Harvesting potato tubers is the most time-consuming and crucial moment. The size and quality of the crop depends on the choice of terms, the duration of its storage depends on compliance with the harvesting rules.
Only ripe tubers are well stored until spring. Harvesting too early can result in crop loss. It is also impossible to delay: potatoes in the ground are affected by pests and rot, which also leads to damage to root crops during storage.
It remains to figure out when and how best to harvest potatoes.
Starting from the flowering period, young potatoes are selectively dug for food. Everyone knows that such tubers have a thin peel, which is easily peeled off, and the root crop itself is watery, contains little starch (no more than 10%). These are the main external signs immature roots.
A fully ripe tuber has a dense peel, sometimes similar to a cork. The starch content rises to 13-16%, depending on the variety.
The timing of harvesting depends on many factors, primarily on the variety of potatoes.
| Varieties | Vegetation period, days |
| Early | 70 |
| Late | 90-100 |
Tubers are planted at the same time, the timing of harvesting early and late varieties of root crops differ by 4-6 weeks.
Early potatoes for food are chosen from the garden, starting from the appearance of flowers, and until the end of July. Some tubers of early varieties for winter storage are dug up in late July - early August.
Objective and subjective factors contribute to the confusion in the exact counting of ripening dates:
- climatic features of the region;
- the vagaries of the weather during the growing season;
- the composition of the soil of a particular bed;
- careless attitude to the implementation of the rules of agricultural technology.
There is no single term for harvesting root crops - even within the Middle Belt, potatoes are dug throughout the second half of August, until mid-September.
Tuber harvesting must be completed before the cold weather, when the soil temperature drops to 6-8°C. rainy cold weather does not contribute to the keeping quality of tubers.
According to the old tradition, potatoes and all root crops were harvested on Kupriyanov's day on August 31 (September 13, according to the old style): the departure of cranes symbolized the end of summer.
How to prepare potatoes for digging
In early August, the first external sign of potato ripening is the yellowing of the upper part of the bush. The initial stage of late blight after rainy July also manifests itself in a similar way. It no longer makes sense to carry out protective measures - the tops are mowed and removed from the garden.
- If it was late blight, the spores of the fungus will not descend into the tubers and the crop will not suffer from rot.
- Cutting the tops accelerates the maturation of tubers - the peel is strengthened and the starch content increases.
For harvesting in a mechanized way, the tops are removed without fail. 
How to dig potatoes - the pros and cons
7-10 days after mowing the tops, the tubers are ready for harvesting.
A clear day should be chosen for harvesting, the temperature should be 10-17°C. It is undesirable to start work early in the morning: the temperature contrast of warm soil and cold night air causes the formation of water condensate on the surface of the tubers.
Tubers selected from the soil must be dried before storage. Solar ultraviolet kills spores of fungi and rot, the crop is stored better.
To dry, you need to prepare a flat, clean place where the potatoes will be removed.
Fork or shovel
The old-fashioned traditional way is the most time-consuming. It is preferable to use potato forks with wide teeth: compared to a shovel, they are easier to work with, the tubers are damaged much less frequently by the tool.
Usually they dig together: one digs a bush and turns the tubers to the surface, the other goes behind and picks potatoes.
The main advantage of the method is that you can sort the tubers immediately:
- reject sick and damaged, green, etc.;
- sort by size;
- select seed tubers from the best bushes in terms of productivity.
hands
Without the use of garden tools, tubers are selected from potato beds planted under mulch or in high ridges. Straw, grass, or leaf mulch is moved with a rake, and the tubers are picked by hand. Some of the potatoes are half buried in the ground - they are dug up with pitchforks. 
With the help of a walk-behind tractor
On a plot of several acres, a walk-behind tractor will help to quickly dig potatoes. The whole process of digging can be conditionally divided into 3 stages.
- Dried tops, weeds, leaves, etc. are removed from the site.
- Actually, digging potatoes.
- Harvesting tubers turned upside down by hand.
Digging potatoes using technology is much faster and easier than harvesting.
If the depth is set incorrectly, the digger damages the tubers. The problem is not technology, but the inability to use it. By sampling, the depth is adjusted, and the tubers remain intact, without scuffs and cuts.
A 5-acre potato plot is covered by a walk-behind tractor in 20 minutes, and 3 people collect tubers raised to the surface in about 1 hour.
The walk-behind tractor and the minitractor only carry out the traction of the working tool and transmit torque to the rotating parts of the mechanism. A potato digger of a conveyor or vibration type is hooked to a walk-behind tractor or a tractor.
These mounted agricultural implements are similar in principle of operation.
- The cutting element cuts the earth layer.
- The raised layer is loosened and rises to the surface along with the tubers.
- Potatoes are collected in a storage hopper or placed on a bed for manual harvesting.
Instead of a digger, hillers and cultivators are also used as mounted implements. The working tool is adjusted to the mode of digging potatoes: they choose the angle of attack at which the earth layer turns over. Compared to a shovel, a digger produces much fewer cut tubers.
We use a mini tractor
For processing large areas it is much more profitable to use a mini tractor. Unlike a walk-behind tractor, a multi-row digger can be mounted on a tractor. The tool captures several rows of potatoes in 1 run.
The minitractor requires free space for turn-turn maneuvers - for small summer cottages, the use of such equipment is irrational.
How to dig potatoes by hand, using only a shovel, you can see in the video.
The potato is dug up - what's next?
You should not postpone the sorting of tubers for “later”. Most summer residents choose potatoes by hand. Select immediately planting material much easier - these are healthy tubers from under the best bushes (70-100 g, without mechanical damage).
It is advisable to immediately pack seed tubers of different varieties into nets. Unlike potatoes for food, seed potatoes should be kept in the light longer: until they turn green.
It is undesirable to immediately put the tubers in bags - a couple of hours of exposure to sunlight will benefit them. Potatoes scattered in a thin layer will not only dry out, but also improve their health.
After such drying, the tubers are sorted:
- small change and damaged potatoes for livestock and poultry feed;
- tubers with slight damage for primary consumption;
- large whole healthy root crops for winter storage.
In the process of harvesting and sorting, tubers should not be thrown, sat on a bag, etc. Blue spots in the pulp, which are mistakenly considered the result of freezing, are nothing more than a consequence of careless handling of the dug out root crop.
Before laying in the cellar, the tubers must undergo a rehabilitation period of at least 2-3 weeks, and preferably 1-1.5 months in a cool, dry place without access to sunlight.
- Not all signs of disease are immediately visible.
- During this time, the tubers finally ripen - the peel is compacted, the starch content increases.
After rehabilitation, the tubers are sorted out again and placed for winter storage in the cellar. 
siderates are important
After harvesting the tubers, a dug-up bed remained. Potatoes not only reduce soil fertility - the soil is infected with pests and nightshade diseases.
On 6 acres of a country garden, it is almost impossible to follow the rules of crop rotation - to alternate vegetable crops every 3-4 years.
Experienced summer residents act somewhat differently - they replace the crop rotation of vegetable crops with winter sowing of green manure. Radish, mustard, rye are especially valued. These crops not only replenish the nitrogen balance of the soil: the wireworm leaves, phytophthora spores die, green manure displaces weeds from the ecosystem.
Conclusion
It is not enough to grow a record potato crop, it is necessary to accurately determine the time of harvest. Harvesting too early: underproduction and low quality of tubers, too late - the risk of freezing tubers and picking up rot.
Choosing a time for digging potatoes is also not all, you need to choose the right weather, dig, sort, dry, and stand for rehabilitation. Only after that the tubers are sent for winter storage in the cellar - the potatoes are healthy and will lie until spring.
Greetings dear readers. Let's take a look at the topic of how to harvest potatoes. This topic is actually relevant, although I myself didn’t think about it until recently, it’s just that soon the time will come to harvest potatoes, this picture is already in my head: pitchforks, buckets, a scraper, mountains of potatoes, torn backs, beer in a bathhouse.
The latter, of course, is pleasant after several days of harvesting, but about 3 years ago they decided to plant fewer potatoes, the harvest was poor in the toga, and a lot of potatoes were spoiled in the cellar.
I think a lot of people in our country don’t bother at all, because their grandparents, parents planted potatoes and nothing, so we plant in the same way, and our potatoes are good.
All that is true, but many potatoes are not always harvested correctly for storage. And our family is no exception.
Now let's take a closer look at the general process, how to harvest potatoes, how to properly store them. Think many, especially young families, this article will be very interesting and useful.
I always divide the potato harvest itself into three stages, this will be the basis of our today's article:
I think everyone knows that potatoes you need to clean up when the tops dry out. What to do if planted different varieties potatoes, also mixed And sometimes the tops just don’t want to dry and that’s it, and the time is already September, it’s time to clean up, what then?
Many questions arise. We not only found answers to all these questions, but also checked it all.
Even experienced gardeners can't tell for sure. when to harvest. There are many factors involved: the weather, climate zone, potato variety, land and much more. And so it turns out that you need to directly and carefully look at the potatoes.
Based on the advice of experienced gardeners, and from our own experience, we have identified three points that you should carefully look at, based on this, already determine when to dig potatoes:
- Aboveground part;
- Condition of potato tubers;
- Weather.
Aboveground part.
external signs of potato ripeningOf course, sluggish tops that begin to dry are the first sign that the potatoes are ripe. But this is not always the case. There are other reasons why the tops begin to fade:
- Summer excess moisture. Then the tops grow strong and tall, but by autumn the potatoes no longer have enough strength to nourish the lush tops. At the same time, the tubers are still ripe.
- From the abundant content of nitrogen in the soil.
- Different varieties of potatoes are mixed when planting. And different varieties ripen differently.
- and a few more rare occurrences.
Modern agronomists advise harvesting potatoes when the tops withered by about 70 - 80%. It's enough. But the best mow the tops, leaving 8 - 10 cm. The fact is that if the weather is hot, dry in autumn, when the tops fade, then excess moisture begins to evaporate from the tubers through the leaves of the tops. This is bad for the tubers themselves.
So it's better to mow the tops. And then all the nutrients that remain in the remains of the stems will still feed the tubers. It is better to wait a day or two after mowing, and then start harvesting potatoes.
We mow haulm with a tractor And yet, if your garden is small, then you don’t have to mow, but if the garden is large and you don’t dig by hand, using a tractor or walk-behind tractor, then it’s better to mow. Then rows will be clearly visible where there are potatoes, where there are none and it is easier for the technician to work.
Attention! After mowing and harvesting potatoes, be sure to remove the tops from the garden. Otherwise, you can spoil the earth, bring diseases, viruses, fungi, and so on into the same earth or tubers. The tops need to be removed and burned.
If you still doubt whether to dig or not looking at the tops, then move on.
Condition of potato tubers.
we dig under the bushes For this you need to dig a few bushes and carefully look at the size of the tubers and their number.
Of course, the ripening time depends on the variety, the weather, and other factors. But the most important thing is timing. Average potatoes ripen 70-100 days after planting. And if you have already tried potatoes in July, then full ripening does not occur until the end of August.
Well, when they dug up a bush for testing, then you need to look at the peel of the potato. It should not peel off and peel off if you rub it.. Well, again, the thickness and density of the peel depends on the varieties of potatoes, this must be taken into account. It is better to dig a few bushes to make sure.
Advice! When you don’t know which bush to dig up, look at the soil right around the stem. Where the soil is cracked, there will be ripe tubers. It's just that when the potato grows, it pushes the soil above it.
Weather.
Dig potatoes in wet, rainy weather is highly undesirable. It's not just that it's not pleasant to dabble in the rain and mud. Potatoes that are simply wet and with lumps of dirt should never be put away for storage. And how can you spoil your crop, the potatoes will just rot.
Before cleaning for storage, it must be dried, cleaned of dirt and only then removed for storage. Do not create extra work for yourself, it is better when the weather is sunny and without rain.
How and what to dig potatoes.
Digging with pitchforks Now we have decided on the time of harvesting, you can call assistants and start digging potatoes. Of course, the best thing, proven over the years, is to dig potatoes with a pitchfork. So there will be less chopped potatoes and for sure do not leave potatoes in the ground.
Of course, such a process is long and laborious, but the result is worth it. So it is better to recruit assistants. We usually dig with the whole family and relatives help Of course, and then we help them. It turns out fun.
But if you have a huge garden, then
Digging potatoes with a walk-behind tractor you can dig with modified walk-behind tractors or tractors in general e. The only thing to do is to plant potatoes in even rows, just not under a shovel. Well, it is desirable to mow the tops.
Cleaning technology is easier and faster. But personally, I didn't really like this option. We tried a couple of times, we were tormented by the fact that some tubers remain in the ground. Of course, maybe the technique itself was not so tuned, or maybe the hands of the one who dug were not intended for this ... In any case, it's up to you to decide. You need to try this and that.
How to properly store potatoes
Drying potatoes in the field Before harvesting potatoes, you need to think and if you need to cook the place where you will dry the potatoes. It is important. There are two options:
- Dry directly on the field, pouring into one pile;
- Or put under a canopy.
The first option is more suitable for sandy soils.. Where the earth does not strongly stick to the tubers. Sometimes it takes several hours for the tubers to dry out and then they can be sorted and put away for storage. But do not keep potatoes in the sun for a long time, some tubers may turn green and such potatoes should not be eaten. Same way don't let the potatoes get wet in the rain.
Important! You can not cover dug potatoes with tops. Diseases and poisonous substances will fall on potatoes. If necessary, then you need to cover with a film, preferably not transparent. And if there is no rain, then open for further drying.
The second option is more laborious and the most common.. The main thing is to have enough space to place the potatoes in a thin layer. Potatoes are scattered anywhere, under a canopy, in a flock, even in a garage. The main thing is to have a roof, protection from rain and sun. So the potatoes can lie for about 1-3 days. Until dry, depending on how dirty it is. Only after that they begin to sort the potatoes.
Before harvesting potatoes remove damaged tubers. They are usually fed to cattle or set aside separately. I throw out rotten, spoiled tubers. Sorted by size: large, medium and small. And the same for seeds. Small usually for livestock feed, large and medium for food. Don't mix varieties, so you'll know which one is better, and so on.
Advice! First of all, you need to eat large tubers. Since in the middle of winter voids appear in them and then they are lost taste qualities potatoes.
Small tubers, the size of egg and healthy. Spread out in bags, clean until spring. Seed potatoes are usually stored separately. But we store along with the rest, the main thing is to mark the bags.
Storage
Before storing potatoes it is also necessary to prepare a cellar, basement or underground, in general, the place where potatoes will be stored in the winter. To do this, you need to process:
- In a bucket of water, you can dilute 2.5 - 3 kg of freshly slaked lime or 100 g of copper or 30 g of iron sulfate. After processing, the room must be dried.
- Sometimes, for disinfection, the leaves and stems of wormwood or tansy are burned. They smoke for a day, after which they open and ventilate.
It is desirable that temperature in that place e, where the potatoes will be stored, was about 2-4ºС, at a humidity of 85%.
That's all we have, good harvest for you, bye everyone. Share your experience in the comments, put the class and everyone bye, see you soon.
When and how to properly store potatoes updated: November 9, 2019 by: Subbotin Pavel
Gardeners who grow potatoes know how important it is to harvest tubers on time. If this is done too early or too late, some production will be lost. Meanwhile, the optimal time when it is already possible to dig potatoes does not depend on a specific date. Many factors can influence them. Let's understand together what needs to be considered in order to start work.
The timing of harvesting and its preservation in winter are interconnected. If the tubers were not dug up at the right time, they will not store well, and stocks will not last until spring. The taste of tubers will also suffer, as well as their nutritional value will decrease.
Early harvesting of potatoes will not allow the tubers to fully ripen “on the bush”. They do not form a dense, strong peel, and the pulp will not contain the right amount of starch and other useful substances. Such tubers are easily damaged during digging, and when stored in the basement, they rot or dry.
In addition, gardeners who are in a hurry to remove potatoes from the garden ahead of schedule, risk getting a much smaller tuber yield than it would be if the deadlines were met. Small potatoes can still grow if given the opportunity.
No less problems arise when harvesting tubers later than the optimal time. First, it is connected with certain inconveniences. The tops by this time, as a rule, are already not visible. She either dried up or rotted. The gardener will have to look for bushes intuitively. It is so easy to damage part of the crop with a pitchfork, shovel or machinery.
In addition, it will be necessary to dig potatoes for winter storage with a high degree of probability in rainy weather, which is also not good. Being in damp ground for a long time, mature potatoes will turn out watery and not tasty. It is more susceptible to disease damage, can produce new shoots. Such tubers are no longer suitable for seeds, and they will be bad in the cellar. Potatoes of early varieties can lose moisture and become soft in dry soil.
The optimal time for harvesting potatoes, depending on various factors
You can harvest early potatoes from the end of July. However, it is only suitable for quick consumption or sale. Tubers of later varieties, which are suitable for winter storage (the ripening period should be approximately 110-115 days), are usually dug later: from early to late September.
Experienced gardeners determine the start time of work on several grounds at once. In order not to be mistaken in the timing of potato harvesting, take into account its varietal affiliation, weather and climatic conditions, features of growing the product.
Varieties
You can determine when it's time to dig potatoes, focusing on the following numbers. The tubers are fully ripe and ready for harvest:
- very early varieties - 35-55 days after germination;
- early varieties - after 55-75 days;
- mid-early and mid-season varieties - after 75-90 and 90-105 days;
- medium-late and late varieties - after 105-120 and 120-140 days, respectively.
Knowing the time of planting the tubers, and when the sprouts appeared, it is easy to calculate the approximate date of collection. However, the actual ripening period of potatoes can be reduced or increased depending on a number of reasons: temperature, rainfall, the presence or absence of additional irrigation, fertilization. But, in any case, tubers for winter storage should be dug up before the onset of frost.
Growing region
All gardeners harvest potatoes at different times, although they may grow the same variety. It all depends on the region in which the potato grows. Before everyone else, they start harvesting tubers for storage in the south of the country. It is warm and dry here, potatoes ripen quickly, so they are ready for digging as early as the end of July. Basically, it is removed from the beds in early August.
In central Russia, potatoes are dug up, starting from the middle of the last summer month until mid-September. But for gardeners in Siberia and the Urals, the optimal time for harvesting is August. In rare cases, work may be delayed until early September.
Weather
When the ripening period of the cultivated potato variety comes to an end, the gardener needs to carefully monitor the weather forecast. To keep the tubers well, it is better to harvest them in sunny and dry weather. This will allow you to get clean tubers with the optimal amount of moisture, spend a minimum of effort during the harvesting process, and with large planting areas it is easier to prepare the crop for storage.
Digging up potatoes wet weather not desirable. Unless there is no other way out, but this rarely happens. On the other hand, it’s not worth waiting until the weather “gets better”. Tubers can sit out in the ground, which will affect their keeping quality. If the forecasters are predicting prolonged rains, it is better to dig up the potatoes a little earlier. He matures a little.
Harvest Readiness Signs
Experienced gardeners know that you can understand when it's time to harvest with a certain accuracy, guided by appearance plants. If the tops drooped, began to turn yellow below, and then wither and dry, the tubers in the ground were already ripe. For reliability, you can dig a few bushes and check the quality of the product. Mature potatoes should have a dense, strong skin that can only be cut with a knife.
In some modern varieties of potatoes, the tops remain green even after the tubers ripen. When growing them, you need to know this feature in advance and check the readiness of the crop for harvesting, focusing on the timing determined for them by breeders. If potatoes lay seeds after flowering, you can check them for maturity. Usually, both the "top" and "bottom" on the bush ripen at the same time.
Cleaning methods
How to dig potatoes, each gardener chooses independently. This can be done with hand garden tools, as well as with the help of machinery. A fork or shovel is suitable for cleaning small household beds. They have their pros and cons. Forks come in handy if the ground is heavy or wet. In this case, they are easier to work with than a wide shovel. But at the same time, the tubers damaged by the pitchfork will have to be eaten immediately, they will not be stored.
A potato shovel is ideal in dry weather and on light sandy soils. But she has to dig under the bushes carefully so as not to cut the potatoes. Especially a lot of marriage when working with a shovel happens in seasons when the harvest is especially generous. However, sections on tubers after cuts with a shovel quickly dry out and heal. Such potatoes can be stored for some time.
The harvesting process itself is not difficult. The bushes in a row are alternately digged with a pitchfork or a shovel, a potato bush is lifted by the tops and the tubers are removed from it. Then they check the hole for the presence of specimens remaining in the ground. Next prepare the potatoes for storage. The tops are burned.
But, picking potatoes over large areas, digging them up with a pitchfork or a shovel, is tedious, difficult and not cost-effective. Besides, it's long. This will require the involvement of many people in the work, which is not always possible. The only way out is to use technology. When harvesting potatoes with a walk-behind tractor, everything can be done in 1-2 days.
To quickly dig up the tubers, prepare the area in advance for the operation of the unit. To do this, the tops, as well as the existing weeds on the site, are pre-mowed. Cutting green mass is also resorted to when plantings are affected by late blight and to accelerate the ripening of tubers in unfavorable seasons. Work in this case is carried out 2-3 weeks before harvesting by machine.
They dig potatoes with a walk-behind tractor equipped with a potato digger, a plow (on heavy clay, damp soils), and a hiller. In order not to lose the crop and facilitate the collection of tubers, they make passes through the row. Naturally, for such work, a potato field should be planted under a walk-behind tractor.
Preparing potatoes for storage
The tubers dug out of the ground are first dried before being stored. In dry sunny weather, they do it right on the beds. Potatoes need no more than two hours for this procedure. If you keep it in the sun longer, it may turn green. However, for seed potatoes, which are selected during harvesting from the most abundantly fruiting bushes, this is not a problem.
When it is necessary to harvest potatoes before rains, they dry the crop under a well-ventilated canopy. Next, the tubers are sorted out. Cut and damaged by pests and diseases, specimens are tried to be set aside separately even during digging. Next, the potatoes are sorted into fractions and stacked for about 2 weeks in a dark room (diseases will appear during this period). Having again sorted out the tubers, it will already be possible to fall asleep in a specially equipped cellar compartment. Seed potatoes are kept separate from what will be eaten. Bookmark in the storage and cooling of potatoes for winter storage is carried out as soon as possible.
Most gardeners start harvesting potatoes when the tops turn yellow and dry. But what to do if part of the tops is still green, part has turned yellow, and part has completely died?
Such an uneven drying of the tops is due to the fact that neither during storage nor when planting potatoes, amateur potato growers select root crops according to varieties and ripening dates. All potatoes are planted at the same time and harvested after about 70-100 days.
However, withered tops do not always indicate the ripening of potatoes. It can lie down with an excess of moisture or nitrogen - then the upper part grows very powerful, while the root crops do not have time to fully ripen.
In some varieties, the tops remain green until the end of September, although the tubers can already be dug up. Therefore, the best option is digging potatoes, starting from the end of August, until mid-September.
If you are in doubt, just try to dig up one or two bushes and see how ripe the tubers are. Having found potatoes of a sufficiently large size with a dense skin in the hole, you can start harvesting the entire crop.
Useful tips for harvesting potatoes
Firstly, with beveled tops, nutrients from the aerial part will begin to pass into the tubers, due to which the peel will ripen faster and the keeping quality of the potato will increase.
Secondly, the diseases accumulated over the summer on the tops will not penetrate into the tubers, which will also favorably affect the quality of crop storage.
After digging up all the potatoes, do not leave uprooted weeds and leaves on the field, especially if you grow potatoes in the same place every year. Scattered plant waste will become a reservation for various viral, fungal and bacterial diseases that are on next year can damage the new crop. And the small weeds remaining in the soil will ripen and complicate your work in the new season. Therefore, the tops and weeds are collected, dried and burned after a couple of days.
Harvesting of potatoes is carried out, if possible, in dry, warm weather, so that the dug out tubers can be ventilated and dry right on the field.
Dried potatoes are laid out in bulk (with a layer of no more than half a meter) or put in bags in a dark place for a couple of weeks - the so-called treatment period, during which the peel of the tubers will become denser, and diseases will have time to appear, if any.
After the treatment period, it will be necessary to re-sort the potatoes, removing infected or damaged tubers, and potatoes can be stored at a temperature not higher than 2-5 degrees.
How not to lose health on potatoes?
Before starting the “potato work”, be sure to do a warm-up for the neck, back and lower back. It is these parts of our country body that can be significantly affected when digging potatoes. All kinds of tilts and turns of the body, sipping and traditional deep breaths are suitable here. You can just hang on the horizontal bar, if you have one. Knead your hands too - rub them, shake them with brushes. You can also walk in place by raising your knees high.
Every 45-50 minutes take a break for ten minutes. Moreover, it is better to rest not sitting, but lying down - so that the back muscles relax. If you have a hammock hanging in your country house, that's great - that's where it's best to boot up. Or lie down on the floor with a blanket.
Hypertensive patients should carefully monitor the pressure (take a tonometer with you to the plot) and not work upside down until the eyes are completely dark. What to do? Dig potatoes comfortably on an overturned bucket. Yes, it will slow down the process, but you will feel great.
We will raise the buckets of potatoes like this: we sat down smoothly, took a bucket, smoothly rose. No jerks or sharp turns.
Do not impose full buckets, have pity on yourself. It would be nice to buy a few plastic buckets - they weigh much less than old and rusty country veteran buckets.
The bags should contain no more than two buckets of potatoes, and not three or four. Do not lift the bag with a jerk, throwing it high on your back - it’s better to sit down yourself first, then straighten your knees: the load will be on your legs, and not on your sore back.
Good harvest everyone!
Potato digging begins at the end of July, and ends in the fall. Harvest should be at a certain time, otherwise the root crop will begin to rot, and become unsuitable for storage and consumption. Harvesting potatoes is an event that takes into account some nuances.
Digging potatoes with a walk-behind tractor
In order to start harvesting potatoes, we take a few bags, a pitchfork, a shovel and gloves to the garden. Facilitates the work of digging potatoes with a walk-behind tractor. Not everyone can use this tool, but harvesting is faster with it (if you get the hang of it). Harvesting potatoes with a walk-behind tractor is available to those who have free cash and technical management skills. The motor-cultivator is used by gardeners and gardeners, whose potato planting areas occupy at least a hectare of land (as practice shows).
When using agricultural machinery, it is best to first remove the tops from the beds. Using a pitchfork or a shovel, remove those bushes infected with late blight. After that, you should wait a couple of days for the grass to dry out and collect potatoes without much difficulty.
In order for the work with a motor cultivator to be beneficial and facilitate the work, and not complicate it, it is necessary that all rows are even and the cultivator does not scour the sides. The same distance between rows is important when hilling. When using a cultivator, take care of the availability of attachments. Adjust the depth of the working tool empirically. They dig potatoes with a walk-behind tractor through one row. If you dig rows in turn, then the mechanism will have to be driven at an angle to the ground, which complicates the work.
What is good when working with a motor cultivator is that it does not spoil the root crops, digs all the potatoes out of the ground, and speeds up the harvesting process. Several people can follow the motor cultivator and collect root crops. Pre-sorting of potatoes can be carried out immediately in buckets in the field or after work has been completed.
Harvesting and storing potatoes
It is important to take into account some nuances when harvesting. Gardeners often have situations when planting was early, then potato harvesting should begin in August, and the tops are still green. In this case, to speed up the ripening of fruits, the tops are cut from the bushes and left no more than 10 centimeters above the ground. They also act if the potato is infected with phytophthora. After harvesting the greens, you can dig up potatoes in 7 to 10 days.
It is advisable to start harvesting potatoes when the air temperature outside is not higher than +17 degrees. If the temperature is below +10, then there is a chance to freeze the fruits turned out of the ground. Night frosts primarily damage the tops, and then the fruits. It is not recommended to dig up root crops early in the morning, because the air temperature is lower than in the soil and an undesirable temperature difference is created.
Do not start harvesting potatoes in damp, cool or rainy weather. High humidity adversely affects the keeping quality and quality of the crop. It is best to wait and wait for more comfortable conditions.
Before you start picking potatoes, you should think about where and how you will dry them. There are only two options here: scatter on the field, pouring everything into one place or store the crop under a canopy. The first is suitable for sandy soils, where the fruits are dug out almost all clean and dry and they need only light weathering. Don't forget the weather either. Because it might rain. The second option is the most commonly used. It is only important that the area is sufficient, and the fruits lie as little as possible on top of each other. Sheds, sheds or even garages can be used to dry dug potatoes by hand or with a walk-behind tractor.
As practice shows, it takes only two to three days for the dirt to fall off and all the potatoes to dry out. It all depends on how dirty the fruits are dug out of the ground. After that, sorting of potatoes is required.
Digging potatoes
When August approaches, every gardener begins to think about the fact that it's time to start harvesting potatoes. The ideal time for harvesting is warm, not hot weather, without rain. If conditions allow, after harvesting, it is best to leave the fruits to dry on an open surface, and not put them immediately in bags. According to experts, ultraviolet rays favorably affect tubers, prevent the development of diseases and rot during storage.
After harvesting, sorting of potatoes begins. It is necessary to separate large, medium and small, remove damaged and rotten root crops. As a rule, large and medium potatoes are used for food, small potatoes are fed to livestock. It is also worth taking care of seed potatoes for planting next spring.
Potato sorting
Sorting for potatoes is an important event that allows good, high-quality fruits to be stored for a long time in a cellar or basement. Some immediately select good, whole, not rotten fruits from spoiled ones in the garden. Some carry out the sorting procedure under a roof, in a garage or barn. It is advisable to sort each batch that was collected in the garden.
Sorting of potatoes is carried out not only by quality and size, but also by color. Do not put large and small fruits in bags at the same time. Small potatoes are best left for livestock feed or as a last resort for making moonshine. Average, gardeners use as a seed fund. Large potatoes are eaten immediately.
When to dig potatoes
It is impossible to name the exact date of harvesting potatoes, since the timing depends on several factors: root crop variety, planting time, air temperature, and the length of the growing season. Some begin to harvest all the tops and dig potatoes at the end of August, others pull until the end of September.
Important! In the middle of summer, only early varieties of potatoes are dug. At this time, potatoes are dug for eating. New potatoes are crumbly and very tender. Gardeners dig out only some of the bushes they like, at the same time evaluating the future harvest.
Often, harvesting occurs when all the tops have turned yellow and dried. What to do when one part of the potato tops turned yellow, the second is still green, and the third is all dried up. This occurs when gardeners do not sort the fruits during harvesting or planting. It is necessary to collect potatoes after 70-100 days after planting, depending on the variety.
It also happens that the tops turned yellow early due to drought. This does not mean that the fruits are fully ripe. Part of the tops dries up, while the root crops do not ripen completely. There are also such varieties when at the end of September the tops are still green and thick, although the fruits can already be safely dug up. Therefore, the best option is to dig potatoes from the end of August until mid-September.
How to dig potatoes
One experienced gardener advises that picking potatoes should be done only with a pitchfork, because it is easiest to damage the fruits with a shovel. However, such a means of harvesting can also harm root crops by planting a potato on a point. Supporters of shovels note that cut potatoes in the air will become weathered and will be able to remain in the cellar for a long time, which is impossible when the fruit is punctured. It will immediately disappear and rot. You can also use a hand plow.
After digging, you can start collecting. Sorting of potatoes should be carried out in dry weather in the fresh air.
Why does it burst
The cause of a bursting potato is not its disease. It begins to crack due to the abundance of moisture at the beginning of fruit growth, and then a prolonged drought. As practice shows, the fruits burst on loam. Those who plant potatoes in areas with lighter sandy soil did not encounter such a problem. The reason is that during heavy watering, the fruits are oversaturated with moisture. With a sharp change in weather and the onset of drought, potatoes crack. To avoid this, it is worth watering the root crops for the first time after germination. The second - when the tubers begin to massively tie.
