Potatoes are one of the most popular root vegetables in the kitchen today, like yams or ginger. Their flavor makes them versatile. From the delicious and popular French fries that we eat as an appetizer or side in any fast food restaurant, to the best mashed potatoes and roasted potatoes in the restaurant, they can be used as a side to almost any main dish. To plant potatoes you have to know some main aspects to take into account.
Therefore, we are going to dedicate this article to tell you how and when to plant potatoes and what aspects to take into account.
The best time to plant potatoes
Potato planting times around the world are usually roughly the same, always in early spring, around March and April. However, like everything we grow, the best time to plant depends largely on the climate of each place, so the answer may vary.
Therefore, in warm areas, where winter is mild, you can plant potatoes in the last weeks of winter, while in very cold or frozen places this is not possible, having to wait for the high temperature to start.
Similarly, in temperate regions, potato can also be grown in late summerwhereas in extreme climates this is not possible because it is too hot or it has started to cool down.
To complete the adjustment of the best seasons for planting potatoes, we recommend that you take into account the following key points:
- This plant needs cool temperatures during the tuber formation process. The best temperature is between 15 ° C and 25 ° C.
- Even so, these tubers are very sensitive to frost, so they should not be touched.
- When you decide to grow potatoes in the field, the soil temperature should reach 15 ° C or more to ensure that the plants can germinate and grow well.
- The formation of the tubers starts between 1 and 2 months after planting the potatoDepending on the type of potato being planted, the tuber will adjust according to the different seasons. For this reason, we recommend that you inform yourself well in the place where you acquire the tubers for planting, since a professional who knows the variety will be able to give you more exact indications for the climate of the place where you grow taking into account the variety of potato.
Planting types
These are dates for planting potatoes that take into account the type of planting, because if you choose early or late planting, the month will change:
- Early sowing: in winter, that is, in the northern hemisphere in December and January, and in the southern hemisphere in June and July.
- Semi-early sowing: It also takes place in winter, but between January and February in the northern hemisphere and between July and August in the southern hemisphere.
- Semi-late: Another type of potato planting occurs in spring, that is, in the northern hemisphere in April and May, and in the southern hemisphere in October and November.
- Late sowing: The last sowing takes place in summer, in August in the northern hemisphere and in February in the southern hemisphere.
The most common time to plant potatoes in the world is spring sowing or mid-afternoon sowing and winter sowing or mid-early sowing.
Early sowing and late sowing are suitable for milder climates, And the temperature is almost the same throughout the year, so you can plant at any time, even at less common times in other parts of the world. By knowing this calendar for planting potatoes, you can better understand which month is the most convenient to plant in your area.
Steps to plant potatoes
Let's see what are the basic care for growing potatoes at home, in a field or garden:
- One of the main natural enemies of the potato are adventitious grasses, generally called weeds, which are weeds that appear spontaneously around our plants. It is important to keep the potato soil clean with these herbs, especially for the first 6 to 8 weeks. Potatoes also appreciate the presence of potassium in the soil, which can be added in the form of granular fertilizer or by burying basil or elderberry leaves in the soil.
- As for watering, potatoes need moisture, but not waterlogging. You need to water enough to prevent the soil from drying out too much. For this reason, drip irrigation is a very good option.
- Furthermore, growing potatoes requires agriculture. This includes covering the base of the plant with soil when the tubers begin to grow, thus preventing them from being exposed to the surface. If you don't do this, the potatoes will turn green and poisonous when eaten.
- As a last detail, it should be noted that the potato is a crop that extracts a large amount of nutrients from the soil, so it is absolutely not advisable to sow the same plant in the same soil for two consecutive seasonsThis crop is especially not recommended to repeat the sowing in the same field.
Harvest and storage
Potatoes are very easy to collect. If the plants are in pots, you can pour the contents into newspapers or cloth, which are perfect for digging and looking for your potatoes. On the contrary, if you sow in the ground, if you do not deeply cover the seed, Dig a bit in the ground and you will start to have its first tubers. Harvesting is a simple but delicate operation in planting and storing potatoes. It should be done when the bushes are dry (they are pale yellow, look more rotten, and even become brittle). Unless it is an early potato variety, in which case the harvest is done while the plant is still green.
Generally speaking, when a plant blooms, it means that it has enough energy to produce tubers. A good way is to dig some potatoes and try to peel them by hand. If the skin peels off easily, the potatoes have not yet been harvested. On the other hand, if the skin is so hard that it cannot be removed by hand, it means that we can start harvesting.
I hope that with this information you can learn more about how and when to plant potatoes.