Potatoes: We Divide The Tuber Correctly. How To Divide A Potato Tuber When Planting? Photo

It's no secret that high-quality seed is the basis for a high yield. Potatoes are no exception to this rule. In order to collect a solid volume of tubers from the garden, in the spring you need to carefully prepare for planting, and most importantly, correctly. However, unfortunately, most gardeners, fulfilling the conditions for preparing potato seed material for planting, forget that there are scientific methods of approaching culture and repeat the mistakes that they got from friends, neighbors or inheritance, from grandparents. And the main one is associated with the division of the tuber. But it is to this method that we resort most often, in an effort to increase the planting area.

Common techniques

In modern literary sources, there are many ways to increase the planting stock of potatoes. Some of them are taught to plant cut eyes, other grown sprouts in the soil, others - to make a stimulating cut in a potato, fourth - to divide the bush in half. Each of them has the right to life, but in most cases their effectiveness has been little studied and often does not correspond to the declared indicators. This is explained quite simply - the potato tuber has its own biology and potential inherent in it, an illiterate approach to which creates the illusion of success, but not success itself.

Consider a potato

If you look closely at the potato tuber, you can easily notice that the eyes on it are unevenly located. The base (the place where the tuber was attached to the mother plant by the stolon) is practically devoid of them, but the crown is simply strewn. Thus, if we divide the tuber across, which is exactly what most of us do, one part turns out to be saturated with dormant buds, and the other is depleted. Agree, such planting material can hardly be called high-quality. It follows from this that in order for both halves to have the same potential, the potato tuber must be cut during division not across, but along.

In addition, a high concentration of auxins (plant growth stimulants) is observed in the top of the potato, and inhibitors (growth retardants) at the opposite end. This is confirmed by a simple rule that everyone can observe - the buds located directly on the top of the head wake up first on the tuber, then further, further, and finally, the buds at the place where the stolon was attached often do not awaken. This confirms once again that only longitudinal division of the tuber is biologically correct.

A little more about this technique

With such a competent method of dividing a tuber, it is better to select for planting not small or medium-sized potatoes, as our grandmothers did, but rather large ones, with a shape characteristic of the culture and a clear visual absence of disease and damage. Before starting the process, the potatoes must be kept for 10 days in a dark but warm room. This will weaken the growth inhibitors and push the kidney to awaken. The division process itself is good to carry out in a room with a comfortable temperature and relative humidity of about 90 - 95%. Tools allocated for work must be carefully sterilized.

To achieve the best results, the slices of the divided tubers are treated with a mixture of ash and cement, in a ratio of 5 x 1. This not only protects the planting material from infection, but also stops moisture evaporation, preserves the wound substances embedded in the potato by nature. Seed material processed in this way can be planted after three hours.