light, they will begin to turn green. This is exactly what I need.
Be sure to periodically turn the tubers over so that the greens are more even on all sides. During this time, they will not only turn green well, but will turn dark green, almost black. By the way, the seed qualities will not suffer from this.
When greening in the tubers, solanine is formed. This is poison. Rats, mice, such potatoes are not touched. But he, of course, is also not good for us for food. One year I was too lazy to green the tubers and, as luck would have it, rats got into the cellar - all the potatoes were bitten, and then rotted a lot. I did not dare to plant them - I had to buy potatoes for planting in the store.
What do we give such a method of harvesting potatoes for seeds with greenery?
Firstly, this method will protect it from degeneration.
And, secondly, the sprouts of it next spring will be strong, thick when germinated, that is, there will be no thread-like sprouts on such tubers.
But the Kuban climate, as I have already said more than once in other articles, is not very suitable for growing potatoes. Hot, dry summers are not conducive to getting good yields.
Yes, I still leave potatoes from my field for planting, especially if the variety is good, tasty, and proven. But still I do not focus on him. Be sure to buy seed potatoes.
And what to do if warming the earth to + 40 ° C (or even higher) during the potato ripening deprives the tubers of the ability to produce full-fledged sprouts. Here is the answer to a common question, why seed potatoes do not germinate. Harvest from such tubers can not get. Potato with filamentous sprouts is not suitable for planting.
Watch the video - a specialist agronomist focuses on the intricacies of seed potato selection.