The effect of seed tuber size, inter-row spacing and ridging frequency on the yield of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.)
1999
Tesfaye Abebe(Adet Research Center, Adet (Ethiopia)) | Anteneh Abewa(Adet Research Center, Adet (Ethiopia)) | Eshetu Janka(Adet Research Center, Adet (Ethiopia))
The use of in appropriate agronomic package is one of the many factors contributing to the low yield of potato in Ethiopia. The optimum level of any one of agronomic practices varies with environment, purpose of the crop, cultivar and expected economic advantage. To this end a trial comprising different sizes of seed tuber, interrow spacing and frequency of ridgings was carried out at Adet Research Center for two consecutive years (1993-1994) with the main objective of determining the optimum seed rate, stem density and ridging frequency for ware and seed tuber potato production. The trial was laid out in 3E3 partially confounded design of two replications. The results reveal that marketable and total tuber yield, stem number/plant and number of tubers of different size grades were significantly (P0.01) influenced by seed tuber size and interrow spacing. Generally, as seed tuber size increased stem number/plant, optimum seed tuber size and ware potato, and marketable and total tuber yield seemed to increase. The narrower the spacing between rows, however, increased the stem density and seed tuber size grades. There were no significant differences among the tested ridging frequency levels. In conclusion, a stem density of 21/square m (55,555 population), seed size grade of 45-55 mm diameter at a spacing of 60 cm (28 q/ha seed rate) for seed potato production, and 16/square m (44,444 population), seed size grade of 45-55 mm diameter at a spacing of 75 cm (22 q/ha seed rate) for ware potato production together with ridging one in 3-4 weeks after crop emergence was found to be the optimum for high yields of potato production. Total and marketable tuber yields obtained at these rates were 283 and 226 q/ha which are by far higher than other levels tested.
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