Planting potatoes: when to start
Most summer residents approach planting potatoes “responsibly and significantly”: in early spring they buy a couple of dozen buckets of seed material and pest drugs. It is not surprising, because potatoes often form the basis of the diet, and therefore gardeners strive to provide themselves with supplies of it for the whole year. But if you protect the future harvest from Colorado potato beetle it is possible with the help of "chemistry", it is almost impossible to predict the whims of nature.
Often all efforts are in vain, when in the morning you go out to the beds, and there are some frozen bushes that were still standing so vigorously yesterday. Most often, the reason for this picture is haste - the whole family has gathered for the weekend, and let's quickly throw the tubers into the holes until the assistants run away. And the ground is still cold, and winter is not yet completely gone and threatens us with recurrent frosts at night ...
To avoid such a fate and preserve the future harvest, you need to know when to plant potatoes, because, like most other garden crops, it loves warmth and reacts painfully to the nighttime drop in temperature.
Compliance with planting dates is a very important point when growing potatoes and "miscalculation" in any direction can not only deprive a tasty and nutritious harvest, but also completely ruin the planting:
- if planted early, the tubers will "freeze" in the cold soil and will just lie and wait for heat, but then they will develop extremely reluctantly and the emergence of seedlings will be delayed;
- if you plant late, the land will already be "dehydrated", and in dry soil without additional watering, the crop will be small.
In addition, failure to comply with the planting dates for potatoes often leads to the development of crop diseases, especially fungal ones.
Landing dates depending on weather conditions
Generally accepted recommendations regarding the time when you can start planting tubers is to follow these rules:
- The soil should warm up to a depth of 10 cm to 8 degrees Celsius or more.
- At night, the air temperature should not drop much, which means that the frost has already ended.
There is no single date for planting potatoes, because in different regions the heat comes at different times. The generalized planting period is considered April-May, but in the southern regions, March planting is also allowed in early spring, while in the northern regions it often shifts until the beginning of June.
Influence of potato variety on planting dates
Everyone has it potato varieties its own vegetative development cycle, which should also be taken into account, namely:
- early varieties are planted first, around mid-April;
- mid-season species - in early May;
- late varieties - at the end of May.
Folk Landing Calendar
Our grandmothers, planning the opening of the garden season, did not use the weather forecast, but rather trusted the facts that had already happened, verified by their own experience. So, according to popular beliefs, it is necessary to plant potatoes no earlier than the bird cherry blossoms and the dandelions bloom, which is fully consistent with reality and scientific recommendations, because at this time the long-awaited warmth comes.But, nevertheless, going to go for a shovel and a bucket of potatoes, check the weather for the near future to play it safe.