Increase potato yield per acre in quintal best practices

You can increase potato yield per acre in quintals by ridge plantation method. See profit 1 acre, correct plantation method, best practices and where to sell.

Average potato yield per acre in India is 10,000 kg (100 quintal). Potatoes are soil friendly that grows well on drained soil. Wet soil is not recommended for this underground growing crop. They expands more easily in loose, loamy soil.

Potato prices

Potato yield per acre in India is 100 quintal to 125 quintal. BED plantation technique is suggested to increase the yield. Average potato production per acre in India is Rs 1.5 to Rs 2 lakh per acre. Potato farming in India is a popular farming due to good benefits in less time.

Potato price in India varies between Rs10-20 per/kg, 20-25 per/kg some time above Rs 40. Farmers are growing potato in Uttarakhand with a simple and organic method. They dip the potato in a tub which is filled by cow urine, don’t need any antifungal spray.

Potato yield per acre – 100 to 125 quintals by ridge plantation method.

Increase potato yield per acre in quintal by ridge plantation method

lets quickly calculate the yield of potato per acre in India. 

Price of 1 kg potato varies between Rs 10-20 per/kg, 20-30 per/kg, when it comes about pahadi aalu it begins with Rs 40 per/kg

Lets calculate – 

Generally, potato yield per acre in quintal is 100-125 quintals.

1 quintal = 100 kg

let’s take 100 quintal

100 quintal = 10,000 kg

Let’s take average price Rs 20 per/kg

20 x 10,000 = 200,000 – Two Lakh Per Acre

Don’t forget to reduce your investment including electricity bill.

Note – This is the estimated potato yield per acre in India, profit figure may change as per the cost of cultivation of potatoes accordingly. 

Potato farming best practices

• Step 1: 4-8 tractor loads per acre farm yard manure application. 
• Step 2: Spread manure manually or use tractor.
•  Step 3: Mix manure with soil, use tractor for big lands.
• Step 4: Rotavator use and final ploughing at evenings or at night day before seeding to retain moisture content of soil for seeding. 
• Step 5: Once ploughing is done cut potato seeds are placed in the field for sowing. 
• Step 6: After planting seeds cover the soil on the rows in which seeds are planted.
•  Step 7: If edges of the field where ploughing is not done properly correct it manually. 
• Step 8: After seed sowing drip installation can be done. 
• Note – Install dripper pipes in every row in summer or winter season to save water. In rainy season drip could be installed in alternative rows. 
• Step 9: Store water in pond during rainy season. 
• Step 10: Use drip irrigation method to supply water to plants.
• After sowing seeds sprouting can be seen in between secound and third week’s. 
• Step 11: Use antifungal spray if any infection is found.
• Potato plants gets infected with pig worm and green worm.
• Step 12: Spray pig worm at night because the warm will come out to eat leaves at night only. 
• Use antifungal spray and spray for other worms at mornings or evenings. 
• Do the ploughing to uptake potatoes under the soil then collect them. 
• Step 13: Load vegetable to tractor and transport to storage.
• Grading is done before packing it into sacks.
• Step 14: Once grading and weighing is done potatoes are loaded into the lorry.

Green worm

How to start potato cultivation 

First Step – Arrange sprout potatoes, you can also make them to produce sprout. Purchase some potatoes from market and tie them in a cloth then store them for a week and see sprout grown out of them. 

Secound Step – Make 2-4 slice of the potato according to the sprouts on it. Take care while slicing it because it will work as a seed to grow new potatoes. 

Third Step– Dig all the slices in farm, make sure to keep the difference of ten inches among the potato slices. 

Cultivation– Potato cultivation is done by the help of animals like couple of ox. Similar to turmeric they grow under the soil. Black turmeric price is more then yellow due to more health benefits. 

Soil and temperature 

Potatoes like a slightly acidic soil, pH of around 5.0 but can grow in a range from 5.0 to 6.5. 20°C to 24°C is the idle temperature for growing potatoes. 

Water required to grow potatoes

Generally Potatoes need between one-two inches of water per week. They need different amount of water at different time. 

In Uttarakhand villages there is hardly any water given by the villagers to their crops. They still manage to grow crops like wheat, jhangora, rice and potato as well. I have never seen villagers giving water to their farms here the atmosphere plays a key role. Hence, all the farming is done in the organic way.

Source of irrigation for potato

Drip irrigation is always best for any farming it is also useful to save water. In potato cultivation drip irrigation is quite successful method yet.

When to stop watering potato plants before harvest

One should stop watering potatoes 2 weeks before harvesting. Look the vines if they turned yellow, stop watering. 

Different stages of growing potatoes

Sprout development, sowing potato slices, vegetable growth, tuber initiation, tuber bulking and maturation. 

Utter Pradesh stands first in production of potatoes, West Bengal is not much far from UP. 

In which season potato is grown in India

It is a crop of winters, so it is also known as rabi crop, that are sown from October to November.

Potatoes are good source of carbohydrates and it is the king of vegetables hence used in almost every dish. Tomatoes are another popular vegetables. Do you know about brimato it is a hybrid plant developed by ICAR that grows brinjal and tomato together.

After wheat and lentils it holds 3rd position for most number of crops grown in India. Vegetable farming in Australia is popular among Aussies and done in the backyard.

Rabi Crops Vs Kharif Crops

Potato is a winter crop, it is rabi season crop grown in India. Lets have a look of the various crops grown according to the season:

Rabi Crops

• Wheat, Lentils, Potatoes, Sunflower, Oats, Mustard, Barley, Coriander, Fennel Fenugreek, Carrots, Chickpeas, Onion, Tomatoes.

Need cold climate with dry conditions. October to March is the best season. Needs long days for better flowering.

Kharif Crops

• Rice, Cotton, Sugarcane, Corn, Millets, Jowar, Bitter Gourd/karela, Green Gram, Black Gram, Arhar, Turmeric , Soybean, Flax seed June to october (rainy season).

Requires wet and warm climate throughout their growth. Needs short day length for quick flowering.

Common pests and care needed in plantation

Aphids, flee beetles, pig worm and green worm, potato scab-most likely caused by soil with high pH.  The potato belongs to the family of “solanaceae” and genus of “solanum”.

3 Types of potatoes

1. Starchy Potatoes
2. Waxy Potatoes
3. All Purpose

• Most common Potatoes – Russet Potatoes.
• Russet potatoes are medium to large, when it comes to shape and size.  

Rarest potatoes in the world: Bonnotte de Noirmoutie. They are rare species of potatoes in 1920s and are found of the French Atlantic coast in the bay of biscay. 

Varieties of potatoes – There are more than 4000 varieties of potatoes in different size and shapes. There are 180 wild potato verities but too bitter to eat.

Varies Potatoes

• Pahadi Potatoes
• Vitelotte
• Bintje
• Kennebec 
• Rattle  
• Laura 
• King Edward 
• Melody 
• Salad 
• Remarka
• Parel
• Duke of York
• Gunda
• Opperdoezer Ronde
• Russet burbank
• Solenum Tuberosam
• Tajfun
• Dore

Correct way to plant potato

• Potatoes are best grown in rows. Dig a trench that is 6 to 8 inches deep.
• While planting make sure cut side down with the eyes pointing up, every 12-15 inches with the row spaced three feet.
• Fill the trench and mound the soil around the plants. 
• Cultivate the soil one more time to remove weeds. 
• This will loosen the soil and help plants to become established more quickly.  

Animal manure are the best nutrients, specially cow urine is used in Uttarakhand farming for good organic results.Conclusion

Potato farming information along with idle temp, soil, water need, fertilizer, growing season, pest and warms and production per acre is explained in this blog post.

Harvesting 

Flowers bloom

• Small potatoes can be harvested 2-3 weeks after the plants have finished flowering. 
• Early harvesting is done in case of high demand in the market. 
• Harvest when leaves turn yellow and dry.
• Cut the plants at ground level 8 days prior to the harvesting date. 
• Use equipment’s like kudali, potato digger or plow.
• Collect the tubers and clean them off by removing soil, roots, stones, stolon etc.
• Discard the damaged and diseased potatoes. 
• Remaining potatoes graded according to size and stored in shade to avoid sun injury. 
• Separate a bunch of disease free potatoes for seed sowing purpose.  

BED Plantation Technique

Farmers generating 100-125 quintals of potatoes by rich plantation method but with BED plantation method one can produce 170 quintals of potato per-acre. 

BED Plantation technique not only helps to increase the yield but is very helpful for a crop health as well. 

BED technique increases water using efficiency of the crop, helps in absorbing nutrients and smoothens the aeration facility of the crop for good results.

According to the experts furrow irrigation method not wastes water, but a flood of water becomes hindrance for the crop to absorb nutrients. In this technique only fifteen kg urea is enough for one acre of land. 

Most expensive potato – La Bonnotte is the most expensive potato that cost 600 us dollar per/kg. They are grown on French island of Noirmoutier.