Potatoes are one of the most common vegetables, without which it is difficult to imagine a summer cottage. The ripening time of potatoes depends on many factors. First of all, this is the variety of tubers itself, as well as climatic conditions. If the first factor can be influenced, then you just have to put up with the second. If the summer is cold, then the harvest may be poor.
After how many days should I dig up potatoes?
When planting potatoes, it is important to consider your region of residence. In different areas, the time from planting to harvesting the same variety may vary due to differences in climate.
Growing season according to potato varieties:
- Early potatoes, the ripening time of which is approximately 50–61 days after planting the tubers in the soil.
- The early ripening variety ripens 66–85 days from the moment of planting in the ground.
- The mid-season variety will ripen 86–95 days after planting.
- Medium late - from 96 to 115 days, after planting the tubers in the soil.
- The ripening period for late potatoes starts at 115 days.
The growing season may vary up or down. Again, this depends on the weather conditions during the season. It is impossible to influence this.
What determines the rate of tuber ripening?
But even if you choose a variety based on the ripening period of the tubers, after planting you cannot be sure that the harvest can be obtained by a specific date. The growing season is influenced by a large number of factors.
Factors that influence the growth rate:
- In what region is the vegetable grown?
- Planted potatoes will grow earlier if you plant the tubers in early May.
- Weather.
- Application of large amounts of mineral and organic fertilizers.
- The growing season of potatoes is shortened if you plant them in nutrient-poor soil. On fertile soil, growth does not accelerate, and the harvest can be harvested until late autumn.
- Lack of moisture also affects how quickly tubers grow. If the summer was dry and there was little rain, then the potato harvesting period is shortened.
If the growing season has been shortened for the last two reasons, then such potatoes will not be as tasty and will also be poorly stored. Therefore, if possible, it is advisable to regularly water the potatoes (if there is no rain in the summer) and before planting potatoes in open ground, add mineral and organic fertilizers to the ground. When the tubers ripen on time, they turn out tasty and can be stored for more than one month.
How to speed up the ripening of potatoes?
You can try to speed up the ripening of potatoes after the flowering period in order to new potatoes I didn’t have to dig it up in the late fall. This will help those summer residents who have delayed planting planting material. You can also try to increase the growth of potatoes if it is a cold and rainy summer.
What to do if the bushes have grown a lot and you can’t delay harvesting?
- The easiest way is to cut off the green tops when the planting material has recently begun to sprout and the bushes have not yet begun to bloom.
- To ensure that potatoes ripen earlier, you can spray the bushes with a solution of copper sulfate 14 days before harvesting. The product draws moisture from the leaves and the maturity of the tubers comes faster. In the same month, the tops begin to become covered with brown spots, curl and dry out.
- You can speed up the ripening of potatoes if you have had a long and cold summer using magnesium chlorate. For 1 liter of water you need to take 25 grams, dilute the chlorate in water and spray the bushes with it. The stages of potato ripening will then be reduced, and after a while it will be possible to dig it up. If the weather is dry, then the potatoes ripen after spraying already on the 6th day.
- To ensure that potatoes ripen earlier than expected, they can be treated with superphosphate. Spray potatoes after flowering. For 1 liter of warm water 25 g of superphosphate. It is better to choose the time for the procedure in the evening.
- Tubers ripen faster if they are germinated before planting in the soil. This is not difficult to do and germination takes little time. Potatoes are germinated in a well-ventilated area. You can put straw or hay on the floor. During the day the temperature should be no more than +15. At night, for complete germination, it needs to be lowered to +7. Sprout potatoes should be in 2-4 weeks. After the first roots begin to grow on the tubers, they are watered with a solution of sodium chloride, ammonium nitrate and superphosphate (15:15:55 per 10 liters of water). After two days, the tubers need to be watered. This will promote growth rate when the potatoes are planted in the soil.
- Drying is another way to speed up growth. The potatoes need to be spread out in one layer (it is not necessary to lay them out so that the sun hits the tubers). After a week and a half, eyes should appear on it. Then you can start planting. Plant dried potatoes in the usual way.
After these procedures, the stages of potato growth will be shortened and then you can safely dig up young potatoes without fear of damaging them in the ground. This question is especially relevant for those summer residents whose plot is located in a lowland, where water accumulates or when the ground contains a lot of peat and potatoes grow slowly.
When to dig up potatoes?
As mentioned earlier, potatoes ripen in different ways. By what signs can you determine that it is time to dig up the crop?
Main signs of potato ripening:
- The main sign by which you can determine that potatoes are ripe is dried tops. In early ripening varieties this may begin at the end of July. After all the tops of the grown potatoes have dried, you can begin harvesting.
- The second important point to pay attention to is the weather. It is better to dig up potatoes in dry and sunny weather. As a rule, potatoes ripen by the end of August. Therefore, it is better not to delay until autumn and do it before the rains. If the shade of the vegetative organs of plants (leaves, stems) is green, then you should think about artificially accelerating ripening.
- Ripening also depends on sowing. If the potatoes were planted at the end of May, then they will have to be dug up no earlier than September. This can be determined by the phases of development of the bushes. If the tops are still green in August, it will take several weeks before they dry out.
Dig potato harvest possible at a temperature not lower than +17 degrees. Then, during storage, the potatoes will not turn black and spoil. The most unfavorable time is the morning hours, when frost has already set in. If you dig up potatoes at such a time, they will quickly wither and cannot be eaten.
After harvesting, it is necessary to collect all tops and weeds. If this is not done, then the next year the area may be overgrown with weeds and then it will take a lot of time to remove them from the garden.
When digging up potatoes, you can immediately select the best and largest tubers for further planting. They need to be left in the sun for several days so that solanine begins to accumulate in the potatoes. The peel should take on a greenish tint. Such tubers will be stored longer and will not be spoiled by rodents. And next year you can grow a good harvest from them.
If space allows, then before putting the potatoes in the basement, you need to keep them in the sun for some time. In this way, you can kill all pathogens and also increase shelf life.
Dried potatoes should be scattered into bags, after discarding spoiled and gnawed tubers. It is advisable to store potatoes away from direct sunlight to prevent them from sprouting. The room should be well ventilated, the humidity in the cellar should be high. By following all the rules of planting and storage, you can eat potatoes all year round.
