How to plant potatoes under straw right?

Potato is considered the most popular vegetable, many of us love it very much. No summer resident passes this crop and tries to grow a rich crop in their area. But often it's not so easy. Many ways of growing such a vegetable have been tried, but not many know how to plant potatoes under a straw. Let's consider this method in more detail. But for a start, it's worth mentioning a little about what needs to be prepared before planting potatoes.

First preparation

Before we begin to understand how to plant potatoes under the straw, it is worth mentioning the procedure for preparing the main link of this chain: the earth. Before the beginning of work it is dug. To improve the growth of such a crop, it is necessary to introduce complex fertilizers and minerals that will give the soil the necessary trace elements and at the same time help to decontaminate it. They may include:

• Humus. It is better if it is not fresh, but the one that has lain 2-3 winters.
• Compost from plant waste. This includes remains of moldy bread, potato peelings and other waste from the table. Before use, they are mixed and poured with water. The resulting mixture is evenly distributed on the ground.
• Shredded eggshell. It has a good disinfecting effect.
• Ash. It must necessarily be woody. With its help you can prevent the appearance of a wireworm.
• Onion husks. Preliminary it is carefully dried, grinded and simply sprinkled with earth.
• Dried and shredded crusts of orange and lemon. Their scent will scare away rodents.

Having made all the necessary fertilizers, the ground should be loosened by rakes. Remove all large lumps after digging. Now go to the landing. And then you need to pay special attention to the seed material.

What to plant and how to choose

To know how to grow potatoes under straw, you need to choose it correctly and buy it in the store. Only good potato seeds are recommended for planting. If you buy them, then try to do it with trusted people, and it's best to do similar purchases in specialized stores. It is worth looking at the appearance of potato tubers. They must be complete without cuts and dents. Good seed potatoes are the size of a chicken egg. If you notice signs of disease on the tubers, it is better to refuse to purchase such seed. Also decide on the type of potatoes. To date, there are many, so everyone decides whether he will grow early-ripening potatoes for food or later, which can be stored. After selecting the seed potatoes, proceed to planting it. Here, too, has its own nuances.

Ways of planting potatoes

Planting potatoes under the straw is one of the most interesting and new species. Using this method, you can forget about what it is like to dig through endless patches of land, weed and culture. But to plant potatoes under the straw was successful, and you got a good harvest - it is worth following certain rules and advice.

Preparing the ridge for landing

If you have wondered how to plant potatoes under the straw, then start to prepare the place in time. In autumn, the selected territory should be cleared of weeds. It's enough just to trim all the grass with a trimmer. On the edges of the ridge it is necessary to set the pegs and pull the rope to mark the ridges. Before laying straw, lay fertilizers on the ground, for example, peat and humus. Then start forming the beds from the straw. Each should be about 30-40 cm in height. We leave everything to winter in this form.

It's high time.

In the spring, when you again asked yourself how you can plant potatoes under the straw, you should follow this algorithm:

1. We take the usual small stick, seed and go to our garden.
2. We pierce the straw with a stick.
3. In the resulting hole we put one tuber.
4. We close the hole with straw.

We decided to simplify the task of planting this heavy culture, choose a method such as potatoes under the straw. How to plant - with you are divided experienced gardeners, those who constantly practice this method. They all do a little differently:

1. After we have cleared the earth of weed grass, it is necessary to loosen it to a depth of about 10 cm. It can be done using an ordinary planar. It will greatly facilitate your work.
2. Mix peat with loose earth.
3. Then directly on the ground we lay potato tubers and sprinkle them with a little ground.
4. From the top to a height of up to 20 cm, everything is well thrown straw.

Experienced summer residents believe that you should not throw the tubers at once with all the straw. It is worth doing it as necessary. As soon as the potato has grown in length about 10 cm, we add more straw to the height of about 20 cm. Thus, the soil will have time to warm up well, and the potatoes will ascend much faster. Also, the long experience of some summer residents shows that it is not necessary to water the potatoes very often. To do this, enough rains. Straw perfectly keeps moisture for a long time. Otherwise, all the potatoes will simply rot away from excessive moisture. How to plant, we have figured out. It remains only to wait for the result. It should be noted immediately that the shoots will be much later than with the standard planting, so do not panic, but patiently wait and take care of the culture. The described method is convenient because if you want to eat a young potato, you do not need to dig out the entire bush. It's enough just to spread the hay and choose large tubers for eating. All small ones stay in their place until the right time. Straw contributes to good penetration of moisture. According to some reports, many gardeners grow up to 600 kg of potatoes in a similar way for the season on their plot. Also, experienced gardeners part of the straw is replaced with fallen leaves, chopped reeds, hay or sunflower stems. All of them will fruitfully influence your future harvest of potatoes.

Caring for potatoes under straw

Now you know how to plant potatoes under straw. Next, what you need to remember is about caring for her. It, in practice, is no different from caring for the traditionally planted potatoes, namely:

• Potatoes like watering, especially in a dry summer. It is worth doing about once a week. It's better if you water with special diffusers. So the water will be evenly distributed throughout the territory, while the tubers will not be flooded by it.
• Before planting, potatoes can be treated with a special solution from various parasites. It can be purchased at household or specialty stores. In the future, they are absolutely harmless to humans and seeds.
• If the straw was blown off by a strong wind, you need to quickly cover the potatoes again.

No more care is required potatoes under the straw. How to plant and care, we considered. It remains to analyze all the minuses and pluses of this method of planting.

All "for"

How to plant potatoes under the straw are known to many, they also know all the advantages of this method:

• Unlike the standard landing, this does not take much time and effort.
• The yield of crops is increased several times.
• Tubers are much less susceptible to the attack of the Colorado beetle.
• No need to weed and hoe. Weed grass simply does not grow under the pressure of straw.
• Do not dig up the land to plant potatoes. It is enough just to loosen to a shallow depth.
• If the summer with moderate rain, potatoes can not be watered at all. Straw holds water well.

But along with all the pluses this method has opposers. And that's what they say.

Voices "against"

There are always people who are comfortable with everything, but there is also a downside to the coin. How to plant potatoes under the straw, many summer residents know, but not all consider it advisable to do so. And there are a number of reasons for this:

• Where to get the straw? If you do not have your own field or meadow, then you must decide where to find the straw and how to deliver it. Preparing the straw yourself is also a troublesome business.
• In the straw, mice and various pathogenic bacteria and insects can easily turn up. This can greatly damage the harvest.
• If you save and cover the potatoes poorly, it will just turn green and all will become worthless. It can no longer be stored and eaten.

As you can see, the disadvantages are less than the pluses. Therefore, it's up to you, it's worth studying how to plant potatoes under straw, or not. Scientists also spoke about this method of growing a loved one by everyone.

Scientific approach

Scientists, having carried out research, have proved that in such an environment that straw forms, plants are not subject to such adversities as: wireworm, phytophthora and all known Colorado beetle. This is achieved through a special environment, which is born in straw mulch. It is inhabited by insects that do not allow the reproduction of herbal parasites. The natural and balanced microclimate that forms under the straw, heals the country soil and makes it more productive and fertile for further crops.

Finally

Summarizing, we can safely say that theoretically we have learned how to grow potatoes under a straw. It's up to you: you should apply your knowledge in practice or not. If the first time something went wrong, do not give up. Try it next year. For the first time, you can try to plant only a part of the land in this way. Then you just evaluate your work and the result, and draw conclusions, will you plant potatoes under the straw or not.