Growing potatoes under straw or hay
To grow a good potato crop, gardeners need to properly care for the soil, prepare holes for planting tubers, fertilize the site and water it in time. You can significantly reduce labor costs by planting the tubers under old hay or straw. This method of growing root crops will require less financial costs, and the planting and care work will be much easier.
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The specifics of planting and growing potatoes under straw or hay: advantages and disadvantages of the method
Not every gardener has tried this method, although it is one of the easiest ways to plant a root crop. And this is not the only plus of this method. The positive properties of planting potatoes under straw include:
- Straw is a natural material that makes it much easier to plant, care and harvest potatoes.
- In hot weather, straw serves as an effective mulch that can reliably protect plantings from moisture loss, Colorado potato beetle and annual weeds.
- Digging up the site in the fall or before planting is not required, and the preparation of holes with a shovel is not needed.
- During the season, you will not need to huddle and loosen the beds, you just need to add straw under the potato bushes.
- When you harvest the grown crop, you will get a clean and fertilized area with organic material (rotted straw).
- You can harvest tubers effortlessly with your bare hands.
- Each bucket of potatoes can grow up to 10 buckets of healthy tubers.
- You will not need to fertilize the area before planting, and you will not need to feed the beds during the season.
- Straw is able to protect tubers and young shoots from recurrent frosts that are harmful to potatoes.
- Hay will deter many pests of potatoes, including preventing the Colorado potato beetle from harming plantings.
Main minus - this is what mice breed rapidly in the straw. Also, sometimes gardeners refuse to use this method, because they need to spend money on the purchase and delivery of this material to the site.
By the way! The hay contains more nutrients, it is looser and lighter, and the straw is noticeably heavier and denser, it is less ventilated, so in dry weather the soil will stay moist longer, and the potatoes under the hay will have to be watered more often. And to create a layer of equal thickness, less hay is needed than straw.
Growing potatoes under straw or hay: rules, recommendations and instructions
How to prepare mulch
You can use old or rotten hay, mowed and dried grass after the lawn for this business. Straw that was used to grow potatoes last season, and has not yet completely quilted, is suitable. Before winter storage, straw is well dried and sheltered from precipitation.
Attention! Weeds on the site can be beneficial - you need to wait until they rise, then use them as mulch.
If it is difficult to find straw in your area and transport it to your site, then you can grow it right on the spot.
For this, the area intended for potatoes is divided into two parts. On one, when the snow melts, a mixture of peas, oats and vetch is planted, and on the second, this year, potatoes are grown using the usual technology. The grown grasses are left on the site until spring, when the snow melts, an even layer of shelter for potatoes will already be laid on the site, on which tubers need to be planted.
On the second part of the plot where potatoes grew last season, it is necessary to sow the same herbs according to the above method. In this way, you can improve the land and prepare a shelter for tubers for the next year.
Preparing the soil for planting
First of all, you need to think about preparing the land. It is first dug up, for the rapid development of potatoes, the site is fed with complex fertilizers. By the time of planting, the soil should be moist and loose, it is great to plant the tubers after a little rain. If a drought is approaching, then you need to water the area a little.
To improve the soil, you can use:
- humus. For potatoes, you need to use not fresh material, but 2-3 years old;
- compost. It may contain waste from the table, cleaning vegetables, moldy bread;
- ground eggshell. An excellent tool for soil disinfection;
- wood ash. Will help get rid of wireworm;
- onion husks. It is well dried in advance, crushed and sprinkled on the soil on the site;
- dry, ground citrus peel. The smell of this component will scare away rodents.
Having scattered these materials over the site, the soil must be loosened with a rake. Before planting tubers, it is imperative to check the density of the shelter. Straw or hay may sag slightly over time.If you add too much straw, it will be difficult for the potatoes to break through. The soil under a thin layer will dry out, which will significantly reduce the yield.
The potato patch can be prepared in the fall. The site is covered with a layer of cardboard, covered with earth and watered. Weeds that have sprouted under the paper will die and rot, fertilizing the soil, and the cardboard will decompose and become invisible. With this technology, it is not necessary to feed the site. Additionally, the straw will rot and supply the plants with nutrients.
How to prepare potato tubers
Before planting potatoes under straw or hay, you must first prepare the planting material. For this, the tubers are sorted out: it is best to use medium-sized tubers, similar to a chicken egg. You can take large potatoes, but they need to be cut into 2 pieces before planting. Do not plant weak tubers with signs of disease. Very small or too large will also not work.
Heat the potatoes in the sun after taking them out of the cellar. After that, keep the tubers for 5-7 days in a room where the temperature is maintained at 18-29 degrees. On a potato heated in the sun, buds may wake up and small sprouts appear. After germination, the future yield increases markedly.
By the way! Potatoes are not only cooked in ash 🙂
To protect potatoes from slugs in the future, you need to roll tubers in wood ash... After such preparation, you can plant them.
Potato planting dates
Experts advise planting tubers under hay after the air temperature does not drop below 8 degrees Celsius. According to folk signs, it is believed that this period occurs when the bird cherry blossoms.
Attention! Potatoes will take time to germinate through the straw layer, for this reason you can wait a long time for seedlings to emerge. But when they break through, the potatoes will start developing very quickly.
Straw planting technology
Planting the tubers is very simple, and if you want to save time, you can skip unnecessary operations. For example, it is not necessary to loosen the soil, you can immediately spread the tubers in the garden, you can not prepare the furrows.
Phased work plan for planting potatoes under straw:
- First, you need to slightly loosen the soil in the area (to a depth of 5 cm).
- After that, the site is planned and grooves are prepared (10-15 cm deep). Potatoes are planted in them after 30-40 cm. You can spread the planting tubers on the surface of the garden bed, but in this case it is necessary to cover them with fertile soil.
- Finally, the furrows or laid out potatoes are well covered with straw, you cannot immediately pour a too thick layer (about 15 cm), but there should be no gaps.
You can pour a little soil on the tubers by adding wood ash and old humus to it. When the first shoots appear, you need to cover the area with another layer of straw. It is advisable to make a side of the ground around the perimeter of the site so that the wind does not scatter the shelter.
It is impossible to cover the tubers with a thick cover at once, there are 2 reasons for this:
- The soil under a thick layer will heat up for a long time.
- It will be difficult for sprouts to break through the thick layer, especially if the hay is caked.
It makes no sense to keep a small layer of straw for the whole season, it will quickly settle, and such a layer will not be able to protect the soil from the heat, will not stop the development of weeds, and will decompose badly itself.
Video: how to properly plant potatoes under straw
Follow-up care of the beds
Growing potatoes under straw attracts gardeners by the fact that the need to huddle bushes and weed the area disappears, it is difficult for weeds to break through a thick layer of mulching material.
Note! Sometimes some summer residents still recommend using fan hilling, as in the next video.
Watering plants during a drought should be 1 time per week. If the straw is accidentally moved, for example, by the wind, then the cover must be restored so that the tubers do not turn green.When the sprouts rise 5-10 cm above the hay, it is necessary to bring the total cover layer to 20-25 cm in height. Only you need to place straw not on potato bushes, but between them. Shoots can be covered, but they must not be pressed down.
The main care for potatoes in straw is stopped here until harvesting. Weed plants will not be able to develop, without sunlight they will die. There is no need to huddle crops, moisture will remain under the straw. The soil does not overheat, which accelerates the development of potatoes, you can check how the tubers grow - you just need to carefully lift the mulch. You don't need to dig early potatoes either; if necessary, you can raise the cover layer, collect large root crops and put everything back in place.
Video: growing potatoes in beds under the hay
Diseases and pests of potatoes when grown under straw
Pests from the heat are hidden under the straw, mainly slugs... These insects are afraid of crushed shells. Against slugs, sprinkle the soil with lime, and mulch from sawdust or onion husks will also harm them. You can make special traps from pieces of cardboard or stones. Examine them every morning and collect hidden slugs. To scare away rodents (rats and mice) Place ultrasonic scarers around the perimeter of the potato area.
Harvesting
You need to harvest potatoes on a sunny day. Rake the straw first, but don't throw it away, it will come in handy for next season. Then the tubers are collected by hand, which will lie on the surface or will be in the soil at a minimum depth.
The potato crop harvested from the site will especially delight the gardener with the fact that the tubers are smooth and smooth, and most importantly - dry, without adhering lumps of earth, freeing you from the extra hassle of cleaning the crop. In other words, you can harvest a rich crop in the basement right away, and you don't even have to wait until the potatoes dry out in the sun.
Video: harvest of potatoes planted under straw or hay
Planting potatoes in a straw-covered area is an easy way to get big yields with little labor. Whether to grow potatoes this way or plant them using traditional technology is up to you. But keep in mind that if you do not have enough time to work in the garden, this method will help you greatly.
Video: method of growing potatoes under straw