Potatoes can be grown in a regular bag with minimal space, time and effort. As a rule, gardeners resort to this method of planting, where there is very little space for future crops, infertile land or inappropriate conditions in the garden in the form of bogging, stonyness, etc. What is the essence of the method, and how to grow potatoes in this way, we will find out Further.
The essence of the method
The principle of this method is to plant potatoes in bags in which bushes will grow. As a rule, it is used in conditions of small household plots or summer cottages where there is infertile soil.
In this case, there are three key conditions for a good harvest. They look like this:
- provide the potato with a loose nutrient medium so that it can grow healthy and strong;
- water the plant abundantly;
- maintain good lighting.
Another important point in this method is the location of the bags of potatoes. They can be dug a little into the ground or installed near a support. In any case, the plant should be well lit, be accessible for care and not fall under wastewater from the roof.
The implementation scheme of this method looks like this:
What bags to use?
Landing containers can be very different. More often gardeners use bags with “pockets” for picking potatoes, but ordinary synthetic fibers, such as sugar or flour, are also suitable. The most important thing is that there are openings in the container through which excess moisture will evaporate. If they are not provided, then it is highly likely that the tubers will rot in the process of their development.
The selected containers should not be too deep, since the plant may not have enough moisture and strength to grow and form new potatoes.
For planting potatoes, you should not use ordinary garbage bags, since they are less durable than their counterparts, so they can break when caring for potatoes.
Grade selection
Medium early and early varieties are most suitable, as well as potatoes with an average ripening period, which has high resistance to various diseases. Unlike later varieties, the early ones ripen faster, so the time for plantation maintenance is reduced.
Here are the most popular options:
- Bellarosa is an ultra-early variety of German selection that bears fruit in large and even pink-colored tubers;
- Sante is a mid-early variety of Dutch breeding that brings yellow root crops 2.5-3 months after planting;
- Slavyanka is also a mid-early variety, but already of Ukrainian selection, which ripens 3-3.5 months after planting;
- Povin - is an early-ripening variety of Ukrainian selection that ripens by mid-June - early August, the fruits weigh up to 200 g;
- Svitanok Kiev - refers to the mid-early varieties of Kiev selection, which has excellent commercial qualities and is characterized by high productivity in any climatic conditions.
Many of these varieties allow you to get the first crop by the end of May.
Early ripening potato variety "Bellarosa"
Middle early potato variety "Sante"
Potato variety "Slavyanka"
Early ripening grade of potatoes "Povin"
Mid-early potato variety “Kiev Svitanok”
Preparing planting material
For sowing, you need to choose the most powerful and healthy tubers that need to be decontaminated and left for germination. So, 2-3 weeks before planting, you should perform the following steps:
- Pass through the press several peeled cloves of garlic and pour cold water at the rate of 10 liters of water per 1 kg of garlic.
- Mix everything and leave for 2 hours.
- In the resulting infusion, soak the tubers for 5 hours. It is important that the solution completely covers the potatoes.
- After processing, spread the tubers in a well-ventilated bright place and leave for germination. The optimum air temperature is + 14 ... + 18 degrees. When sprouts 2-5 cm long appear, you can begin to plant. Tubers that have not sprouted should be discarded immediately, as they will not produce a good crop.
Processing the tubers with a garlic solution will protect the planting material from diseases, as well as stimulate plant growth.
Substrate preparation
It is necessary to start preparing the soil in the autumn, but it is important to consider that the land on which solanaceous crops previously grew, including tobacco, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, etc. is not suitable. This is a necessary measure to protect the crop from late blight, as well as other diseases and their causative agents. In addition, you can not take the land where the bear lives.
Suitable soil should be weeded, steamed or treated with chemicals so that weeds and pests, which will be difficult to remove in confined spaces, do not penetrate into the bags later.
Potatoes in bags need more nutrients than tubers growing in open ground. So, one of the following soil mixtures should be prepared:
- Garden land and compost (humus). They are taken in equal parts. As compost, you can use fallen leaves, manure, sawdust or dust, and the earth - black soil, yellow sand, a small amount of clay to retain moisture.
- Earth and fertilizer. It is necessary to mix humus soil with potash and phosphorus fertilizers. To maintain optimal proportions, 0.25 cups of complex top dressing should be added to one bag (about 4 buckets of soil). It is important to note that if pure humus is used, which was taken from a dunghill or compost heap, then mineral substances are not needed.
You can use ordinary land without additives in the form of humus or fertilizers, but in this case, productivity will suffer significantly.
It is worth considering that special attention in the formation of the soil mixture must be paid to its friability and air permeability. To do this, before laying in the bags, the soil must be sieved, and solid fractions, weed roots and pests in the form of wireworms and bears must be removed. Thanks to these simple steps, you can get beautiful smooth root crops.
Time and landing technology
Potatoes need to be planted with the arrival of sustainable heat. In many temperate regions, this time comes in late April or early May.
Planted tubers themselves are planted in the following order:
- Cover the bottom of the bag with a loose soil mixture. Depending on the total depth of the future beds, such a layer may have a height of 20 to 35 cm.
- Put 4-5 potatoes or slices with sprouted eyes on the soil surface.
- Pour potatoes with soil mixture to a height of 15 cm.
- If necessary, lightly water the plants. After 8-15 days, sprouts will appear. When they rise 10-15 cm above the soil, add a new portion of the mixture to help form additional lateral roots on which new tubers will grow. Only the tops of the shoots should remain on the surface.
- Conduct seedling sprinkling procedure until one third of the total height remains to the top edge of the bag.
How to care?
To get a good potato crop, you should properly approach the care of planting. To do this, pay attention to such points:
- Bag arrangement. They should be on the sunny side of the site, as this can provide good heating of the plant and achieve faster seedlings. Bags can be kept under the walls of the building, along paths, between trees or in flower beds. Another option is to place them along the perimeter of the site, if you do not plan to plant anything. The most important thing is to ensure their stability so that they do not fall sideways. If there is no support, the containers should be lightly dug up. Under no circumstances should bags be kept in dense shade or under a drain.
It is better if the coating under the plant will be able to absorb excess moisture draining after watering.
- Watering. In bags, moisture evaporates very quickly, so potatoes require abundant and frequent watering, especially during the flowering period, when the first tubers appear. Of course, it is also impossible to overdo it, otherwise it will negatively affect the harvest. Before the formation of the first sprouts, watering the plant is not necessary. After the emergence of seedlings, you need to withstand 3-4 days and start watering. The daily norm of water is 2-3 liters, but in dry weather.
- Top dressing. Once a season, potash and phosphorus fertilizer should be added to maintain the yield and quality of the tubers. Preparations must be diluted according to the instructions and applied in liquid form at the rate of 1 liter per 1 bush. At the same time, the abundance of nitrates and nitrogen is unacceptable, since they inhibit the growth of tubers and impair their quality.
- Make a pocket flap at the bottom of the bag. It will greatly facilitate the removal of tubers, as well as provide additional ventilation of the root system. Its advantage also lies in the fact that you can get ripened potatoes below, without disturbing the top layer, where the tubers are younger and smaller.
Harvesting
As a rule, it is produced in the second half of August in two ways:
- Turn the bag on its side and pour the potatoes out.
- If pockets were made in the bags, open them and remove the potatoes. Of course, if you don’t plan to use the bags anymore, you can simply cut them and sprinkle the potatoes with ease.
Experienced gardeners from one "garden" collect up to 5 kg of potatoes. So, with 5 planted tubers, you can get about 10 kg of crop.
After harvesting, the whole bags can be folded and reused next year.
Recommendations and nuances
Additionally, the following points should be taken into account:
- Unlike the classical method, this method requires more frequent and plentiful watering.
- Throughout the entire growth of the plant, it is necessary to fill the bush with earth, leaving only the upper leaves on the surface. In this case, a powerful root system is formed, on which new potatoes begin to grow.
- At the bottom of the bag, the largest potatoes will grow. So, the closer to the surface, the younger the tubers. This is due to the fact that initially it grows from planted tubers closer to the bottom.
- If the container is made of a denser fabric, several small cuts should be made at the bottom and sides before planting. In this case, the evaporation of excess moisture can be ensured, which will protect the potatoes from rot.
- After harvesting, the soil is deprived of all its useful properties, so it cannot be reused. It needs to be thrown around the garden like mulch.
Pros and cons
Growing potatoes in bags is a container planting method that has its advantages and disadvantages. We will consider them further.
What is the strength?
- significant space savings, because a bag of potatoes can be kept on the track and near the house, the main thing is to provide good lighting;
- unpretentious care, since potatoes in containers do not need to be earthed up, but enough to fill up the earth as the plant grows;
- there is no need to weed, because they will have nowhere to come from in closed spaces;
- full protection against the Colorado potato beetle, late blight and wireworm, which you have to deal with when planting tubers in open ground;
- minimal risk of decay, since water does not stagnate in the bag, and the soil warms up perfectly;
- fast harvesting, since the potatoes do not need to be dug up, but just turn over or cut the bag to collect dry and clean potatoes.
What's wrong?
- quick drying of the soil in bags;
- the need to use a large amount of nutrient soil or to prepare the soil mixture;
- the bushes mature quite quickly, so it is extremely important to maintain all conditions for the formation of full-fledged tubers.
If you correctly implement the growing technology, as well as guarantee proper care of the plant, you can harvest an excellent crop in an extremely limited area by the end of the summer season. These are not empty words, because 4-5 planting materials bring up to 5 kg of vegetable.