The potato, so called depending on the place, is the fourth most widely used food crop. Planting potatoes is simple, although preparation takes time and requires a lot of care like other crops.
The potato is not a fruit like the tomato or the pepper, nor is it a seed, but rather a tuber that means a widening of the stem of the plant in the part that is under the ground and acts as a place of accumulation of reserves for the plant.
From the indigenous communities that grew potatoes to the places with the most exquisite cuisines of today, everyone uses this product of the land in the most varied preparations.
One of the difficulties you may encounter is that it is difficult for you to get potato seeds, although you can get them in some businesses or buy them online and receive them at home. If you don’t get them, you can still do it using the same potatoes for reproduction.
What do you need for and when to plant potatoes?
- Potato seeds
- Land prepared for cultivation
- Natural fertilizer: manure
Instructions for and when to plant potatoes
- Before planting potatoes you should prepare the soil well. The land wears out with the crops, so if you have been growing tomatoes, carrots, peppers or other plants for a few years, you will have to prepare the land again, fortify it so that the new plantation is productive. If you grew potatoes one year, it is convenient to let the land rest for a couple of years so that it recovers.
- The sowing of potatoes should be done at the time when there are no longer frosts, that is, at the beginning of spring. Six months before planting you should start preparing the soil, plowing it and turning it over so that it aerates and becomes spongier. You should also place manure on top of the ground without the need to bury it, just above the ground. After a while you remove it until a few days before planting you put manure back.
- If you have potato seeds, place them one cm deep in the prepared soil following the instructions that come on the package. You must plant the seeds and when the plant is about 15cm high, you will transplant them to the final place in the garden.
- If you don’t have seeds, follow these steps: take some potatoes and cut them into quarters, keep in mind that each part of the potatoes must have some holes, called eyes, where the sprouts will come out. Place all the pieces of potatoes in a container and leave them in a humid and warm place, without the sun until you see that small sprouts begin to come out of the eyes or yolks.
- In the ground you must make furrows separated from each other about 60 or 70cm, then prepare the holes about 40cm deep to place the potato pieces. Lay them out carefully and then cover them with the soil you separated.
- Water once or twice a week without flooding the soil, take care that the leaves do not look withered because this indicates that they have little watering.
- From sowing to harvest will take about 4 months. You’ll know the potatoes are ready when flowers appear on the plant and the leaves begin to wilt. It is not necessary to harvest them all together since the green potatoes are not good for eating, so you can harvest the ones that are ready and leave the rest for the following days. In this way you will have potatoes for your consumption for a longer time.
Tips for and when to plant potatoes
- Keep the soil before planting and after planting free of weeds so that the potato plants grow strong. If you keep the soil free of weeds during the preparation season, you will prevent these harmful plants from becoming large during the planting and growth of the potatoes.
- Keep watering even. You can do it once or twice a week; if you flood the soil the potatoes will be ruined.
- You can plant potatoes in a pot as long as it is wide and comfortable.
