How to grow potatoes in a rainy summer and get an excellent harvest? What needs to be done to preserve plants and tubers? Potato lovers have been thinking about this for a long time. There are certain tips that will help in resolving these issues.
Moisture and potatoes
The plant itself is very moisture-loving. But excess moisture can lead to massive crop loss. Heavy rain damages potatoes to the same extent as drought. A summer resident should arm himself with knowledge of how to help plants, care for them and maintain productivity.
The first watering is carried out only after the seedlings appear above the ground; this should not be done before. The sprouts get everything they need from the tuber used during planting.
If there is a lack of moisture, the roots stop growing and the stems begin to dry out. Therefore, watering should not be done according to a schedule, but based on weather conditions.
Determine if you need watering potatoes At this time, a simple check of the soil moisture depth will help. If it is 6–7 cm, then the plants should be watered.
There is no point in watering immediately after the rains; it is not advisable. It is necessary to ensure an abundant supply of moisture during bud setting and the flowering period. It is necessary to maintain humidity even after the plant has flowered. It should be remembered that changes in moisture have a detrimental effect on the root crops of some varieties; they crack.
How to save the potato harvest in a rainy summer
Preservation of crops during different periods of the growing season:
- How to grow tubers if the rain has turned the garden into a complete swamp? The root crops had not yet sprouted, and the area was flooded. What measures need to be taken? Most likely, most of the tubers have rotted in the ground, the smell will attract pests, then everything else that was able to survive after the flooding will be at risk. Rotten vegetables must be removed after the area has dried a little. New root crops are planted in place of the missing seed material.
Potatoes are negatively affected by the presence of a crust that forms after rain. Insufficient air supply to the tuber will lead to its rotting and subsequent deterioration.
- Further care involves controlling humidity during growth.If it rains after the plant has flowered (after 3-4 weeks), you can remove the tops. Many summer residents say that the skin of the fruit will not ripen and will remain soft, and such fruits cannot be eaten. This is a wrong judgment. This will not only not affect the plant and root crops, but will also help save the sprouts from the development of late blight after prolonged rains.
If the stems are left, they will certainly be affected by the disease and the rain will wash away all the zoospores into the garden, they will end up on the tubers. Such potatoes can no longer be called healthy. When it rains, mown tops will prevent the plant from becoming infected, and instead of being burned, it can be used for any purpose. For example, covering plants left on the site during the winter. And the root vegetables themselves will grow a normal thick skin in the ground in 1–2 weeks and will be ready for harvesting.
- Storage. Vegetables harvested in rainy weather, this also applies to potatoes that were grown in rainy summers, do not need to be immediately put into storage rooms. It should be thoroughly dried for about a month.
It is possible to save the crop if flooding occurs, but it is a complex and difficult process. It all depends on the diligence and hard work of the summer resident.
Prevention measures
Summer residents have been struggling with this scourge for a long time. They came up with ways to plant potatoesthat can reduce the effect of excess moisture:
- Planting in high beds. Potatoes grown in such conditions do not get so wet. A drainage layer is applied to the base of the ridges; its composition is determined by the characteristics of the soil.
- Potatoes are planted in double beds, which are raked very high. At the same time, the planting depth is only 6–8 cm, and the row spacing is wide.Gradually, over the course of a season, the beds are hilled up, thereby allowing the tubers to develop normally. The potatoes themselves remain above the ground level, and excess moisture flows down.
By planting potatoes in the garden in these ways, you can improve the situation and save the harvest.
Advice from experienced summer residents on solving this issue
Gardeners recommend carrying out preventive work, because it is impossible to revive rotten fruits.
- Chimera. At potato care prevention is important. To get a large harvest, the following work is carried out. In the area allocated for cultivation, rye is sown in the fall. In the spring everything is dug up. Seed material, also starting in the fall, is sorted, carefully sorted, and reviewed several times during the winter. It would be better to plant the tubers in a high bed. More air gets to the roots and the plant will not get sick.
- Catherine. We grew crops during the rainy season, everything was washed away and flooded, and almost nothing could be revived. Now I plant everything in high beds, it’s safer. The harvested crop must be carefully sorted, discarding all suspicious vegetables. Before storing the tubers in storage, you can dust them with chalk or wood ash. Nothing will happen to the potatoes; this will prevent the development of rot and various pests. All root vegetables should be placed in several boxes, otherwise all the neighboring tubers located next to the one that goes bad first will begin to rot. During the winter, you can sort through the potatoes several times, but do it very carefully.
- Svetlana. Potato beds should be looked after very carefully in rainy summers. It is necessary to ventilate the soil; to do this, weeds are weeded, the soil is hilled, or simply loosened.Two weeks before harvesting, the tops are mowed, thereby drying the soil and directing all the forces into the tubers.
Care, prevention, care of the summer resident about the plants, this will help save the potato harvest on inclement summer days.
