The main methods of planting potatoes under straw

Planting potatoes under a straw is not an agricultural technical innovation at all. In this way, potatoes were grown in the 19th century. Then he was unjustly forgotten. Now many summer residents are returning to the old method and note that the crop is getting better, and it takes much less time and effort to care for the plants.If you have the opportunity to buy inexpensive material for shelter or get it for free, be sure to try this method of growing.

Advantages and disadvantages of the method

How do we grow potatoes under straw . Technology, by and large, is a mulching. The soil is covered with a layer of mulch, which protects it from drying out, overheating or overcooling, excessive moisture loss. Like any other method, growing potatoes under straw has its pros and cons.

If you believe the famous gardener Galina Kizima, the method has much more advantages. So, let’s look at the main advantages of this technology:

• Organic and environmental material is used, which can partially replace manure.
• If you plant potatoes under ordinary straw, the care and cleaning of it is greatly simplified.
• Mulch protects beds from weeds and many pests.
• Land under natural shelter does not it overheats and does not dry out.
• The beds do not need to be buried during the summer and weed.
• You can not dig up the garden before planting.
• You can collect tubers without much trouble, simply by hand, or garden pitchfork.
• There is no need to loosen the soil during the cultivation process.
• Harvest after using the technology of planting potatoes in straw, my It’s possible to grow a very large one, in a good year 1:10.

As Galina Kizima claims, she has a method and its drawbacks. Although they do not surpass the advantages of the methodology, they must be taken into account. So, planting potatoes under the straw has the following disadvantages:

• The question arises as to how to grow potatoes using this technology in a large area. To do this, you need a large amount of coating material, which entails significant costs and makes growing unprofitable.
• It is not always possible to get dry grass even to cover a small area.
• If the layer is too thin tuber mulch can turn green.
• Voles, mice, and slugs that can destroy the crop are often planted in a grassy shelter.
• In rainy summers, the coating may rot.

Very often, the method is used by people practicing natural farming, environmentally friendly and without chemistry. After weighing all the positive and negative sides of the technology, you can decide for yourself whether to start growing potatoes under mulch, or follow the usual methods.

Basic methods of growing

There are several ways to grow potatoes under shelter, each with its own characteristics:

• The classic method is how to grow any potatoes under a straw, in which tubers do not drip. It is the simplest, greatly facilitates landing and care. But it requires a large amount of material, the tubers sometimes turn green, the yield is lower.
• The combined method, when root crops are sprinkled with earth. More productive, but the landing is a little more difficult.
• With a thin layer of mulch. In this case, we bury the tubers in the ground, while the mulch is used much less. The yield is quite high.

In a dry climate, for example, in the Kurgan region, you can use the first method. Where it is wet, as in the Smolensk region, it is better to dig tubers. Rains can erode the mulch, it will begin to rot along with the crop. If the tubers are in the ground, they will be better preserved and grow.

It is also good to use hay as a mulch. Potatoes under hay are preserved and grow no worse, and dry grass costs less. Hay should not be too damp and fresh so that the tubers do not rot.Before planting, weeds should be discarded with seeds, otherwise they will sprout in the garden.

Classic way of planting

How to grow potatoes under straw or hay in a classic way? It is necessary to prepare the site correctly in the fall. If this is virgin soil, on which nothing had grown before, you can simply dig it upside down over clods of land with grass so that the roots of weeds stick up. During the winter, the grass rots and fertilizes the site. If the garden was used, you can plant siderata plants at the end of summer. These include lupine, mustard, oats, rye, phacelia. In the spring, they dig up the soil and do not even need to especially fertilize the beds. This bio-farming allows you to grow environmentally friendly products at no extra cost.

The next step is to prepare the tubers for planting potatoes in the hay. To get a faster crop, seed should be sprouted. For this, the tubers are stacked in boxes, lightly sprinkled with earth or sand, and placed in a cool, bright place. After a few days, weak sprouts will appear in place of the eyes. Large tubers should be cut, small tubers can be planted whole.

The next step is to prepare the cover material. It does not have to be fresh, part of the mulch can be preserved even after last year’s planting.Before planting potatoes under the straw, you need to check whether there is rot and mold on it.

Next, moisten the area, slightly loosen the top layer with a garden rake, and then lay the tubers. Potatoes are planted at a distance of 30 cm between tubers and 70 cm between rows. Top them should be sprinkled with ash, as potash fertilizer. Further buried potatoes in the hay. The layer of mulch should be at least 25-30 cm. Some gardeners advise pouring about 50 cm of mulch so that the tubers do not turn green.

Growing further potatoes under the hay is very simple. It is necessary to ensure that the mulch does not give too much sediment, pour an additional layer on time. When the height of the stems is 10-12 cm, a small mound is created near them. You also need to ensure that the ground under the shelter is not too dry or wet. In the first case, the beds are gently watered so that water does not get on the stems of the leaves. In the second – the mulch is slightly loosened and turned over.

The potato in the straw ripens very quickly. Harvest can be obtained after 12 weeks. Harvesting potatoes grown in such an interesting way is very simple. It is necessary to remove the cover layer, and collect the tubers with gloves. Some may be partially in the ground, they can be dug with a hoe or hoe.

Combined method

This method of growing potatoes under a straw involves a more sophisticated technology. Earth in the autumn is preparing almost the same as in the first case.You need to slightly loosen it. Before planting potatoes under straw in the spring, they dig grooves up to 5 cm deep on the bed. Ready-grown sprouted tubers are laid out at a distance of 25-30 cm from each other and lightly sprinkled with earth. The soil layer should be no more than 3-4 cm thick.

Sprinkle with a layer of mulch 25-30 cm thick on top of the beds. Some gardeners recommend putting a little humus, compost or wood ash in the holes so that the potatoes grow better under the straw. This method of growing any potato on straw is more reliable. Tubers root better, they do not turn green under the sun, rot less in the rain. But seedlings may appear a little later, especially with a thick layer of mulch.

If you grow potatoes in the hay, you don’t need to look after them. Soil moisture is not as critical as in the first case. Earth better absorbs excess water and retains it in case of drought. But there is a negative nuance of this method, seedlings and crops appear later. To speed up the process, you can make the mulch layer a little thinner.

After this method of planting, the crop can be obtained in 14-15 weeks. Much depends on the variety. For example, early Antoshka matures faster, but her yield is lower. Late varieties are well stocked for the winter. They are well stored and gives a greater yield. Digging potatoes out of the ground is a little harder. But a shovel is also not needed here, just take a garden pitchfork or a hoe.After harvesting, the straw mixes with the ground and becomes fertilizer.

Growing potatoes with a small amount of straw

To grow potatoes in the two previous ways, you need a lot of material. To get or buy it is not always an opportunity. If the field is large, then the costs simply do not pay back. How to grow potatoes in straw then? There are methods in which its consumption is much less. They can be used even on a large plot.

How can potatoes be grown in straw if there is little mulch? The order and sequence of steps are almost the same as with a combined landing. Only the grooves into which the tubers burrow should be deeper, approximately 7-10 cm. It is better to germinate the seed before planting. A little compost or humus is poured into the holes, because potatoes can not be grown under straw without fertilizers anyway.

The tubers are planted at a distance of 25-30 cm from each other, the distance between the rows is 65-70 cm. they are sprinkled with a layer of earth so that it completely covers the planting material. Then hay or other material is poured over the rows, forming something like houses or pyramids. It turns out that the potatoes are buried in the hay. Aisles can be left free or sprinkled with a thin layer of hay.This will prevent weeds from growing, protect against aphids and the Colorado potato beetle.

Why is it better to plant potatoes under straw in this way? First of all, it is cost savings. After a few days, the thatched houses will sit down, after which they will not be scattered by any wind or rain. Tubers will not turn green due to lack of mulch. Hay between rows will effectively prevent weed growth. The main thing is that there is no seeds of harmful plants in the dry grass.

After planting potatoes under a straw, you no longer need to take care of it. In autumn, the “houses” are picked and dug up the grown tubers. The land will be loose enough so that harvesting is not labor-intensive. It is very convenient to grow potatoes in hay on clay soils. After the harvest, the mulch can be left, it will rot, and after a couple of years the soil will turn into a real black soil, it will be fluffy and easy to process.

Useful tips

You read, how to plant potatoes under straw and what cultivation methods exist. Now a few useful tips to help make the process even more effective.

• If you have nowhere to get the cover material, you can grow it yourself. To do this, the garden is divided into two parts. Vika, oats and peas are mixed on one, and potatoes are planted on the other in the usual way. In autumn, do not remove the mixture of cereals and legumes from the first half, in spring you will plant potatoes under hay, which will remain from last year.
• You can plant the plants under the hay, and cover with cardboard on top. Cross-shaped incisions are made over each tuber in cardboard. This method is suitable for a small area, since cardboard is a rather expensive material.
• To prevent phytophthora from attacking plants, you need to pour milk whey or skim milk ten days after emergence.
• If you want a really good crop, run under the mulch of earthworms. They well loosen the soil and fertilize it with the products of their livelihoods.
• Potatoes in the hay and cultivating it can be prepared in the fall, laying mulch on the beds. In the spring they pick it up, plant tubers, and again return it to its place. You can refresh the mulch with fresh dried grass.
• By digging in the tubers, you can add ash, 1 tablespoon under the bush to the wells, and pour a bucket of slurry on 3-4 bushes.
• Plant potatoes it is possible under straw and not only. A good option is chopped stalks of corn, sunflowers, pea and bean tops, flax.
• You can lay hay in two stages. First put the tubers, then sprinkle them with a layer of humus and 10-12 cm mulch. After a few days, when the hay settles down, add another 15-20 cm. Such potato cultivation in the hay is more effective, you can harvest a lot.
• If the soil is alkaline, a little peat is mixed into the mulch. Acidic soil is neutralized with wood ash.
• If we plant potatoes under straw in a rainy year, it can rot. Therefore, it is necessary to slightly move the mulch from the stalks so that the leg remains completely free, to make the hay layer thinner.

You can see how to plant potatoes under straw in the spring in a video tutorial, where the whole algorithm of actions is shown step by step. There are no special difficulties in this. You only need to have a sufficient supply of mulch. Unfortunately, in large fields this method is not very acceptable, it is too expensive. Therefore, growing potatoes under the mulch is more popular among summer residents.

Conclusion

If you go to any agricultural forum, look at the harvests of 2017, you can read very different reviews about this method of cultivation. How many people, so many opinions. Some write about very high yields, others speak of technology as a fairy tale. Try to say goodbye in more detail, what method the critics planted, and how many people who leave positive feedback received a crop. Then you can draw at least approximate conclusions for yourself.

If you still doubt, ask an experienced agronomist. He will tell you that the methodology has quite scientific grounds.In industrial conditions, methods of planting potatoes under ordinary straw are not used. But similar technologies are applied – planting under an agricultural film. This technique is cheaper, but has its drawback. The film does not become fertilizer like dry grass or plant stems.