When it's time to dig potatoes: the optimal time for harvesting and harvesting for storage. Where and how they dig potatoes: in Atna they use a “leaky” shovel, in Bashkortostan they don’t know what harvesting with a horse is, in Apastovo they prefer to use a wooden

It is necessary to harvest vegetables and fruits in a timely manner, otherwise the fruits may begin to deteriorate, which will also significantly affect their shelf life. If the fruits that grow on bushes and trees are visible, and by their appearance you can understand that they are ripe, then with root crops everything is different. In this article, we will tell you about when to dig potatoes, what is the average ripening time for a vegetable, as well as ways to quickly harvest a seasonal crop.

When to dig potatoes

Average harvest time for middle lane fall on the period starting in the second half of August and ending in the first ten days of September.

However, these times can vary considerably depending on several key factors:

from the ripening time of a particular variety (early, mid-season or late);
from the weather conditions of a particular season;
from the time of planting the seed material;
on how correct and regular potato care was.

Effect of weather on digging up potatoes

If we can accelerate the ripening of tubers, then no one can influence the weather conditions. Meanwhile, this is also very important, therefore, when planning potato harvesting, you should carefully monitor the forecast:

harvesting should not be delayed if prolonged rains are expected: waterlogging of the soil provokes diseases of tubers, rot, worsens keeping quality during storage; digging potatoes with earth stuck to it is also not too easy and pleasant;
the optimal air temperature for harvesting potatoes is not higher than +17 degrees, but not lower than +10: cold can cause blackening of tubers;
it is best to dig potatoes on a clear, fine day, when the tubers can be dried in the air, and the soil is well cleaned and does not stick;
in autumn, it is not recommended to dig potatoes in the morning, when the air that has cooled overnight is much colder than the soil that still stores summer heat;
harvesting should be completed completely before the onset of persistent frosts, which can damage not only the tops, but also the tubers in the ground.

Signs of ripening potatoes

How, then, to determine that the time has come? Fortunately, there are well-defined signals that allow you to quite correctly determine the need for cleaning.

One of the most telling signs is wilted tops. If the aerial part of the bush dies and dries out, then it does not make sense to keep the tubers in the soil longer. Moreover, they must be dug up as soon as possible (within two to three weeks) to prevent overripeness and rotting of the crop.
The second most important factor is weather conditions. Sunny and dry weather is best for harvesting, but prolonged rains and low temperature air at the end of the growing season will lead to the active development of diseases and poor preservation of the crop. Therefore, with an unfavorable prognosis, it is better to hurry up and dig the tubers out of the ground as soon as possible.
When determining the time of harvesting the tubers, it is always necessary to take into account the ripening time of the planted varieties. Early potatoes will be ready within 80 days after planting, mid-ripening varieties - after 100 days, and late ones - after 4 months.
The rate of potato ripening is also affected by soil fertility and the amount of fertilizer applied. The greater the dose of organic matter and the greater the layer of humus, the longer the growing season of the bush.

The amount of rainfall during the season can also adjust the timing of harvesting. In drier periods, without additional watering, tubers ripen much faster than in rainy summers. However, their number and size often depress the potato grower.
If you still doubt the need to dig up potato plantings, try first to remove one or two bushes and carefully examine the tubers. Their large size and dense peel will immediately tell you that it's time to harvest the entire crop.

Tool for quickly digging up potatoes

A shovel is a reliable tool, but it is advisable to have several of them, as handles break in the process. The disadvantages of a shovel are that it often spoils potato tubers - it cuts, leaves cuts, but the choice is yours, which also depends on the soil.

Pitchfork. Will is also desirable to have a pair. Take forks with four or five teeth, no more, so it is easier to reduce the risk of damage to potato tubers to a minimum. Be careful with pitchforks, especially when you stick them into the soil, you can easily pierce a rubber boot, it is better to put on tarpaulin boots, they will be stronger. In principle, digging with a pitchfork from digging with a shovel is, in fact, no different.

Cultivator. This is already from the field of modern technology, it is designed for those who have free funds and the ability to manage such equipment. The cultivator is relevant if at least a hectare of land is planted with potatoes. A smaller area can be slowly dug by the three of us. When working with a cultivator, it is desirable to remove all potato tops, leaving nothing on the site. But the first thing to do is to dig out bushes infected with late blight with a pitchfork or shovel, and at the same time tubers with it. Next, you need to wait a few days for the grass to subside and not interfere with work.

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.

When digging potatoes, you need to stand so that the sun looks in the back, so you can see what and where you are digging. As far as shoes are concerned, perfect option- these are boots (it may be hard in them, but it will be very difficult to hurt your leg by accident). You should be followed by several people, no more than a couple of holes behind and with gloves, they should choose potatoes and sort them into bags.

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. 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.

The hard work you put in will be rewarded. You will get a high yield next year and spend several times less.

Harvesting vegetables, fruits, fruits, berries is quite simple. We see if the color of the collected, say, fruit is typical, we can pick it (after all, there are still many of the same on the tree, and we will not harm the plant in any way) and taste it, finding out whether it is ready for taste. With root crops, and in particular with potatoes, everything is different: in order to properly dig potatoes and so that in the end the tubers turn out to be ripe, tasty, large and, most importantly, preserved as long as possible, until the new harvest, you need to know a number of subtleties and features of this crop . Let's try to figure out how, when and what is better to dig potatoes.

Potato digging. © Sara

When to dig potatoes?

Each gardener must firmly understand that the process of final ripening, including potato tubers, is affected by a huge number of different factors. These are the features of the current season, and the condition of the soil, and the degree of infection with pests and diseases, and, finally, varietal characteristics, which also dictate their own rules.

For example, if you planted potatoes for the May holidays (or at the end of April, if the soil warmed up well and was ready to work with it), then you can dig up potatoes around mid-August, right up to its end and beginning of September. This is the usual ripening period for the vast majority of various varieties of potatoes.

Naturally, do not forget, and even better, when planting potato tubers in the soil in the spring, write down the varieties of what ripening period you are planting: early, medium or late, because the period at which your harvest begins will also depend on this. Don't think the difference can be small. So, if it is indicated that the potato variety is early, then you can start digging it up a whole month earlier than the mid-season variety and one and a half months earlier than the late variety.

In addition, take a look at your site: if you are a conscientious owner and weeded weeds in time, then perhaps your potatoes received the maximum amount of nutrients from the soil, bypassing the absent competitors, and you can dig it out at least a couple of weeks earlier. And if there are so many weeds that the potato tops are not visible, then perhaps your potato is starving and it needs a little more time to finally “ripen”.

How to check?

Of course, you can always not guess, but check if it's time to dig up potatoes, why choose a bush simpler and closer to the edge and dig it out entirely, inspect the tubers, the peel on them. If the tubers are easily separated, and the peel is dense on them, then it is quite possible to start digging up the entire potato.

Important! This applies to beginners who for the first time and independently seek to grow potatoes in their area. Often, due to inexperience and ignorance, they begin to dig up potatoes right at the height of summer. They get a good harvest, but such tubers have a thin peel, they boil quickly, that is, they are ready for immediate preparation, but they will not be stored for a long time.

Let's take a look at the top

If you don’t want to dig bushes, then take a look at the tops of potatoes: have they turned yellow, have they died. If this happens at the end of August, then the potato itself tells you that it is time to get it out of the soil, otherwise, the hour is uneven, frost will hit and the potato will become sweet.

It happens that part of the tops of the potatoes have died and the time in the yard is appropriate, and part of it is green-green, as if it’s not the end of August now, but some kind of June. Why is this happening? This happens with gardeners who were too lazy to sort early varieties from medium and late ones and plant them in different plots.

In this case, you need to dig up that part of the potato, the tops of which have died and begun to dry out, and try not to touch the young tops, of course, if the digging is done with a pitchfork or a shovel. With a walk-behind tractor, everything is more difficult: you should not go around these late bushes, you will have to sacrifice them and this will be a lesson to you for the future.

Phytophthora, which is not at the right time

By the way, by the time the potatoes are harvested, you can also see the following picture: some of the bushes have already died, the tops on them are clearly dead, and some are “biting” late blight. It has been noticed that such bushes may also have tubers affected by this dangerous fungal infection. And imagine what will happen if you dig up such bushes and place the affected potato tubers in storage along with healthy ones? True, nothing good: all or most of the crop may die.

Therefore, I advise you to dig such potato bushes in the very first place, and I would not advise them to eat the tubers removed from the soil, or to feed them to livestock.

Digging up a potato bush. © Arthur McWerter

Do I need to remove the tops when harvesting potatoes?

Disputes about the removal of tops before harvesting potatoes have not subsided so far. Personally, I firmly decided for myself that everything is good in moderation: the complete removal of the tops (to the soil level) will simply make it difficult to dig up potatoes later - you will have to look for the place where the bush was.

The second problem is the same phytophthora: when you mow down the entire potato tops, spread the infection throughout the area, and when you dig up the tubers, you will also plant the fungus in the soil - which is what the infection needs. In principle, the tops can be harmful, but on farms where potatoes are harvested by machines, hard tops can simply damage the tubers.

At home, I advise you to do this: first of all, we remove and destroy all living, but plants that are eaten by phytophthora. Neither tubers nor tops of such plants are needed. Next, we mow the entire tops to a height of 12-15 cm, not lower. So you will see the bushes and give an impetus to the tubers: they say, they will soon need to be removed from the soil, which means that you should stock up on a strong “crust”. After a week, you can start harvesting potatoes. By the way, healthy tops, devoid of late blight - this is a good compost.

Digging potatoes

First, choose the right day. It’s great if it’s hot and windy, if there wasn’t rain for a couple of days before and the same amount of weather forecasters don’t promise it. Next, we carry out a control digging: the potato peel is hard, the tubers are easily separated - then everything is ready.

Step three - we estimate the likely amount of the crop in order to know how many people, bags, wheelbarrows, bins or boxes for storage and other inventory are needed. How to find out? A simple way: we dig up five potato bushes, select every single tuber from each, divide by five, we get the average yield from the bush, quite accurate.

Next, we multiply it by the number of bushes on the site; again we have, albeit approximate, but close to the real yield from the site. If something is missing for transportation or storage of this vegetable, then we urgently buy more. Remember, the sooner you dig up the potatoes while the weather is nice, dry them, and put them in storage, the better.

When going out to harvest potatoes, I advise you to take four lots of bags, a pitchfork (if the soil is heavy for digging) and a shovel (if it will be easy for you to dig). You can also take a walk-behind tractor, but we will talk about it later. Not everyone has it and not everyone knows how to manage it, but progress is inexorable and you cannot miss this moment of cleaning.

Why so many batches of bags? It's simple, I advise immediately after digging potatoes to divide it into four batches. The first batch will be giant tubers, the largest, which you can either eat or leave for seeds. In the second bag we put potato tubers of normal sizes, up to 80-90 grams, in the third - tubers that are even smaller (40-50 g, no more), and finally, in the fourth - all the little things, cut off, pierced with forks, damaged tubers, which will go either for food right away, or for livestock feed.

Digging up the potato crop. © Christina Ricchiuti

Potato Digging Tool

Shovel. This is a reliable tool, but it is advisable to have several of them, as handles break in the process. I would not advise taking an all-metal shovel, it is better to take one where there are slots in the body, the soil will wake up in them and it will be easier to dig.

The disadvantages of a shovel are that it often spoils potato tubers - it cuts, leaves cuts, but the choice is yours, which also depends on the soil (personally, I could dig in clay with a shovel for no more than a couple of hours).

Pitchfork. Will is also desirable to have a pair. Take forks with four or five teeth, no more, so it is easier to reduce the risk of damage to potato tubers to a minimum. Be careful with pitchforks, especially when you stick them into the soil, you can easily pierce a rubber boot, so here I would advise you to put on tarpaulin boots, they will be stronger. In principle, digging with a pitchfork from digging with a shovel is, in fact, no different (although it’s easier for me personally to dig with a pitchfork, but that’s for everyone).

When digging potatoes, you need to stand so that the sun looks in the back, so you can see what and where you are digging. Be sure to dress thoroughly so that all parts of the body are covered from the sun, there is a Panama hat with fields on the head, and on the surface of the clothes there is a persistent aroma of mosquito and horsefly spray. As for shoes, the ideal option is boots (it may be hard in them, but it will be very difficult to hurt your leg by accident). You should be followed by several people, no more than a couple of holes behind and with gloves, they should choose potatoes and sort them into bags.

Cultivator. This is already from the field of modern technology, it is designed for those who have free funds and the ability to manage such equipment. The cultivator, in my opinion, is relevant if at least a hectare of land is planted with potatoes. A smaller area can be slowly dug by the three of us. When working with a cultivator, it is desirable to remove all potato tops, leaving nothing on the site. But the first thing to do is to dig out bushes infected with phytophthora with a pitchfork or a shovel, and at the same time tubers with it. Next, you need to wait a few days for the grass to subside and not interfere with work.

The weather is the same - warm and dry for a couple of days. According to the choice of potatoes: here, rather, you will have to do everything together and at the end of each row that the cultivator will pass, or in general - after harvesting the entire area.

In order for working with a motor cultivator when digging potatoes to be a pleasure, and not to be flour, it is necessary that all rows are even and the cultivator does not have to “walk” in different directions. Further, the distance between the rows is also desirable to be the same. Naturally, when digging potatoes for a cultivator, you need to use attachments designed for digging potatoes and nothing else. The speed of rotation of the nodes should be adjusted so that they select the tubers, but do not throw them out with force to the surface.

From my own experience, I can say that when digging potatoes with a motor cultivator, you should not dig row after row, it is better to dig potatoes through one row, otherwise one wheel will always move on the plowed land, and the other on the compacted one, it’s more difficult to work.

What is good about a motor cultivator: it usually allows you to select all potato tubers from the soil, rarely spoils them, facilitates work and incomparably speeds it up. A couple of people behind the cultivator can also go and sort the tubers or do it later, when the work of the motor cultivator is completed, as we mentioned above.

Digging potatoes with a pitchfork. © Steve

Drying and storing potatoes

After harvesting all the potatoes, they must be dried before storage. For this, it is necessary to choose a sunny and preferably windy day, but you can’t pour out potatoes in an open and well-lit place: it can accumulate, albeit a little, the poison of solanine. Most best option- This is a canopy located on the south side.

Potatoes can be dried by fractions, since it takes only 4-6 hours to dry. Each fraction after drying in one layer, with a turn to another barrel after two hours, must be placed in the cellar. The usual standard cellar provides for a depth of 2-3 meters, four walls, whitewashed with lime and whitewashed every year, and bins - in fact, large wooden boxes or standard apple wooden boxes, always new and dry. When pouring potatoes, it is impossible for them to beat against each other and fall from a height of more than 10 cm, this can lead to negative consequences, cause anything, up to rot.

It is necessary to sort each game, as we did on the field. It is desirable that there is access to all potato fractions to check what condition they are in.

For the normal maintenance of potatoes in storage, it is necessary that the temperature in it be at a level of plus 2-3 degrees Celsius, and the humidity should be at around 85-90%.

After laying all the potatoes for storage, pay attention to the field: all the tops and weeds, if they are disease-free (and weeds without seeds), can be collected and laid in a compost heap. If you notice signs of fungal diseases, then it is better to burn the tops.

That's all there is to tell about when and how to dig potatoes.

"Digging with a shovel with holes"

Suriya Mingatin (Atnya):

- In our area, various tools and devices are on the move and they are digging potatoes different ways. We dig ourselves with a shovel, and occasionally use a pitchfork. Depends on the soil and place - somewhere the earth is soft, crumbly, and somewhere dense, viscous. Those who plant large plots on the field cannot do without a tractor. We have our own tool - a shovel with holes in the middle. The earth passes through the hole, and the tubers remain. Very comfortably.

"I've never even heard of this"

Gulfiza Kalimullina (Bashkortostan, Miyakinsky district, Shatmantamak village):

- We dig potatoes with a shovel - this is how our ancestors did, and we do the same. But we also have forks, special ones, for digging up potatoes. It is very convenient to work with them, I always try to get them to me. These are forks with four flat teeth. We left after dad.

Digging up potatoes with a horse? Haven't even heard of this. And the tractor, probably, is better to work on the field. We don't plant potatoes on our collective farm now. Whoever wants, takes a plot in the field, sows with a tractor and harvests.

We have big potatoes this year. But they haven't started digging yet. The peel is thin, torn off, and the tops are not withered.

"Cleaning is divided into stages"

Tanzilya Nizamutdinova-Farrakhova (Menzelinsky district, Abalach village):

- First of all, we mow the tops, manually, with an ordinary scythe. This is done around September 3-4. Let the soil dry out for a week. Then we dig about 3 meters from both ends of the garden with a shovel - this is so that the tractor can turn around. On September 13-15, a tractor with a two-row digger drives into the garden, he raises the potatoes to the surface. We are behind the tractor, collecting potatoes in small piles. We let it dry, then we divide it into varieties. We have 25 acres. With good weather and a sufficient number of workers, we can handle the cleaning in two days.

“I clean with my tractor“ T-40 ”

Damir Khamidullin (Kamskoe Ustye):

- I'm going to dig potatoes with my T-40 tractor. About twenty years ago, with the late dad, they assembled it from various spare parts. Both a tractor and a digger. Digs two rows at once, very convenient.

"The days were good, we decided to dig by hand - for fun"

Sariya Bikmurzina (Apastovo):

– This year the days are surprisingly warm and sunny, so we thought that working in the garden would only be a pleasure. We dug up the potatoes with a shovel. And before every year they cleaned it with a tractor. In our area, they do it differently: someone with a shovel, someone with a tractor, someone has a walk-behind tractor with a special device. They look at the size of the site, the number of assistants and figure out how to clean and what to use, based on their capabilities.

“There is enough work for both a shovel and a pitchfork”

Robert Shaimardanov (Rybno-Sloboda district, Nizhny Timerlek village):

- Digging potatoes with a shovel or a pitchfork - depends on the weather and the crop. If the harvest is poor and the potatoes are small, and the days are dry, you dig with a shovel. And if the tubers are large, the days are rainy - you use a pitchfork. The main thing is that the harvest is generous and the days are good, and there is enough work for the shovel and pitchfork.

“We plant with a shovel, we also clean with a shovel”

Firay Ganiullina (Mamadysh district, Urazbakhtino village):

- In the spring we dig up the garden with a tractor, and plant potatoes with a shovel. And we clean it in the same way - with a shovel.

“Hit with a sickle, dug with a shovel”

Zulfat Zinnurov planted potatoes in the spring convenient way. But this device is not suitable for harvesting potatoes, so the singer used traditional tools.

- We still need to look at some equipment so that it also digs up potatoes. In the meantime, we work manually, in the good old way - we dig with a shovel. Mom and I. More than half of the garden has already been cleared. They worked all day. The ground is bad, hard. Out of habit, everything hurts - legs, back, arms ...

The tops were removed with a sickle. It is impossible to mow with a scythe - a bindweed has crawled all over the site, it is everywhere. The tops are uprooted. But if you cut it with a sickle, it turns out neat and clean. That's the way I love.

"A wooden shovel does not injure potatoes"

IsilIAkhmetshina (Apastovo):

- My dad's mom Alfiya Safina in the village of Idryas-Tenikievo digs potatoes with a wooden shovel. When the soil is soft, it is very convenient, just lightly push and unfold the mounds with tubers. And the potatoes are not cut, not injured.

“We remove the tops with a mower”

Fidail Kadimov (Atninsky district, Ary village):

- This year I made a tractor with my own hands. I also want to make a special device for harvesting potatoes, but this year I didn’t have time. By next year, I think I will.

They haven’t cleaned with a shovel and forks for a long time, now, after all, the tractor does everything - it digs potatoes, and we mow the tops with a mower. We live in the 21st century.

"Motoblock cleans potatoes quickly and easily"

Kadriya Hammadieva:

- In the village of Zirekle, Nurlat district, potatoes were harvested using a walk-behind tractor. Ours has a special "digger". You push the walk-behind tractor along the rows, in one pass it digs out one rad. A shovel, of course, is both hard and long. And so much faster. And you don't need a lot of gas. It took 2 liters of fuel for 9.5 acres of land. They were digging potatoes cheerfully and amicably, as if they had gone to nature to rest, and the mood was somehow festive. Mutton soup from Eid al-Adha was cooked on a fire, tea was boiled in a samovar. We realized that harvesting potatoes with the help of a walk-behind tractor cannot even be called work, like some kind of holiday.

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, make sure you have 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 one is suitable for sandy soil, where the fruits are dug out almost all clean and dry, and they only need 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, in order for the dirt to disappear and all the potatoes to dry out, it takes only two to three days. 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 harvest 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 have a beneficial effect on 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 they only dig early varieties potatoes. 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 gardeners it is advised that the collection of 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.

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 they will begin to move into 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 can damage a new crop next year. 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 healing period, during which the skin 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?

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.

Good harvest everyone!

When it's time to dig potatoes: the optimal time for harvesting and harvesting for storage. Where and how they dig potatoes: in Atna they use a “leaky” shovel, in Bashkortostan they don’t know what harvesting with a horse is, in Apastovo they prefer to use a wooden

When to dig potatoes

Effect of weather on digging up potatoes

Signs of ripening potatoes

Tool for quickly digging up potatoes