Growing potatoes from seeds

Traditionally, when propagating potatoes, vegetative methods are used: breeding with tubers (or parts of tubers), cuttings and layers. But with this method of reproduction, the taste and fruitful properties of potatoes are gradually deteriorating, the number of tubers affected by the diseases grows: fungi, bacteria and viruses, that is, in fact, degeneration of the variety occurs. Hence the need to periodically update the vegetable culture by growing potatoes from seeds. But not all even experienced gardeners have an idea how to grow potatoes from seeds.

How to get potato seeds?

Potato seeds can be purchased at a specialized store or prepared by yourself. If you chose the latter option, you need to know how to collect the seeds of potatoes. In the middle - late summer on many varieties of vegetables ripen berries. They should be collected in bags of gauze and placed in a light warm place. When berries become soft, they are washed, dried, scattered on gauze, and placed in sachets.

Advice: germination of potato seeds is low, so it is better to prepare them more.

Planting potatoes with seeds

Agrotechnics are warned: to grow potatoes from seeds in conditions of a temperate climatic zone is possible in a greenhouse, and not in the open ground. In Russia, only in the southern regions can seed potato seeds in the ground.

Basically, the technology of multiplying potatoes with seeds does not differ from the cultivation of pepper and tomato seeds. Seeds for seedlings are sown for 2 months before landing in the ground (usually in late March or early April). Before sowing it is necessary to produce Preparation of potato seeds, soaking them in water for two days. Then place the swollen seminal material for 4 to 5 days on a damp cloth to sprout sprouts. It is advisable for 30 - 40 minutes before sowing to conduct processing of potato seeds by Epin to improve germination. You need to choose for further sowing fertile land (you can buy in the garden stores soil for root crops). Seeds are sown in boxes in rows, observing a distance of 2 cm, then they are covered with sand by a layer of 0.5 cm. The emergence shoots in 1.5 - 2 weeks, dives into cups or peat pots. Rooted sprouts are fed with complex fertilizer. The landing in the open ground is carried out at the end of May, covering at the beginning the planting of potatoes with a film. In the future, care for the seed-grown culture occurs as in vegetative propagation.