Earthing up
As the name
itself indicates earthIng up refers to the practise of remaking up the ridge by
bringing soil from the furrow and putting it back on the ridges.
Thus it refers to the practise of making up the ridges in an
intercultural operation. This
operation is normally done at stolonization stage because if done later stolons
and roots are liable to be damaged.
In
the case of manual cultivation, earthing up is done using hand tools like Khurpa.
Where bullocks are used for earthing up, a bullock
drawn plough is used for earthing up while in the case of mechanical
cultivation, a ridger
is used for earthing up.
Earthing up is necessary so that the emerging stolons as well as developing tubers are covered by soil. In situations where planting is done shallow for quick emergence, the emerging stolons and developing tubers have to be covered fully with soil by a secondary tillage operation called earthing up. This is because the soil cover at planting is not sufficient and exposure of the stolons to light may lead to it becoming an aerial stem. In the case of light soils, irrigations erode the ridge making it smaller and smaller with each irrigation and hence has to be remade at the time of stolon development. This is done through earthing up.