Potato hilling: when and how correctly, why and what is it for?

Many gardeners grow potatoes in their summer cottages. During its cultivation, it is necessary to engage in hilling. This procedure is carried out for the best development of the planted crop and obtaining a good harvest. Before you start loosening the soil, you need to familiarize yourself with why and when you need to do it.

Why do people spud potatoes?

Many are wondering: is it necessary to spud potatoes? Therefore, before hilling potatoes by hand, you should determine the main reasons for such a procedure. There are four reasons why potatoes should be hilled:

Improve the formation of additional shoots. Regular hilling of bushes contributes to the growth of plants. It also has a positive effect on the number of formed tubers, since after loosening the soil, more nutrients get into the lower part of the plants.
Providing better protection for seedlings from low temperatures. After planting the plant in areas with an unstable climate, it is recommended that the potatoes be heaped with a chopper to protect the root system from night frosts. The soil collected in a mound near the stem of the bushes is a protective "blanket" for them.
Improved protection against gusts of wind. It is known that after planting, the tallest seedlings begin to break due to strong winds. A spiked plant has a denser base, making it less likely to break.
Weed reduction. Some are engaged in hilling potatoes so that there are not too many weeds on the site. This procedure helps to get rid of creeping couch grass, which damages tubers during growth.

When to spud potatoes?

The timing of hilling is a serious issue that must be resolved before planting. You also need to figure out how many times to spud potatoes in order to get a good harvest. Gardeners carry out this procedure three times:

For the first time, hilling potatoes by hand is carried out after the plants grow 10-15 cm. If night frosts are predicted in the coming days, you will have to completely cover the seedlings with soil for better protection. In the absence of a night drop in temperature, the plant should be spudded a little.
The second time it is necessary to do the hilling after the appearance of the first tubers. Most often, they begin to form two weeks before flowering.
For hilling potatoes for the third time, you must wait until the plant grows to 25-30 cm.This procedure is already carried out in the first half of summer in the absence of frost at night. Therefore, the base of the seedlings is sprinkled with a small amount of earth. You can also sprinkle soil between the branches of the bushes so that in the future they grow better in breadth.

How to properly hill potatoes by hand?

Before hilling the plants with a hoe, you need to quickly pre-prepare the site. First, you should completely get rid of all the weeds that interfere with the normal development of potatoes. After weeding, weed grass can not be removed, as it will protect the soil from temperature changes in the future.

Loosen the soil only after preliminary watering or rain. Potatoes in a rainy summer should be planted three days after the last rainfall. It is impossible to rake too dry or waterlogged soil, as this will harm the bushes.

Digging plants by hand with a hoe is easy. There are two ways to do this:

In the first case, the earth is raked up to the bush from all sides at once. This is done to compact the auxiliary stems of the plant.
The second method differs from the first in that in this case, during the flowering of potatoes, you will have to fill the ground in the center of the bush. This method is used to make the bush grow in breadth.

How to hill potatoes with a hiller?

Often, not a chopper is used for the procedure, but a special manual hiller. Experienced gardeners claim that this is the most convenient and affordable device that helps to rake the ground when growing various crops. This device can be purchased in special stores for summer residents or try to make it yourself.Such hand tools consist of two dumps, the angle between which should be 45 degrees, and a handle. For self-production of the hiller, you will need the following materials:

2 hollow pipes;
millimeter thick steel sheet;
lamp for heating metal;
Bulgarian;
welding machine;
lanyard.

Manufacturing of a manual hiller is carried out in three successive stages:

Creating a vertical rack. To do this, you will have to make a small bend in one pipe 100 cm long. It should be about 25-30 cm from the top of the pipe.
Production of a plow. Any manual hiller must have one plow. To make it, you will need to cut two steel plates with a grinder. They are installed at right angles to each other and connected by a welding machine.
Creating a pruning knife. This element is the most important part of the design, since it is the knife that takes on all the resistance during the processing of the land. It is also made of two steel sheets. They are welded at a 45 degree angle and attached to the plow structure.

Tilling the land with such a hiller is easy. To do this, simply deepen the plow into the ground and slowly pull the device along the area with potatoes.

How to spud potatoes with a walk-behind tractor?

Some gardeners are surprised: why do you need to buy a walk-behind tractor if you can do without it? Its acquisition is justified by the advantages of this device. The walk-behind tractor is universal and this means that it can be used not only for loosening the soil, but also for collecting ripe tubers. The main disadvantage of a walk-behind tractor is its too high cost, which is why not everyone can afford it.

Before using the walk-behind tractor, you need to make sure that all plants are planted at the same distance from each other. Two bushes should be 60-70 cm apart from each other.

To loosen the soil with such a device, two baking powder should be installed on it, which are located in the front, and one hiller in the back. It is used to cover bushes with soil. Some recommend using 3-row nozzles, which allow you to process three rows at once.

Conclusion

Many gardeners do not know whether it is necessary to deal with a potato hill and whether this procedure can be carried out when the plants begin to bloom. To deal with this, you need to find out why and when to spud potatoes for the first time.