THE STATE AND PERSPECTIVES OF IMPROVING THE TECHNOLOGY OF POTATO PLANTING ON LOAMY SOILS
Planting potatoes must be with minimal possible technological delay and at most productive, and last not more than 12 days. It is not an easy task and its solution is especially difficult when growing potato on loamy soils in the Central region of Russia. That is why during longstanding studies some investigations to solve this task are presented in the article. Based on longstanding investigations findings on technologies of potato planting on loamy soils in the Central region of the Russian Federation some special requirements were developed, namely pre-plant preparing of seed potatoes with pretreated and further accumulation of the necessary amount of potato, pre-plant ridge tillage in autumn plowing with local application of mineral fertilizers, group operation of planters, planting with simplified planter like KSMG-4 with dump loading, pre-emergent and after-emergent care by devices with passive working tools and the complex of weeds, diseases and pests protective measures. The question seed tubers uninterrupted supply to the field is of special attention because delays caused by their absence are often long, especially if shipment is combined with tubers classification and grading into fractions. Their total exception or considerable cut is possible only when pre-plant preparation and accumulation of graded tubers with shipment to vehicles through compensator bins (cradles). Therefore, to provide maximum productivity the planting device must have simple design and perform one operation, that is tubers planting so that time expenditures on technological and other equipment were minimal.