I've been growing potatoes for ten years, and the first six or seven years have been full of dark work, stomping through all the pits, and then i've been holding on to a dead end, feeling that the deeper the seedlings go into the soil, the more steady the roots are, whether it's drought- or wind-resilient, and the later it must be big and huge. But it's the opposite of me. Every spring, it's hard to grow a baby, to plant it, to plant it for five or six days, to grow new roots, to survive, to grow thin and yellow, to survive until autumn. Potatoes, with their big thumbs full of little nuts, and a lot of crooked, deformed potatoes, which can't even reach half the amount of production in other households, have been working for six months for nothing. The old man who had grown vegetables with me, the old man who had grown potatoes for the rest of my life, and who had not been able to help me in my years, and who had learned to do it with the staff of the rural farm station in the village, was awakened, and the most taboo thing was to plant them blindly and plant them in depth, using the core of the three leaves. From now on, my family has grown more than 95% of the potatoes every year, and the seedlings can live at a rate of 90% and 50%, and in the later stages, the leaves are strong and the potatoes are full, and there has been no previous poor harvest. Today, i've used the words of my family, sharing all of these well-established planting experiences, and there are no hard-to-understood professional words, no hard-to-understood official language, whether they grow sporadically from my home yard, large areas on the hillside, or potting in the garden, even if they have never grown a new hand, so that i can easily produce high-quality red potatoes。
Let me tell you why you can't plant the sweet potatoes too deep. It's the longest pit i've ever stepped on. I used to plant red potato seedlings and bury them in a dozen centimetres, and i thought they were deep enough to be safe. And then, just a few days later, the leaf in the bottom began to turn yellow and rot, and i pulled it out, and the part of the ground was not new, but rather it was too deep and boring. It was only later that it became clear that the cassava is a root crop whose roots grow in particular, requiring oxygen from the soil, and that if it is planted too deep, the sub-soil has a very poor permeability, the root is unable to breathe normally, the light is slow, the long and weak, and the weight is simply a dead seed, which is what we call a “hump”. Moreover, the temperature of the surface of the soil rises rapidly and is more suitable for the new, fast-growing, deep-growing, low-temperature soil, and the rate of rooting is much slower, and it is difficult to grow strong vines at a later stage, let alone full potatoes. Combining the professional guidance of agricultural technicians and my many years of physical comparison, it is most appropriate to keep the cassava plant in depth at 5 to 8 centimetres, with a significant impact on living rates and later trends beyond 10 centimetres, a measure that you must remember, and stop feeling too deep, wasting energy and planting seedlings as i did before。
Many have heard of the “three-leave-two-leaf planting” approach, which is a very complex technique, but it is very simple, and at its core, is a practical method that we ordinary people can operate with hands on. At the time of planting, we bury three of the cassava seedlings in the soil, leaving only two functional leaves in the soil. This ratio and depth is a gold standard that has been validated by numerous agricultural hands, both to ensure that the seedlings grow quickly and to lay the foundation for later masturbation. It's not too difficult to do that. The first choice is the right one. It's important to pick the top of a strong, fat leaf, free of disease and pests, not the yellow, insect-eyed, old, sick, strong and alive. Cutting the selected red potato seedlings into smaller sections of 20 cm or so, with five to six knots each, then digging a shallow pit of 5 to 8 cm on the earth that was pre-packaged, placing three slabs of red potato seedlings flatly into the earth, holding the soil down with small hands, holding the seedlings steady, leaving only two healthy leaves on the top, and finally pouring down the root water. The first time i planted a seedling in this way, three days later i discovered that the seedlings had a new, white root, and a whole week or so, and that the leaves had become so thick and green that they were completely different from the state of the before-deep, and that i had never changed any more。
The cultivation of sweet potatoes is expected to be high, as is the preparation of land for the previous period and the application of bottom fertilization, which will enable subsequent management to do much more. The cassava itself prefers a sandy sandy soil that is deep in the ground, lax in the air and drains well. It is easily watered by a sticky soil, which also limits the expansion of the root of the cassava, as far as possible. Every year, when spring soil is unfrozen, i re-plough the fields that grow the potatoes, and keep them deep at about 30 centimetres, crushing all the large earth blocks in the soil and avoiding the impact of soil blocks on seedlings. It will be followed by planting, which will be controlled at a height of 20 to 30 centimetres, with a distance of 60 to 80 centimetres, which will not only raise the temperature of the soil and maintain its permeability, but will also facilitate the subsequent watering and drainage, as well as the growth and expansion of the root of the red potato, which is an important detail for high-yielding cultivation. I have always insisted on the use of decomposed farm fats, such as domestic goat dung, cow dung and chicken dung, which must be fully decomposed, never used raw dung, which produces high temperatures in soil fermentation, makes it easier to burn a seedling, applies 2,000 to 3,000 kg of decomposed farm manure per acre, mixes about 50 kg of compost, spreads into the soil, and is fully mixed with the soil after deep cultivation, so that the bottom is well nourished, fertilized, able to provide nutrients for the growth of red potatoes on a sustainable basis, and also improves the soil structure, so that the soil becomes more loose。
The timing and intensity of cultivation of red potatoes, which also need to be controlled, have a direct impact on the productive and later production of seedlings. The optimal time for planting is between rain in the valley and summer, that is, between late april and early may of each year, when temperatures have stabilized at more than 15°c, without cold and cold seedlings occurring in the spring, and when soil temperatures are just right for the seedlings of the sweet potatoes, with the highest rate of survival after planting. Cultivation is subject to flexibility based on the fertility and variety of the plots, with suitable planting of 4,000 to 5,000 plants per acre in the slopes and drylands where the fertility of the soil is common; and soil-rich water-fed areas, which are properly rare, with 3,500 to 4,500 plants per acre, with a distance of 20 centimetres. The density is so dense that the seedlings compete for nutrients and light that the leaves grow and the potatoes are so small; the density is so thin that they waste land resources and do not allow for overall production. It can be reasonably adjusted to the actual situation of their plots, without the need to produce hard data。
After the potato is planted, it is not too cumbersome to manage later, but to do the key things of watering, fertilizer and chickening, it saves attention and yields. In terms of watering, the potatoes are drought-resistant crops that need only be replanted. A permutation of the root water allows the seedlings to be fully exposed to the soil, followed by no frequent watering, until the soil surface is white and micro-dry, and every time it is watered, it is forbidden to flood. In the face of successive rainy weather, it is important to clear the drains in a timely manner, to drain all the water from the plot, and to accumulate water in the soil for long periods of time, which can lead to the decay of the cassava roots, the yellow hair of the leaves, and to the occurrence of fissures and rotten fruit in the cassava roots. Fertilisation is to be carried out in stages, with the precipice growing for about 15 days, with a small application of 10 kg of urea per acre, promoting the rapid growth of the leaves and building strong plants; and until the critical period when the cassava roots start to expand, i. E. 45 to 60 days after the planting, with a focus on potassium fertilizer, 20 kg of potassium sulphate per acre, plus 10 kg of calcium phosphate, which can contribute to the rapid expansion of the casssava root, improve the sweetness and taste of the potatoes and make the tangled potatoes more full。
It is also a common error to be corrected by the fact that many people grow potatoes and are used to often flip their vines, which they think is wrong to prevent the vines from growing root and to avoid the waste of nutrients. Frequent chickening causes serious damage to the leaves of the potatoes, which are the core of the nutrients, and when damaged they result in a significant reduction in photocosynthesis, insufficient nutrient accumulation and a direct reduction in the production of the potatoes, with a reduction of 20 to 30 per cent. The correct approach is to lift the chickens, lightly lifting the vines up every 15 days from july to august, in the rich red potato vines, and then put them back where they were, so as to break the roots of the vines, avoid nutrient consumption and do not damage the leaves, and ensure that the nutrients are all delivered to the roots of the ground, which is an effective way for me to prove them in practice over the years。
Pest control is also a component that cannot be ignored in the cultivation of sweet potatoes, although most pests and diseases can be reduced if they are pre-prevented. The common pests of red potatoes are aphids, red spiders, maggots, common diseases such as corruption, black spots, frequent inspections of the field, discovery of leafy faeces, curly curls, yellow hair and timely disposal. When the pest is light, leaves can be sprayed with soap and pepper water, and are green and safe; when the pest is heavy, low-toxic and low-residency pesticides are selected, which are used in book matching and are not allowed to increase the quantity at will. Prevention is the main focus of the disease, and the choice of healthy seedlings, the avoidance of reconnection, the absence of water and the application of fertilizers to mature farmers can effectively reduce the incidence of endemic diseases without excessive fear of the disease。
Since the core techniques of unscathed, three-leaf planting, together with scientific consolidation, fertilization and management methods, have not led to any low yield in my home, with a maximum of 2,000 kg per acre, and now more than 3,000 kg per acre of steady production, with a balanced and full head and full-filled excavated potatoes, without small, deformed potatoes, whether eaten or sold at home. A lot of neighbors who used to grow sweet potatoes like me, and learned this method, they all had a very productive harvest. A good harvest can be easily achieved without a complex operation, with a core approach and a foundational management。
In fact, whether it's a red potato or a guacamole, it can't do it on its own, with more attention paid to the details of the exercise, more multidisciplinary and practical methods, and less curves. The core of the potato is not to plant deep, with three chords of leaves, and to make the basics of land, fertilizer, water and chicken, even if new ones are grown, they can grow large and productive potatoes. Cultivation in itself is a gradual process that can lead to a harvest without pursuing complex techniques, putting in place simple methods and managing them patiently。
This paper is an experience-sharing exercise for individual potato cultivation and does not constitute any recommendation for agricultural production guidance. Climate, soil and water fertilization conditions vary from region to region, and the actual cultivation can be adapted flexibly to local realities. The text contains a summary of the long-term personal experience of physical exercise, which is available only to a wide range of growers, without any responsibility for the production and results of cultivation。
