Business concept
Growing potatoes as a business is carried out using two methods. A more promising and profitable method is associated with obtaining early varieties. Of course, such a business requires significant start-up capital. This is due to the characteristics of the climate. It will be necessary to install greenhouses and equip them with an irrigation system, light, and heating.
The second method is based on growing seasonal crops. You can plant potatoes in open ground - no special care is required. Undoubtedly, the income will not be as high as in the first case. But still up to 30 percent profitability is achieved. This is a very good indicator.
When it comes to selling products, you can choose one of three options:
- Trade on the market. The income with this option is the highest, but it also takes a lot of time. Or you need to look for a hired salesperson and spend money on wages.
- Sales of potatoes through third party traders. A quick and convenient method, and often profitable.
- Sale to wholesalers. This option is good if you have large fields and a large harvest.
The methods can be combined. Ideally, even before purchasing planting material, find buyers for the future harvest.
Planting potatoes: Sun orientation
The maximum potato yield can be obtained by growing it on a southern slope. It is better to plant where they grew last season:
- legumes;
- cucumbers;
- pumpkin;
- cabbage.
Or green manure sown in the fall - if the potato field remains in the same place.
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Direct the potato furrows from north to south. The eastern side will be illuminated and warmed by the sun in the first half of the day, and the western side will catch up in the afternoon.
As a result, all bushes will receive the maximum amount of heat and light, which will affect the increase in yield.
Method of planting potatoes in ridges
It is better to plant sprouted tubers on ridges no deeper than 8 - 10 cm, keeping a distance between holes of 70 cm. This method of planting potatoes will ensure good air circulation.
- In the case of a little rainy summer, water several times a season between the ridges along the furrow.
- In rainy summers there is no need to water.
What will be required to implement the business?
If you decide to grow early varieties, you will need a greenhouse with lighting and heating. These are additional costs. Let's consider an option for beginners - planting potatoes in open ground with an area of 0.5 hectares.
The plot can be rented. If you have your own land, great. First of all, you don't have to worry about rent. Secondly, in this case it is not necessary to register an individual entrepreneur. Indeed, according to the law “On personal subsidiary plots”, products grown with one’s own hands are not subject to tax.
Owners of land plots can also save on utility bills if they use natural sources of water supply and lighting.
In addition to the land you will need:
- seed;
- equipment for plowing, hilling and digging up ripened tubers;
- fertilizers and herbicides.
About hired workers: as a rule, the whole family participates in this business, so there is no need to pay salaries to outsiders.
There is no point in conducting an advertising campaign; you need to look for potential buyers yourself, or simply trade on the market. If you registered as an individual entrepreneur, you will need to keep online accounting.
The best fertilizers
The most suitable fertilizer for potatoes is organic. In autumn, rotted manure is added to the soil at a rate of 4-5 kg per square meter. m. If there is no manure, then add phosphorus and potassium fertilizers in a 1:1 ratio. Fertilizer for potatoes after planting is a three-time fertilizer for the summer:
- The first feeding during the growing season, especially for thin and weak stems: 15 tbsp. humus is mixed with 10 tsp. urea. This amount is for 10 m of beds.
- Second feeding to stimulate flowering, during budding: 30 tbsp. l. ash is mixed with 10 tsp. potassium sulfate. Again, enough for 10 m.
- The third feeding accelerates the formation of tubers: by 2 tbsp. l. superphosphate add 1 tbsp. l. nitrophoska and all this in 10 liters of water. Pour 0.5 liters per bush.
Do not feed organic matter during the flowering period. This provokes diseases and stimulates weed growth.
Step-by-step launch instructions
Even something as simple as growing potatoes requires a business plan. It must indicate all stages of agricultural activity and possible methods of implementation. Keep in mind that this business pays off quickly. Planted potatoes ripen in just four months. In the southern regions, the weather allows for two harvests per year.
So, what are the main stages of starting a business:
- Official registration of the enterprise and obtaining an expert opinion on the quarantine phytosanitary state of regulated products at the nearest sanitary inspection. It is worth choosing the Unified Agricultural Tax as the tax regime. You will give only 6 percent of your income to the state treasury. OKVED – 01.13.31. Now newly minted businessmen who have chosen the agricultural sector can be exempt from payments thanks to a “tax holiday”. And, as already mentioned, land owners without employees may not register and pay taxes.
- Land lease and preliminary agreements with potential buyers of products.
- Selection of seed potatoes. It is better to select varieties suitable for a specific area and buy them at special experimental stations. Seed material must be prepared in the fall. Clean potatoes are kept in the light for three weeks before being sent for germination in a basement with high humidity. 30 days before planting, the tubers are taken out and laid out in a bright and warm room so that strong sprouts appear.
- Soil preparation, fertilizing and planting. In the middle zone, this crop is planted in May, in the southern regions - in March or April, in the northern regions - in June. Before planting, make sure that the soil is warmed to eight degrees at a depth of 100-120 mm. The preparatory work includes the elimination of weeds, the soil is loosened and dug up. The best feeding is horse or cow manure. They fertilize the soil even before planting. Potatoes are planted in rows, the distance between future bushes is at least a meter.
- Hilling, watering, pest control. Two weeks after sowing, the field is weeded and hilled. Do not forget to treat the potatoes with herbicides against the Colorado potato beetle when they begin to flower. Plants should be watered 2-3 times a week in clear weather. In severe drought - every day.
- Collection and storage. The harvest is harvested approximately four months after planting. Remember that stale tubers rot and are poorly stored, so don’t delay picking. The tubers are sorted and packed in ventilated wooden boxes, which are placed in a cool and dry place with good ventilation.
To preserve the fertility of the land next year, sow corn, sunflowers or clover after harvesting. They will protect the earth from diseases and the germination of weeds.
How many potatoes can you harvest from 1 acre?
You can get more than 200 kg (say 4 bags) if you buy elite seeds, monitor each bush more often, feed it. The yield of potatoes largely depends on the condition of the soil and its fertility. In well-fertilized, unpolluted soil, without wireworms and mole crickets, from 1 potato you can dig up 3 to 5 huge potatoes. For example, Zhukovsky early potatoes yield from 100 square meters from 200 to 450 kilograms. The Red Cat potato variety yields from 450 to 600 kilograms per 1 hectare, that is, 100 square meters.
But, nevertheless, not a single variety will survive and every year there will be less harvest if the land does not rest and is not fertilized.
The answer to this question depends on many circumstances and specific factors:
- Firstly, from the land on which these potatoes will grow.
- Secondly, it depends on the type of potatoes planted.
- Thirdly, from the weather conditions and characteristics of the area, even from a height above sea level.
A specific indicator is in the Tambov region, on black soil, Sineglazka, under favorable conditions, produces about two bags, i.e. about 70-80 kilograms.
How many kg do you collect from 1 hundred square meters?
More than 100 kg Less than 100 kg
Financial calculations
To be sure of the rightness of the new business, carefully calculate the possible costs and profits.
Starting capital and monthly expenses
To open a business for growing and marketing potatoes, you need to purchase the following equipment (cost in rubles):
- walk-behind tractor or mini tractor – 35,000;
- hiller – 2,000;
- plow – 2,000;
- unit for digging mature tubers – 3,000;
- body for transporting crops - 20,000;
- storage boxes – 3,000.
As a result, you need to buy equipment worth 62,000 rubles.
Include 10,000 rubles in your initial capital for transportation costs, and the same amount for fertilizers and herbicides. Add 18,000 for the cash register and 15,000 for paperwork and online accounting.
As for seeding material, 50 acres (0.5 hectares) will require 1000 kg of tubers for planting - at the rate of 20 kg per hundred square meters. The cost of one kilo depends on the variety and averages 35 rubles. This means you need to invest 35,000 rubles.
As a result, the starting capital will be 150,000 rubles. And you will have to spend only 10,000 rubles on transport every month.
How much can you earn and payback period
From one hundred square meters you can harvest approximately 250 kg of potatoes. The total harvest volume will be approximately 12,500 kg. When selling potatoes at a price of 20 rubles per kilo, the profit will be 250,000 rubles. Profitability is approximately 30 percent in the first year, then it increases, since you no longer need to buy equipment. If you subtract monthly expenses and initial investments without paying taxes, the profit will be 70,000 rubles. If the entire harvest is sold, the business will pay off in the first season.
How many potatoes can be harvested from 1 hectare on average?
So, what is the average potato yield per hectare? The size of the seed potato greatly influences the development of the plant. However, with the same number of stems per square meter, this will ultimately lead to higher yields. In terms of kilograms of tubers, relatively smaller tubers develop relatively more stems than larger ones. In some variants, this difference is up to 40 percent. Therefore, for example, in Dutch seed tubers measuring 28-35 mm are larger than tubers measuring 35-45 mm.
The size of seed tubers significantly influences plant development. Because larger potatoes contain more nutrients.
Determine how many tubers are in 1 kg to calculate the total weight of potato seeds you will need. This way you will know how many seed potatoes are needed to maintain your chosen planting density.
Potato yield depends on many factors. We evaluate the harvest not by the area of the plot, but by the amount of planting material. From one to five. If a summer resident planted one bucket and dug up five buckets, that’s good.
Advantages and possible risks
Growing potatoes has its advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage is excellent profitability. Especially in large cities, where not everyone has a dacha.
What are the pros and cons of business also worth considering:
Advantages | Possible risks |
Low initial investment, high profitability. | Seasonality of business. |
Unpretentiousness of potatoes and a large selection of varieties resistant to pests and diseases. | Risk of crop failure due to bad weather conditions. |
The ability to raise a business without special skills and abilities. | High competition. |
The main disadvantage is seasonality - you can grow potatoes without a greenhouse only in the summer. This is beneficial only in the southern regions, where two harvests are harvested per year. In the north and in the middle zone, it is more profitable to build a greenhouse - it will quickly pay for itself.
How to increase fruit size
Among the secrets that help you get a big harvest from a small garden is an ancient method, described in detail by Anastasia Lipatova. After the plants bloom, you should wait two to three weeks. At the end of the period, the stems are broken at a height of up to 15 cm from the ground. It is important that the bush does not lose its integrity.
Nutrients in the tops reach the breakdown and return to the roots. The stems do not wither, so photosynthesis is not disrupted. The vital activity of potatoes continues: the size of the tubers increases, and the greens stop taking over important components.
By the way, the technique is effective only for healthy bushes. Potatoes affected by disease and insects will not have enough strength to “reorient”. Sick specimens often drop their leaves and wither.
Cultivating potatoes in a small garden can bring excellent returns from any variety. Knowing how to get a good harvest yourself, it’s easy to see all the strengths and weaknesses of the site. The recommendations contain secrets that help you achieve high results.