Summer residents work all day long on their plots. Each of them strives to get a rich harvest. Many people work very hard, leaving no time for themselves and personal concerns. Galina Kizima is a practicing gardener who has spent years developing ways to grow various crops that are close to natural ones. Growing potatoes using the Kizima method is simple, just study carefully and follow the simple instructions correctly.
Who is Galina Kizima?
She is an ordinary person, at one time she even received an education as a physics engineer.But she soon realized that this was not for her, and began to do what she loved. Having a small plot of land at her disposal, she realized how much the soil was depleting, so she decided to develop new ways of planting, caring for and growing plants.
The basic rules of her methods:
- Don't dig.
- Do not water.
- Do not remove weeds.
There is no need to disturb the soil excessively; plants already know what they need for growth and development. But you still have to work, the method is not so simple.
Galina has written many books for amateur gardeners. Her followers note the great benefits of the advice, while skeptics continue to adhere to other rules in growing. Those who want to learn something new and useful will find answers to many questions in her books.
Galina places great emphasis in her works on pensioners who, for health reasons, cannot spend much time on the site. She tries to reduce the labor intensity of the conventional process as much as possible.
Landing Features
Gardeners for years plant potatoes into the ground, apply fertilizers and treat with chemicals. Galina Kizima introduces innovation in this regard, inviting summer residents to try planting tubers in a compost heap on the surface of the soil. The beds do not need to be watered, weeded, or fertilized. The potatoes themselves do not need to be buried or dug up. In addition, if necessary, you can take a small part of the crop, and the rest of the bush continues to grow and form tubers without visible damage.
Practicing gardener Kizima took into account the peculiarities of the growth and development of potato crops in her observations.
According to her method, potatoes are laid directly on the ground, covered with mown grass or hay. As the bushes grow, the stems are covered with straw or weeds from another part of the site. Under no circumstances should tubers be exposed.They will begin to turn green, accumulating substances harmful to the human body.
Skeptics consider this method unaesthetic, since from the outside the potato beds appear unkempt. Galina herself advises carrying out a series of works sequentially:
- Preparation of planting material.
- Planting.
- Caring for plants.
- Harvesting.
She describes each point in detail in her writings.
How to prepare potatoes for planting?
Preparatory work should begin 30-45 days before the expected landing day. Tubers the size of a chicken egg are selected. If the tubers are smaller, then they are placed in 2-3 pieces to ensure the number of stems necessary for a normal harvest.
Potatoes must be sprouted; at the time of planting, the sprouts should be 4-5 cm in length. First, the selected planting material is washed, then soaked in water, the temperature of which is +45 ⁰C. The tubers are kept in it until the water cools to +18-20 ⁰С. At this point, add a separately diluted solution of potassium permanganate. The water in the container with the potatoes should turn slightly pink.
Leave the root vegetables in the solution for 15 minutes. Then the water is drained and the tubers are washed. As an option, use Fitosporin. Dilute a weak solution and keep the tubers in it for 30 minutes. Then take it out of the water and dry it. In this case, additional rinsing is not necessary.
The tubers are kept in direct sunlight for 21 days, turning green, thus the summer resident protects the potatoes from pests and rodents that are afraid of corned beef. It is produced under the skin of tubers, under the influence of the sun.
There are several options for this process; summer residents place jars of potatoes on the windowsill and constantly turn them. Or put it on a newspaper on the windowsill.
The last stage of preparing planting material is germination.To do this, the tubers are placed in a cardboard box. Lay out in one layer, covering with newspaper, then the next layer of potatoes, then newspaper again, and so on as many layers as the container allows. The whole process will take 2-3 weeks.
Galina Kizima advises planting potatoes after the bird cherry blossoms.
Potato planting process
The peculiarity of the Kizima method is that the tubers are laid out on the weeds. Make 2 rows, leaving a distance of 50 cm between them, and 20-25 cm between the potatoes. On each side of the edge of the bed, leave 25 cm per 1 m, placing 4 tubers in each row. The resulting bed takes from 80 to 100 cm, the length is determined by the summer resident.
Why is it so important to select tubers of a certain size? Potatoes that are too small will produce a weak harvest. Planting material that is too large will develop powerful stems. Large root vegetables must be cut lengthwise into 2 halves. Let it sit for several days, then dust it with wood ash. Only then plant in prepared compost.
To increase the number of stems, 7 days in advance, cut off the skin in the middle of the potato in a thin strip across the tuber. This will help awaken the sleeping kidneys that are in reserve.
The site is selected on the sunny side; lack of lighting will lead to the growth of green mass.
The final stage of planting is protection from frost. Dry and breathable material is used to protect potatoes. To prevent the wind from blowing away dry plant residues, hay or leaves, use burlap or spunbond. Do not apply film under any circumstances, as this will cause the covering material to begin to rot.
Aftercare
Hilling potatoes is a familiar process for every summer resident; the same should be done with potatoes grown using the Kizima method. The only difference is that they do this not with the help of soil, but with weeds and plant debris.
When the threat of returning cold weather has passed, the covering material is removed. And throughout the summer they carefully monitor the beds. Since the compost gradually settles, young tubers become bare and begin to turn green, this cannot be allowed. It is necessary to constantly add, covering the lower part of the plants, without covering the emerging potato stems.
Watering is not required, since when overheated, the liquid flows to the root system, nourishing and moisturizing it. You shouldn’t be afraid of the appearance of weeds; they die under the grass layer without even sprouting.
Planted potatoes require virtually no care. With the exception of the mandatory procedure of picking flowers and constantly adding a compost layer.
Galina recommends plucking flowers for the reason that the bush devotes all its energy to the formation of tubers, without being distracted by the formation of seed material.
Harvest time
In order to properly navigate, leave several flowers in different beds. As soon as the color begins to fade, the potatoes are ready to eat. To collect the required number of tubers, the compost is pushed aside and only large root crops are collected, small ones are left untouched and given the opportunity to grow a little more.
After the entire harvest is harvested, the potato tops are not thrown away, leaving them on the garden bed, dried under the sun, and left for the winter.
Advantages and disadvantages of the Kizima method
Skeptics find a lot of negative things in this method, but in fact there are much more positive ones.
Advantages of the technology:
- High yield.
- The tubers are large.
- No need to water, weed or fertilize.
- Minimum expenditure of effort and time.
- Maximum useful substances.
- The tubers are collected selectively, giving the small root crops the opportunity to grow further.
- Harvesting is very easy.
- Saving money.
Minuses:
- Unattractive appearance of the beds.
- Possibility of disease development and pest attacks.
- Over large areas it is physically impossible to remove the color.
- The larva of the Colorado potato beetle overwinters well in the compost layer.
Sometimes you should try something new to see for yourself that the method works. Grow Potatoes using this method and evaluate its advantages and disadvantages.
Reviews from summer residents
A beginning gardener is looking for help from like-minded people. To do this, he visits websites and looks for comments from experienced gardeners. The following is said about the Kizima method:
- Gregory: “I’ve been growing potatoes using her method for several years. This is not to say that it is simple. But it works great yield increases, potatoes at the same time clean.”
- Ekaterina: “I didn’t like planting potatoes this way, the garden is like a landfill. And you need to tinker a lot.”
Galina Kizima calls herself a “smart sloth” who, in order to save time and effort, invents more efficient ways to grow crops in small areas.
