Excellent potato yields without hilling and weeding. How to grow potatoes without weeding and hilling

There is an easy way to grow potatoes smartly without weeding and hilling. This method is to use straw. Even before the revolution in Russia, this method of growing potatoes was extremely popular. Then, with the advent of Soviet power and changes in the conduct Agriculture this method has been forgotten.

Let's say that this method simply does not give you rest. Namely, that part of it, when, after planting tubers, you can forget about your potatoes. If you want to do something else for your future rich harvest, then you can do the periodic stirring of the potatoes. Often this is not necessary, it will be enough once a month.

It is necessary to take a metal stick and insert it into the line where the tubers are laid. Now just move up and down. In general, this procedure cannot be called simple or carefree, and it will take a certain amount of time. But, the experiments of gardeners have shown that this method of care will help increase the yield of the method of growing potatoes under straw by 20%.

Also, some gardeners, before tubers, pour peat on the selected area with a layer of up to 15 cm. Then the tubers are simply laid out on peat and covered with vegetation. It is not at all necessary to do this: even with the classic method of planting under straw, the harvest will be good. But, peat will also help increase productivity by an average of 15-20%.

For several years of communication with amateur potato growers, I had to answer many different questions. More often than others, there were questions about landing patterns. What is the best row spacing? How often should tubers be placed in a row? These issues are very important for any crop, including potatoes. But very rarely one could hear the question about the depth of planting potatoes.

This is taken for granted. Well, what is there to think? I dug with a shovel, that's the depth. This is what most potato growers do. But the planting depth also has importance. Properly determined tuber planting depth ensures rapid germination of tubers. Plants develop from a large number stems and a more powerful root system, which contributes to the accumulation of the crop, creates Better conditions for planting and harvesting.

So, how deep should tubers be planted,
to get the maximum yield?

Many studies have been devoted to the issues of the depth of planting potatoes, but there is no consensus on what depth it is more expedient to plant potatoes.

Planting depth can be from 5 to 15 cm from the top surface of the tuber to the soil surface. It depends on the timing of planting, moisture availability, soil structure and other factors:

- At early landing in unheated soil, the tuber should be closer to the surface, since the surface layer of the soil warms up earlier and the potato does not lack heat here.

- With a dry spring and the impossibility of watering the plants in initial period, planting should be as deep as possible, otherwise the plants will develop slowly due to lack of moisture.

- On light sandy and sandy loamy soils, planting may be deeper than on loamy and clay soils. This is due to the presence of air in the soil - sand and sandy loam, as a rule, are more aerated.

- When planting shallow, the potato nest will form close to the soil surface, which will lead to a large number greenish tubers. Shallow planting of tubers makes subsequent hilling of potatoes necessary.

- With deep planting of seed tubers, a lot of time is required for sprouts to come to the surface. The faster the potatoes rise, the greater the harvest. The number of plants suffering from rhizoctoniosis is increasing, due to which seedlings are sparse and weakened. Too deep planting can lead to a decrease in yield, the yield of small tubers increases. The tubers often become ugly. Tubers and roots need a lot of air, but at depth it may not be enough. In addition, deep planting complicates the harvesting of potatoes.

In any case, you should try to plant the tubers at the same depth to ensure even seedlings. In the future, this will avoid the oppression of some potato plants by others.

In the south of the Omsk region, peculiar conditions are developing. Short growing season, spring-summer dryness and high temperatures July, heavy loams in my area make their own adjustments to the choice of potato planting depth.

The lack of spring moisture (small thickness of the snow cover) and precipitation in summer requires a deeper planting - upper layer soil dries quickly. The presence of the July heat (up to 40 degrees) also suggests a deeper planting - when the soil is heated above 28 degrees, the potato stops the filling of tubers.

On the other hand, deep planting is not desirable with us: a short growing season requires potatoes to rise early. On heavy loams, potatoes at depth produce a low yield of small and often ugly tubers - the soil is too dense and poorly aerated.

For the last 9 years in my garden I have not used plowing and digging the soil. All crops grow in narrow beds with mulched aisles. At first, this only exacerbated the contradictions with the landing depth. The very planting and harvesting of potatoes disturbed the soil structure. Over time, I found a way to plant tubers without deepening into the soil more than 5 cm from bottom surface soil - used straw, hay, foliage, and other organic residues for mulch. He talked about this in his articles.

With my planting method, it becomes impossible to hill the bushes, which reduces the potential yield of tubers. After all, stolons appear only on the white part of the stem, closed from light. Additional roots appear only in a moist substrate. The question arose: how to increase the length of the stem under the soil surface without deepening the tubers? And the answer turned out to be very simple. You just need to germinate the tubers to a length of shoots of 2-3 cm and plant the seed material down with shoots. More precisely, I arrange the tuber so that the sprouts are under the tuber, and have maximum contact with the soil - the barrel. Picture 1:

Reasons here are simple. The roots do not grow from a tuber, but from sprouts. And since the tubers do not deepen, then you need to make sure that the roots quickly go into the soil. Under the loose layer, rich in organic matter, there is a dense, undigged layer. The density of this layer provides a powerful capillary rise of moisture from the underlying layers. The structure of this layer is not disturbed by the intervention of a shovel and it remains similar to a sponge, with an abundance of pores from the passages of worms and decomposed roots. These air-filled pores provide excellent aeration to the potato roots. Photo 1:

In addition, with such a planting, the length of the etiolated (uncolored) section of the stems greatly increases. Roots and stolons actively grow in this area. There is a kind of hilling effect, without hilling. Compare length white area on the left tuber - the usual landing, and on the right - down with sprouts.

Moreover, the stolons are located in a loose substrate, which is very important for potatoes. In dense soil, up to 50% of stolons do not form tubers of normal size.

Another advantage of planting down with sprouts - the bush grows wider than when planting with sprouts up - compare figures 2 and 3. Rounding the uterine tuber, the sprouts diverge to the sides. Some removal of trunks in the bush contributes better lighting seedlings, which means better photosynthesis - the development of plants in the initial, very important period.

Potatoes respond to such a planting with a high yield. Photo 2:

In the photo, selection from the hybrid population "Bars", the average yield per bush is 3 kg. Maximum - 5, 6 kg. From a hundred square meters - 700 kg (17.5 bags) Digging potatoes with such a planting is much easier than with deep planting upwards with sprouts - the tubers are all under the mulch. Photo 9:

In photos 3, 4, 5 it is easy to see how the bush grew:

In this photo, a bush with a planting tuber and a crop from it.

View of the bush from above.

View of the bush from below.

Exploring this technique, I modeled the development of potatoes planted with sprouts down. This can be seen in photos 6, 7, 8:

The photo shows tubers with apical dominance. On such tubers, another unexpected effect of planting down with sprouts appeared - active tillering of the sprout. But it doesn't always show up. In my experiments, this happened on 15% of the tubers. Later, I found a way to make all the sprouts bush. You just need to pinch the tip of the sprout. This technique allows you to get a multi-stemmed bush with the development of 1-2 sprouts at the top of the tuber (apical dominance). Moreover, the tubers in such bushes are all large. Compare in photo 3 the uterine tuber and tubers of the crop. I explain this by the lack of competition within the bush. In an ordinary multi-stemmed bush, each stem is single plant. And they compete with each other for light and nutrient solutions. As a result, 1-2 large or many small tubers are formed on each stem-plant. On a plant that has grown from a single sprout, but branched underground, the tubers are large. And due to the increased etiolated section of the stems, there are a lot of tubers.

Anyone who decides to plant tubers down with sprouts should be prepared for the fact that potatoes will sprout later than from tubers planted upside down. With a no-till planting method, like mine, this is not a problem. It takes a little longer to rise, but it can also be planted earlier - the top layer warms up faster, and I don’t need to deepen it.

When planting upwards with sprouts, the same length of the underground part of the stems can be grown using hilling (compare figures 4 and 5. In both figures, the length of the etiolated stem is the same). Planting sprouts down avoids this time-consuming and development-delaying operation.

If you want to get fresh tubers early, you can also use planting down with sprouts. I also do this successfully. I mix the tubers with sprouts 1-2 cm long down with sprouts in a box and completely fall asleep with DRY sawdust. In a dry substrate, roots do not form, but sprouts change direction of growth and rise to the surface.

Whenever deciding whether to plant upside down or downside down when planting potato tubers, remember that crop tubers will form on offshoots - stolons - that radiate from the plant's stem.

Many modern gardeners do not think that it is possible to grow a crop without plowing, weeding, hilling and daily watering. But there are also "lazy" gardeners who do without these agricultural procedures - and at the same time they collect good harvests! Ivan Boyarintsev from the village of Tyelga is one of them. More about helping him achieve successful results straw farming method:

Laziness is the engine of progress

“I'm really a lazy person myself. In addition, about 15 years ago I had an operation in the abdomen. So I could not dig with a shovel in the spring. But I didn't want to leave the garden either. Then knowledgeable people told me about non-traditional farming. A year later, I had a second operation, so heavy physical activity was completely banned. It was then that I began to invent my own “lazy” agriculture and realized that this is a completely different worldview and a special science,” says Ivan Boyarintsev.

Straw has become the main assistant for the gardener.

“Plants do not eat their own kind, that is, organic ones. Accordingly, manure and straw as such are useless to the plant. Only inorganic compounds that the plant receives through the roots from the waste products of spider bugs and worms bring benefits, ”the gardener notes. This became the first postulate of his theory.

The second postulate is that it is necessary to intervene in the life of plants and the garden as little as possible so as not to disturb the fragile natural balance.

Gradually, Boyarintsev came to the idea that land use and agriculture are inherently opposite occupations. Gardening (land use) is a forced measure for the majority of Russians, a way to survive.

“Gardeners are forced to pull out the maximum yield from their 4-6 acres, fitting in unacceptable proximity a variety of horticultural crops without thinking about the balance and fertility of the land on the site. Agriculture, on the other hand, means the rational harmonious use of the land. Straw farming can be compared to arranging soil in a forest. Straw supports the soil structure and enriches the soil so that chemical fertilizer becomes unnecessary. But this effect is manifested only if the principle of "refusal of plowing" is fulfilled. Soil quality improves with each season. This is mainly the result of the fact that everything grown in the garden returned to the soil, with the exception of fruits, ”Ivan notes.

Prepare straw in autumn

Start straw farming better in autumn. The first step is to buy straw in bales. As a rule, at this time of the year it is in abundance with many farmers. In the spring this is much more difficult to do. Further, with thoughts about straw farming, you need to spend the winter, and in the spring get to work.

The main advice that Ivan Boyarintsev gives to beginner gardeners is to agree on a new method in the family: “Before buying straw, I told my wife about my intention to garden in a new way. She supported me. Now it helps me achieve high yields.”

In the spring, the earth should be covered with a layer of cardboard or newspapers. If the cardboard is from boxes, it must be cleaned of adhesive tape. Paper will not allow weeds to break through, at the same time it quickly decomposes and does not harm the earth. Many novice farmers are afraid that this will create an ideal environment for the appearance of slugs and other garden pests - but Boyarintsev is sure that uninvited guests are a temporary phenomenon.

“Within six months, the natural balance in the garden will be established. If slugs or some other living creatures appeared, then those who will eat them will soon come. In my garden there are mice, and hedgehogs, and an owl. And that's okay. Let's say all the neighbors have the Colorado potato beetle, but I have never had one. It flies in, leaves its offspring, but at night, beetles unfamiliar to me, which hide from the sun under the straw during the day, come out of their shelters and eat the larvae in the embryo colorado potato beetle. For 15 years, not a single leaf has been eaten and no chemistry,” the farmer shares his experience.

Slugs for balance

The next step is to cover the cardboard sheets with a layer of straw. The easiest way to roll out rolls. The height of the straw layer should be at least 20–30 cm. This is necessary so that the plantings feel great all summer. Straw covers from the sun. Differences in night and day temperatures provide condensation and the necessary moisture. It should be taken into account that the thickness and density of the covering material changes - the straw "sits down" after some time by almost half of its thickness. If its layer is too thick, the soil warms up slowly in the spring, so you need to calculate empirically how much hay to lay.

If they blow often strong winds or the site is in a draft, then it is recommended to lightly sprinkle the straw with earth or immediately wet it strongly. Potatoes, strawberries, onions, and carrots grow equally well in straw. The easiest way to plant potatoes in the straw.

“They say that the Cossacks used to lay potatoes on the ground and cover them with a good layer of straw. For the first few years, I made holes in straw. And this year I tried the Cossack style. The difference in seedlings was only three days, and the hassle is much less, - recommends the interlocutor.

Many are afraid of the dominance of mice. But Boyarintsev is sure that you just need to change your worldview.

“Yes, part of the crop suffers from mice. But it is not more than 10 percent. You have to get used to sharing. And he takes it for granted. Yes, and different snakes-hedgehogs perfectly regulate the number of mice, if they themselves are not driven out of the site, and for this, again, straw is needed so that they have somewhere to hide, ”advises Boyarintsev.

To plant small seeds in straw, you need to make a groove in it, pour a row of earth into it and place the seeds.

According to him, straw farming is, of course, not a panacea, but it can really get rid of garden duties. For an urban man, but still not abandoning his piece of land, this is just a gift: a huge amount of time saved without loss of productivity.

For most summer residents, growing potatoes is the longest and most tedious process. After all, you need to prepare the seed material, then the soil. Next comes the exhausting planting of tubers. Then - many months of painstaking care, including constant weeding, loosening, hilling and watering. But not everyone knows that there is another method of growing potatoes without weeding and hilling. It completely excludes planting potatoes in the ground, but everything must be done wisely.

They learned to grow potatoes without planting them in the ground so long ago that it is impossible to say for sure who invented this previously simple, but such a unique method. However, there are so many followers and ardent fans of planting potatoes "without planting" that, perhaps, this method will soon become much more popular than the usual method.

The essence of non-stop growing is that a special microclimate is created above the tubers, which contributes to the launch of biological processes: the plant develops much faster. This is achieved due to the thick covering layer that covers the potato seeds.

Agrofibre, film, sheets of cardboard, hay or straw are used as a coating. In addition, the tubers are not buried in the ground, but placed on its surface. A potato is formed and ripens on the ground.

Sprouted root crops can be laid different ways: some lay it in rows, others arrange nests in the straw, others scatter the seeds in a chaotic manner.

Fact! With this method, you can get high yields of potatoes, growing them in boxes, boxes or bags.

Mulch creates a suitable microclimate for potatoes - in the layer between the ground and the mulch, it is always warm and humid. The earth nourishes the root crops with all the necessary substances, and the straw reliably maintains both the temperature and the level of humidity. According to summer residents who have tried this potato cultivation technique, up to 15 large, tasty potatoes weighing 250-300 grams can be harvested from one bush. At the same time, no effort is required to obtain such a crop.

Advantages and disadvantages

All the advantages of cultivating potatoes without planting and weeding were appreciated by thousands of summer residents throughout the country. Agree that without the exhausting planting of tubers, constant weeding, hilling and treatments from the Colorado potato beetle, the process of growing this crop becomes much easier. Plus, straw mulch favorably affects the formation of new large tubers.

The benefits of growing potatoes under straw include:

• Mulch always retains moisture. Therefore the need for constant watering plantations are excluded. And during the heat, the earth, and with it the root crops, will be protected from drying out;
• wet straw, in contact with the ground, gradually begins to decompose and turn into a useful organic fertilizer;
• organics emit a special type of gas that attracts worms and beneficial microorganisms to the site. They, in turn, contribute to better aeration of the soil - between the soil and the straw there is natural circulation air, which naturally affects the size of tubers;
• the weed does not grow under the mulch, and therefore weeding ceases to be a necessity;
• small insects breed in the thick of straw, which scare away the Colorado potato beetle. Therefore, it will not be necessary to spend a lot of money on pest control;
• potatoes are formed and ripen not in the ground, but on it, so it is not necessary to spud it;
• after harvesting potatoes, straw can be left in place until next year - by spring, the soil will absorb all the most useful and nutritious from it;
• collecting potatoes is simplified, because you do not need to dig the ground and look for the treasured fruits. In addition, the harvest will be clean.

Meanwhile, there are several disadvantages of the non-stop method:

• if the straw scares off the Colorado potato beetle, but, unfortunately, attracts rodents - mice, rats. Animals can spoil part of the crop;
• slugs love to live under the damp warm and dark straw layer. They can also cause crop shortages;
• straw is not a cheap pleasure. If you have a large potato field at your disposal, then covering it with a 10-centimeter layer of straw will cost a lot of money.

The necessary conditions

No need to think that since potatoes do not grow in the ground, then the soil does not need to be fertilized. On the contrary, the area for potatoes should be very well fertilized, because it is from the soil that the tubers will receive all the nutrition with the help of roots. Potatoes grow well on loose, fertile soil. This can be achieved by mixing the soil with humus or compost. It is also important to fertilize the soil with ash. At first, the sprouts should receive a lot of nitrogen, then phosphorus. There are a lot of these elements in peat, so instead of humus, moistened peat can be laid. From organic matter, urea can also be used.

Soil fertilization options:

1. In autumn for one square meter use 5 kilograms of manure and 1 tablespoon of nitroammophoska.
2. In the spring, 4 kilograms of humus and 300 grams of wood ash are poured onto one square.
3. To protect plantings from wireworms and the Colorado potato beetle, onion husks are scattered around the perimeter of the beds or onion infusion is used.
4. In autumn, sow the field with oats, rye or mustard. Green manure will make the soil more fertile.

Potato varieties for growing without weeding

Not every potato variety is suitable for such an extraordinary way of growing this crop. Summer residents assure that Dutch hybrids show themselves best - they are more resistant to temperature changes, productive, and rarely get sick.

However, do not pass by domestic zoned varieties, which give good results in the central, northern and southern regions of the country. This method is especially good when growing early-ripening varieties of potatoes, since under the straw the soil heats up quickly and the biological process that occurs in the tubers goes much faster.

Suitable varieties:

Potato preparation

For "planting" use small tubers (diameter 3-4 centimeters) with at least 4 eyes. If the seed material is large, then each tuber is cut lengthwise, leaving 2-3 eyes on each part.

Proven years of experience that it is best to plant sprouted potatoes. Start preparing it a month before planting.

First, the tubers are disinfected. For this, a weak solution of potassium permanganate is suitable, in which the seeds are soaked. Then they start to germinate. Purpose: to achieve greening of tubers and awakening of eyes. Tubers can be prepared in several ways.

Attention! Tubers that have mechanical damage cannot be used as seed.

Tuber drying

This method speeds up germination and mature potatoes can be obtained a couple of weeks earlier. The seeds are felled in a bright and relatively warm room. The tubers are laid out in boxes in one or two layers. If the snow has already melted on the street on the south side of the house, then the potatoes can be kept on a bed of straw or other material. Only at night you need to bring it into the house so that it does not freeze. Drying potatoes means awakening the eyes. After 7-10 days, the rudiments of sprouts will appear. Excessive stretching of the sprouts is unacceptable - this will negatively affect the further vegetation of the tubers.

During wilting, tubers lose up to 15% of moisture. It is the rapid drying that starts the biological processes and the kidneys wake up. Green tubers are planted as soon as the soil is warm enough.

dry germination

If preparing for landing late varieties potatoes, it is better in a dry way, which contributes to rapid vegetation - all root crops will have time to form by September.

The technique of dry germination is simple: the tubers are laid out in narrow transparent bags so that each seed receives a sufficient portion of sunlight. Holes are made in the film with a diameter of up to 1.5 centimeters. This promotes good ventilation. seed material. The bags are kept for about a month in bright rooms at a temperature of 14-15 degrees.

Wet germination

Seeds are placed in a box filled with wet peat, sawdust or humus soil. The containers are in a dark room, the temperature in which is maintained at 13 degrees. Potatoes in boxes can be folded in several layers, each of them is sprinkled with peat. After 18-20 days, the tubers acquire sprouts, a root lobe appears ( root system). After planting the "seedlings", it will germinate in a week.

Methods for planting potatoes

Seed material is planted in different ways - it all depends on the degree of preparedness of the site and the free time of the summer resident.

Landing methods:

1. Sprouted potatoes are laid out on the ground in rows, at a distance of 25 centimeters from each other. The sprouts should look up. Row spacing is 60 cm. From above, the potatoes are covered with a thick layer of straw. It is necessary to ensure that the "pillow" is loose, otherwise the sprouts will not be able to break through the straw. However, then it will be necessary to ensure that the straw is not blown away by the wind, otherwise the tubers will become bare, turn green and will no longer be suitable for further consumption. Then, when the sprouts grow up, lay out the second straw layer. Plantings can be watered every 10-14 days. Harvesting is simple: you rake the straw and collect clean ripe root crops. To “weight” the straw hat, you can sprinkle it with earth and press boards along the edges of the bed.
2. If the planting of potatoes takes place in early dates, it is possible that night frosts may occur. In this case, it is better to plant potatoes in small earthen holes - the earth will retain heat and reliably protect the tubers from freezing. If the soil on the site is fertile, then the potatoes can be lightly sprinkled with earth, if not, then a thick layer of straw should be immediately laid on top (layer thickness up to 25 centimeters). In a couple of weeks, the straw will settle, then you will need to add it, overlaying the potato stalks. The height of the straw layer is 20 centimeters. Harvesting is also easy. It is only necessary to move the mulch with a rake or pitchfork and collect the potatoes.

Aftercare

The beauty of growing potatoes without planting and weeding lies in the fact that plantings require practically no maintenance. Since the issue of weeding is excluded, the summer resident saves his time and effort on care.

There is also no need to spud potatoes, because Bottom part the stem is constantly covered with straw, and this contributes to the growth of adventitious roots and the formation of root crops.

Potatoes rarely need to be watered, as moisture remains under the straw for a long time. On rainy days, it is recommended to cover the field with a film to prevent flooding of plants and the development of fungal diseases.

During the growing season of plants, it is important to ensure that there are no gaps in the straw and direct sunlight does not fall on the tubers.

Planting potatoes for green manure

Green manure will be an excellent substitute for straw or hay, which can be difficult to get. Thus, potatoes can be grown under green manure mulch. As what gardeners usually use legumes- they enrich the soil with nitrogen, rye, oats, mustard, phacelia. By the way, the latter is the best companion for potato culture.

Siderates are planted in the fall, for example, they are sown with oats or winter rye. Closer to winter, ears can be cut and covered with them. garden plot or leave in the soil until spring. However, it is important not to miss the timing of the appearance of seeds on plants, otherwise the field will quickly become overgrown with weeds. Winter rye begins to bloom very early, so already in April it will be necessary to cut it at the root, and leave the stems on the field.

If in the fall they did not find time to sow green manure, then they can be planted in early spring as soon as the snow melts. The easiest way is to plant phacelia - this crop grows very quickly and by summer the field will be ready to receive potato tubers. Potatoes are sown directly in a thicket of phacelia - tubers are scattered with a certain step, but not often. Phacelia is a small, strongly leafy bush with a lilac corolla at the end. The lower leaves and stems will reliably cover the tubers from the sun's rays, preventing them from turning green, and during bad weather they will retain excess moisture. When the potato tops outgrow the phacelia, it will need to be cut off and left on the field already as mulch.

Growing potatoes under agar fiber

It is not necessary to use straw and hay to cultivate this crop. You can buy dark agorofibre and cover the landing field with it. The bottom line is that under the film the necessary greenhouse effect is created - potatoes grow by leaps and bounds. In addition, agrofibre inhibits the growth of weeds and prevents the penetration of growing tubers of rodents and small insects who strive to gnaw on juicy root crops. The advantages of covering material can also include the protection of plants from excessive precipitation, spring frosts.

Agrofibre is laid on well-fertilized soil. Before planting, the soil must be supplied with organic matter and minerals - they will feed on potatoes. It is best to prepare the soil in the fall - then you can use fresh manure. During the winter, he will overheat and be ready to supply the tubers with the nitrogen they need.

Advice! If you want to plant potatoes earlier, then in the fall make low beds - the snow will come off them much faster, which means that the soil will have time to warm up and take potatoes.

Potatoes are not planted deep, but only slightly sunk in well-loosened soil. A film is laid on top, holes are made in it, through which it will penetrate to the plants Fresh air. After 7-10 days, the first shoots will appear above the film. They will need to be sprayed from the Colorado potato beetle.

Proper agricultural technology will allow you to get high yield already in the middle of summer. Straw-grown potatoes are highly resistant to disease, have a long shelf life and taste great. The non-stop way of growing potatoes is a great alternative to the usual cultivation of this crop. Many summer residents have already appreciated this method. Try it too!

A method of growing potatoes in straw from a Siberian agronomist Ivan Parfentievich Zamyatkin.

Ivan Parfentievich Zamyatkin, a retired agronomist from the village of Shushenskoye Krasnoyarsk Territory. Ivan Parfentievich, as a result of ten years of experiments, mastered his version organic farming, based on the active and varied use of "green manure" - green manure.

Its yields of potatoes and vegetables are 10 or more times higher than those obtained by traditional "state" technology.

The historical village of Shushenskoye - the bank of the Yenisei. The soils are poor sandy loam, in summer it is above + 35 °, in winter up to -45 °, there is little snow. Every other year there are severe droughts. Bread burns out on arable fields, potatoes will not give birth - many do not dig it. And at this time, Zamyatkin was stable and without special efforts harvests fivefold.

Zamyatkin's area has not known a shovel for about twenty years. According to him, in ten years the fertile layer has deepened to 30-40 cm. The soil has become so loose that pegs for tomatoes do not need to be driven in - they are easily stuck in. The potato harvest has approached two tons per hundred square meters. Cabbage - a pood of heads of cabbage - up to 1800 kg per hundred. Yields of cabbage, carrots are three to five times higher than average, berries are plentiful. Zamyatkin does not use manure, much less compost. From fertilizers - only ash. Now in his beds, in his words, there is a true fertile agrozem. This means that the marginal harvest is guaranteed in any given year.

How does he do it?

Of course, a third of the increase comes from varietal agricultural technology: Zamyatkin selected the best varieties for himself and literally became related to them. But two-thirds of success is the system natural garden: narrow beds, lack of plowing, green manure sowing, reasonable fruit change, mulching.

“The harvest is no longer a problem. Recordomania seems to have been ill. Now my goal is the ultimate natural fertility and sustainable agro-biocenosis.”

beds

The beds at Zamyatkin are stationary, 80 cm wide, with passages of at least a meter. This is how they are born. In the first half of June, the lush grass is trampled down. A thick, half-bayonet, layer of various plant organics is piled on it. And from above - two fingers of the earth. An ideal bed: and the weeds will not let go, and breathes in order to rot faster, and the worms are at home. It stays that way until the end of the summer.

In August, cold-resistant green manure is sown here: mustard, oil radish. And in the spring on it - peas, beans, beans: let them fertilize the soil additionally. With them, the fertilization begins. And if the soil is good, you can plant both watermelons and potatoes.

Only a flat cutter takes care of the beds, and only superficially. All summer - mulch, in spring and autumn - green manure. The weed problem disappeared along with the empty land. When there is always a dense culture in the garden, or mulch, or thick green manure, where do weeds live here when their niche is occupied? And they quietly exist, not claiming to be massive and grey.

Diseases are gone too.

Zamyatkin introduced the smartest technique into his practice - the elimination of morning dew. He puts simple film screens over the beds. Heat rays are reflected back to the garden - that's it, no dew! Only that which tends to get sick is covered in this way: onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes.

Mulch

Mulch at Zamyatkin is the same basis for soil content as green manure.

He spends almost no time and effort on harvesting organic matter. A thick layer of separately harvested "hay" is used only for special purposes: to create new beds, to stifle weeds, to cover trunk circles seedlings. And in the beds all year round - natural, "green manure mulch".

The technology is simple. In August, some kind of cold-resistant green manure is sown under a rake, and before frost it gives a thick green mass. Without letting her tie the seeds, cut it off with a sharp shovel. It turns out a layer of hay. In spring, it is three times thinner: it has compacted, partially shrunk. We rake clean grooves in it, sow and plant in them. The plants stood up, burst open - all the soil is covered.

Winter rye usually does not freeze and starts growing in spring. Such a "mulch" has to be cut below the tillering node, otherwise it will grow back.

Option: green manure is not cut off, it freezes, and in April the bed is bristling with straw. It is also an effective mulch - it will cover from wind and frost. Right in it we beat holes or cut rows. Later we break it and put it on the bed.

You can mulch with any organic matter, the main thing is that it be

Experiments have shown that excellent potatoes grow under a thick layer of plant dust and straw. AT last years Zamyatkin grows it that way. He laid out the “seeds” in the garden, filled them with loose organic matter, helped the sprouts to come out if necessary - and completely filled up everything. In August, I lifted the mulch - there are clean tubers under it, at least right into the pan.

And this is what is characteristic: wireworms, larvae of the May beetle and other beetles are not found in mulch. Apparently, they do not risk rising from the soil: too many here are not averse to feasting on them. One way or another, but for many years under the straw all the tubers are clean, without damage. And you dig into the soil - many are gnawed.

Organic Mulch Rules

In autumn, cover the soil as early as possible - let it live longer and freeze later. And in the spring, on the contrary, first rake the rough mulch on the paths: let the soil thaw and warm up.

What summer residents do not cover seedlings in order to take root! And it still dries up. Zamyatkin, as always, looked closely at nature - and there everything has already been invented. The snow has come down - we sow phacelia. By the time of disembarkation - a covering carpet. Digging holes and planting. Calm, partial shade - seedlings are balding. And frosts threaten - it's easy to throw the film directly on the green manure. The seedlings began to grow, it became crowded - we cut off the green manure and put it like mulch.

Now everything is clear!

Mulch is a multi-story and multifaceted concept. Speaking about the protection of soil and seedlings, it is difficult to draw a clear line between a layer of sawdust, dead turf, dry stalk ... cedar elfin, shrubs, trees. Forests and steppes are the "mulch" of the planet. Woodlice with worms live and crawl in the forest floor and turf, and we are with you in the layer of forests, gardens and parks. But imagine that your garden and forest is uprooted. “The soil is bare for a month - it dies for a month,” says Zamyatkin.

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