At first glance, growing potatoes is not difficult at all. But to obtain a plentiful and high-quality harvest, there must be suitable weather conditions, the required amount of nutrients in the soil, high-quality seeds and the absence of diseases and pests. In order for this unpretentious vegetable crop to delight gardeners every year with its delicious fruits, it is necessary to take advantage of foreign experience and try to grow potatoes using Dutch technology..
The best potatoes from Holland
Dutch potatoes have a strong immunity to common potato diseases. For its cultivation, only natural varieties and hybrids are used. The most popular of them are Asterix, Cleopatra, Mona Lisa, Eba, Prior and Frisia. Each variety has different ripening periods, which makes it possible to significantly increase the amount of harvest.
Features of Dutch technology
Dutch methods of growing vegetables and berry crops are already known to many of our gardeners and vegetable growers. For example, the Dutch technology of growing strawberries is successfully applied. Now you can enjoy strawberries all year round.
With potatoes, you can also achieve the same result if you accurately and accurately fulfill all the requirements related to agrotechnical measures. For example, one of the important details of Dutch technology is the frequent and regular loosening of the soil for maximum aeration. Potatoes are grown in special earthen ridges at a great distance from each other. Compliance with all developed agrotechnical processes, care rules will help to get a decent harvest from each bush – about 2 kilograms of potatoes.
Important conditions:
- Only natural varieties of potatoes of the first or second reproduction should be used as planting material..
- It is necessary to change the place of planting potatoes every year, be sure to take into account the predecessors. The best of these are grains..
- The composition and quality of the soil in potato beds is of great importance. She shouldn’t be lacking in nutrients.
- It is necessary to carry out preventive measures to prevent the possible appearance of pests and diseases. Spraying with chemicals must be early and effective.
- In the autumn and spring, soil cultivation should be carried out in accordance with special technological requirements and recommendations and with strict adherence to all deadlines..
Not everyone succeeds in harvesting the expected rich harvest. There are various reasons for this. One of them is insufficient land area. Often the beds are located very close and densely, and the crops – predecessors are not taken into account at all, plus the low quality of the planting potatoes.
Growing potatoes using Dutch technology
How to properly prepare the soil
Even in the autumn, soil preparation begins for spring planting. First, the entire land plot must be plowed well, and then organic additives, mullein, superphosphate (500 grams per one hundred square meters) and potassium salt (200 grams per one hundred square meters) must be added to the soil. Cultivation of the soil is necessary for the complete destruction of the weed root system on the site.
When plowing again in early spring, it is advisable to add urea to the soil (about 500 grams per one hundred square meters).
Cultivation in a small summer cottage can be carried out using conventional garden forks, and in large garden or farm fields, a disc cultivator must be used. Cultivator – the milling cutter will help to perform all the difficult physical work: it will not only crush and loosen the ground, but also level it and dig in.
Selection and preparation of planting potatoes
Seeds for planting must strictly comply with the following requirements:
- Size approximately 50 millimeters in diameter.
- Maximum germination.
- 100% natural grade.
Planting material must be germinated until the formation of potato sprouts of a certain size. For planting in a summer cottage, the shoots can be five or more millimeters in length, and in the fields, using agricultural machinery, the length of the shoots should not exceed 5 millimeters. Longer branches break off easily during mass planting.
Before planting seeds, you need to make sure the soil is ready. The determination of soil moisture is carried out in a simple way: you need to pick up a handful of earth in your hand, squeeze it tightly, and then throw it. If the soil is ready for planting, then the lump of earth will easily crumble..
In each planting hole, you first need to pour a small amount of onion husks (to scare off potato pests), then a handful of ash, and already on top of the potato tuber upwards.
Planting potatoes using Dutch technology
If you plant potatoes in early spring, then the green part of the bush will grow more actively, and the root part will form potato tubers at an accelerated rate. The distance between potato holes during planting should not be less than 75-90 centimeters. If such proportions are observed per one hundred square meters, a maximum of about a thousand potato tubers for varieties of medium and late ripening times and about 700 tubers for early varieties will be required..
Basic requirements for caring for potatoes
Caring for potato beds begins with processing the aisles. At the summer cottage, such processing is recommended to be carried out seven days after planting, and in fields and plots of a large area – after 15-20 days. During this period, potato sprouts are as close as possible to the soil surface, and the weeds are already raging in full swing. Row-spacing is precisely aimed at controlling weeds as much as possible. After all, they can interfere with the development and growth of high-quality young potato tubers..
Farmers use a milling cultivator in the fields. With its help, the top layer of soil in the beds is covered with loosened soil and forms high ridges that do not allow excess moisture to accumulate on the surface. All water flows down the earthen slopes into the aisles.
At the summer cottage, it is also necessary to form ridges on potato plantations. Their height can reach 20-25 centimeters, and they are built using an ordinary garden shovel or hoe. Weed control begins one week after planting and is carried out using the harrowing method. Such soil treatment not only destroys harmful plants, but also protects the soil from drying out, improves air exchange and water permeability, and also has a beneficial effect on the reproduction of beneficial microorganisms..
If the summer cottage is located on an uneven or inclined surface that can harm the development of vegetable crops, then it is worth making a slight alignment. To do this, you can make transverse grooves on the site (more than 50 centimeters wide and about 30 centimeters deep), and between them build additional ridges, which must be strengthened with plantings of winter rapeseed. In winter, this “construction” will also help to evenly distribute the snow that has fallen on the surface, and hence the moisture of the soil..
It is recommended to water potato bushes no more than three times during the entire growing season. The first watering is before the beginning of flowering, the second – one and a half weeks after the start of active flowering, the third – after the complete end of the flowering period.
Preventive treatment of potato plantings with chemicals and preparations should be carried out 5-6 times during the entire season. The very first spraying is carried out only for prevention purposes, without signs of pests or diseases. To protect potato plantings from the worst enemy of the Colorado potato beetle, it is necessary to treat crops with special pesticides before flowering.
Harvesting also requires a little preparatory work. It consists in mowing potato tops. The cut tops are removed, and the potatoes are left in the soil for about 10-15 days until they are fully ripe. Potato tubers, being in the ground, become stronger during this period and are less prone to damage during the harvesting process. In addition, such potatoes have the ability to long-term storage while maintaining all quality properties and taste characteristics..
In large potato fields, the desiccation method is used instead of mowing the tops. This method allows you to dry the tops of plants by spraying with special chemicals to facilitate further harvesting..
The Dutch technology of growing potatoes is becoming more and more popular in many European countries and farms of our country. You just need to strictly adhere to all recommendations, and a rich harvest is ensured..