It is true, after all, that the greatest desire of any summer resident is to remove a full bucket of harvest from one potato bush, without making any efforts: without digging, without weeding, without hilling and watering? This fiction is quite possible to translate into reality! Adherents of natural and basic tillage have long been armed with the long-forgotten and unfairly forgotten method of growing potatoes under straw, and every year they get excellent harvests with a minimum of effort. We recommend absolutely all gardeners to master this well-known and popular agricultural technique.
Agricultural technology for growing potatoes under straw
The method of growing potatoes in straw is so simple that it seems ridiculous. The initial stage of this process is to select a site, and if there are remnants of plants from the last season or mulch that has not rotted in winter, everything is raked into a heap. Sprouted potatoes are laid down with sprouts directly on the bare and un-dug area, observing a certain distance between the tubers. Why sprouts down? This is required so that the apical sprouts can get out of the ground, and first they need to go around the tuber itself.
As a result, the stems located in the ground will elongate, and this will contribute to the set of more tubers on them. Further, all tubers separately are covered with a 20-30 cm layer of any plant residues, be it straw, hay, grass, weeds or tops. After that, all the land work is over, and you just have to wait for the harvest without digging it out - you just need to remove the mulch layer and you will see your tubers.
Often potatoes planted under a layer of straw sprout later than the one that is traditionally planted and, at first, they may look pretty sickly, but you don't need to get upset! At the end of the season, the potatoes under mulch will not yield to their weeded and hilled counterpart, and will even catch up and outgrow it. What is the secret of this method of growing potatoes?
According to statistics, the richest potato crop falls on those years when summer is in no hurry to come, respectively, during the emergence of bushes and their growth, low temperatures prevail and the weather is rainy. Although it is in May-June that the central region is famous for the hottest and driest days. A layer of mulch from plants perfectly stores moisture from rain and dew and maintains the temperature up to +19 ° C, which is required for the growing season.
In addition, straw contributes to the formation of condensation, which forms due to the difference between air and soil temperatures ("atmospheric irrigation") and is absorbed into the depths of the soil cover, which maintains its moisture and eliminates additional watering. Straw protects potatoes from various diseases and prevents weed growth.
Additional techniques to increase yields
Skillful gardeners did not stop only at growing potatoes under straw, but invented several more simple techniques that can increase the yield.
Pre-fertilization of the soil
The method is elementary and does not cause distrust: before planting potatoes, the selected earthen area is covered with a 10-15 cm layer of peat or humus. If you are using a complex of mineral fertilizers or ash, then you can add these components to the humus.
Covering the site with paper
Some farmers do not use peat, compost or humus, but cover the plot before planting potatoes with a heavy layer of newspapers, which without any problems turn into humus, thereby fertilizing the land and fighting growing weeds.
Flicking or fanging method
Before planting potatoes on the site, slots are made 15-20 cm deep into the ground, lengthwise and across, using a flat cutter at a distance of about 50 cm from each other (it is permissible to create such slots along the entire length of the bed). After that, potatoes are already placed and covered with a layer of mulch on top. The crevice process conserves water and helps it penetrate deep into the soil, and also the crevices accumulate carbon dioxide, which is needed to feed the plant.
Fan mulching
It consists in a weekly additional application of mulch under a potato bush, or rather in its middle. After the appearance of the first tops from under the layer of straw, put fresh mulch, while it is necessary to push the stems to the side and cover with plant residues. A week later, when the tops come to the surface again, you need to add organic matter, changing the direction of the stems. So you will achieve a greater elongation of the white shoots of the potatoes, on which the tubers located in the soil germinate. And you will get a rich harvest, because the longer the shoot length, the more embryos there are on it.
Growing potatoes under straw or any kind of mulch is a great way to harvest for people with a lack of time who do not have the opportunity to visit the garden every day. There is only one drawback of this method - a huge amount of organic material, which must be stored in advance. The rest is all just pluses: you don't have to dig, water, huddle and weed the potatoes too.
