Yield and nutrients profile of potato tubers at various stages of development
2003
Ali, A. | Rab, A. | Hussain, S.A. (NWFP Agricultural Univ., Peshawar (Pakistan). Dept. of Horticulture)
The experiment was conducted to investigate the yield and nutrient losses and economic return at various stages of harvest in potato crop. Plant height and plant spread increased from 31.8 and 41.58 at HD60 to 40.3 and 50.58 cm at HD90. The number of stems per plant also increased from 3.55 at HD60 to 6.45 when the crop was harvested at HD90. Specific gravity and dry matter content also increased when harvesting was delayed to the optimum time. Specific gravity and dry matter contents increased from 1.075 and 19.60% at HD60 to 1.083 and 21.31 % at HD90, respectively. The starch content increased gradually from 14.79% at HD60 to 15.65% at HD90 while total sugars decreased with an increase in developmental stage. It decreased from 707.75 mg/100g at HD60 to 549.50 mg/100g at HD90. Early harvested crop resulted in smaller tuber size (39.20 mm) and low yield (7.79 t ha-1) at HD60 which increased to a tuber size of 64.1 mm, yielding 11.45 t ha-1 at HD90. The highest gross benefit (Rs. 60,810 ha-1) was obtained at HD60 (Rs. 60810), which decreased to Rs. 53,940 ha-1 at HD90. These results suggested that although early harvest gave poor quality tubers and low yield but the market demand at this stage is high and the growers get higher return from early harvesting.
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