Growth and minituber yield response of potato plantlets in micropropagation to different plant spacing under greenhouse conditions

Abstract

The present research work was conducted to find out the most suitable inter and intra spacing for Greenhouse transplantation of in vitro grown potato plantlets in peat moss soil in order to get maximum seed potato yield. There were nine different combinations of inter and intra row spacing (30x15, 30x10, 10x15, 20x5, 30x5, 10x5, 20x15, 10x10, 20x10cm) in completely randomized design. Regarding vegetative growth, maximum plant height i.e 59.01 cm, 58.92 cm, 57.01 cm was observed at 30cmx5cm, 20cmx5cm, and 10cmx5cm, respectively. Greater number of minitubers in each tuber category i.e. large, medium and small were obtained at greater inter and intra plant spacing , whereas the maximum average tubers yield per plant (165.0g) were recorded at spacing of 30cm x15cm followed by the spacing 20cm x10cm where the average yield per plant was 145.38g. It was concluded that the plant spacing of 30x15cm is the best for potato plantlets transplantation in the greenhouse benches in order to get maximum minituber yield.

Chemical-Induced Dormancy Breaking of Freshly Harvested Potato Minitubers and Its Effect on Subsequent Growth and Yield

“…Among the root and tuber crops, it ranks first followed by cassava, sweet potatoes and yams [3,4]. There are a number of constraints that negatively affect potato production in the world which include many biotic and abiotic stresses among which soil and tuber borne diseases and insect pests are major biotic problems while heat, salinity, cold/frost stress, nutrient deficiency, drought are the key abiotic factors [5] and among them lack of quality seed potato has vital significance [6]. In Pakistan, it is also an important vegetable and is grown on 0.19 million hectares, with an estimated annual production of 4.6 million tons, at an average yield of 24.2 tons per hectare [7].…”