Recommended soil temperature for planting potatoes

To get a quality and a plentiful harvest, you need to know what soil temperature is required for planting potatoes in the spring. Of course, in different regions of the country, the climate varies and setting the exact date of landing will fail. The time when potatoes can withstand cooling or warming in the spring directly depends on weather conditions, since only they affect the temperature of the soil.From year to year, the weather at the same time tends to change.

Recommended soil temperature for planting potatoes

In this case, the gardener needs to know when to plant potatoes and chopped Soil should warm up. If you can cope with this task, then your plantings will not freeze and form large tubers. Different soils (chernozem, loam, sandy) each warm up at their own pace. Also, the type of potato you have chosen may require certain recommendations regarding planting dates to be followed.

Folk omens

Why does one of the old omens forbid planting potatoes on Palm Sunday? If this was connected with the ancient Slavic rites, it is also no coincidence. In fact, this is a warning for those who are in a hurry to land. Palm week can begin either in early April or even in late March.Of course, the weather in different regions is different, but still by this time the earth still does not have time to completely warm up.

The most competent predictions are those that relate planting dates to changes in the condition of other plants. For example, you can’t plant potatoes before the leaves bloom on the birch and later than the bird cherry blossoms. You can also stand on future potato ridges with bare feet and stand. If the legs do not freeze, they are comfortable on the ground, then it is quite possible that the potato will feel good in it.

Opinion of scientists

It is clear what the desire is based on You can put the tubers in the ground earlier who doesn’t want the potatoes to grow faster. And this does not contradict the scientific point of view at all. The fact is that the sooner the potato takes root and grows, the more stable its natural immunity to various diseases, in particular viral, will be.

And the early varieties of potatoes manage to fully form tubers and you can get the crop before phytophthora spreads around the gardens, which loves air temperatures of 20-25 ° C and rainy weather, which very often corresponds to the climate of many regions in Russia in the middle of summer.

Optimum soil temperature

What should be the minimum temperature of the soil, to plant potatoes and get a plentiful harvest from it? Take a centimeter thermometer and measure the temperature of the soil.If the soil warmed up to 7-8 ° degrees, then this is already good and such indicators are considered acceptable for cultivation. Be sure to take measurements at a depth of at least 10-12 cm. Pay attention to the air temperature if it stably holds at around 8-10 degrees, then the soil is most likely already suitable for growing your planting material.

Why should the temperature of the soil be so? Because this is the optimum temperature for planting your potatoes. At this temperature, the roots of plants begin to actively penetrate into the soil. If the land is colder than this line, and even saturated with moisture, the sowed crop will most likely begin to rot before it has time to gain volume, and if it does not decay, it will grow.

Even a sprouted crop is unlikely to survive if You will grow it in cold land. A temperature of 1 to 5 is already a risk. Sprouts are slow and reluctant, but they will develop only starting from 3 degrees, but are you sure that there will not be a sharp cooling? Therefore, for the sake of fidelity, wait for the stability of the daily weather.

Soil moisture

Soil moisture can be determined

You also need to pay attention to the soil moisture.Tubers planted at 7-8 degrees, but in too moist soil, will easily become infected with ring rot and a black leg (these are bacterial diseases) or rhizoctoniosis (popularly black scab). The critical level of soil moisture in the spring, which can withstand potatoes 75%.

But how to determine if the soil is too saturated with water, without special devices? In this case, it is recommended to trust the popular experience. Take a handful of earth, squeeze into a lump and stretching out your hand, drop the lump on a solid place. If the lump has crumbled, this means that the humidity does not exceed a critical level. If a sticky dirt ball is lying in front of you, unfortunately you will have to wait while planting, planting potatoes in such land is like throwing it in a swamp.

How to determine the type of soil?

1. If you find in your area a wet and wet lump of dirt that does not crumble when dumped onto the soil, then the type of your garden soil is heavy. This is loam and clay soils.
2. Medium soil is also loam, which differs in light and medium.
3. Light soils are sandy.

Why is it important to know? Because with this method of determination, you can find out what soil is in your garden and what will be the approximate temperature of the soil for planting potatoes. The lighter the soil, the faster it warms up, but also dries out. In light soil, do not pull with planting potatoes.If you miss the right moment, then the plantings will not have enough moisture for development.

There is also another method for determining the type of soil. For this, the gardener needs to pick up a handful of moist earth. Next, you need to roll the soil into a lump and try to roll out, to get something like a sausage. If the sausage is not stubbornly molded, then you have light soil. If it is easily blinded and bent into a ring, the soil is moist and flexible. If it immediately cracks, then this soil is of the middle type. Well, if a viscous strawberry is perfectly molded even in a sausage, at least in something else, then in your area there is solid clay, that is, heavy soil with high humidity. But with moist and clay soils there is no problem with watering.

Preparing for planting

Potato prefers warmth in every sense of the word and does not withstand the cold in spring. The people have such a proverb and it sounds like this: “When everyone spoke, the potato said: Plant me warm, dig me warm and eat me warm too, that’s all I want.” It is worth considering this statement and, if possible, providing warmth to your potatoes. You cannot plant seed that has just come from a damp cellar. Such tubers may not wake up for a long time.