Sprouting Inhibition after CIPC Spraying on Early and Mid-season Potato Varieties during Storage in Semi-underground Warehouse at Room Temperature in Summer

This study was carried out to determine the sprouting period of early and mid-season varieties, which includes ‘Atlantic’, ‘Chubaek’, and ‘Superior’, during the summer storage period in a semi-underground warehouse without cooling system. And also it was investigated the effect of chlorpropham [Propan-2-yl N-(3-chlorophenyl)carbamate, CIPC] treatment on the sprouting inhibition for the varieties. This study was conducted to figure out a sprout inhibitory effect when CIPC was applied to 1kg of the potato tubers at concentrations of 10 mg and 20 mg which are lower than the treatment concentrations of ca 30 mg prescribed by the positive list system (PLS). The internal temperature of the warehouse used in this experiment was lowered by 5°C or more than the outside temperature. The difference between the lowest and highest temperature during the experiment throughout the day was 5°C. It showed the effect of reducing to 1/2 of the difference in outdoor temperature. As for the sprouting of potatoes, the extremely early variety ‘Chubaek’ sprouts appeared at the 6th week of storage of control and it was the fastest sprouting potato among the control groups of the varieties. Sprouting began to appear in the Superior at the 6th week of storage, while the ‘Atlantic’ sprouted at the 8th week of storage. The appearance of sprouts was suppressed in all treatment groups of ‘Atlantic’ and ‘Superior’ varieties in CIPC treatments. Sprouts were observed in all treatment groups of ‘Chubaek’ after the 7th week, but the elongations of the sprouts in tubers were completely inhibited until the 8th week of storage. ‘Atlantic’ and ‘Superior’ seemed to have a sprouting inhibitory effect even with a low CIPC concentration of 10 mg·kg⁻¹, with the exception of extremely early variety ‘Chubaek’ that breaks out of the dormancy quickly. Although weight loss occurred continuously during storage, it was minor loss of 0.7-1.6%. There was no consistent trend for changes of the loss in the varieties and CIPC treatments. Most common pathological disorder was the dry rot during the experiment, but only few were affected. The use of the tubers treated at 18°C and 90% RH for 10 days and the rack of refrigeration system which lead to lack of convection seemed to have suppressed the spread of pathogens.