Effect of different types of planting materials on the growth and yield of potatoes in Kalpitiya [Sri Lanka]
1995
Fernando, W.A.R.N. (Regional Agricultural Research Center, Makandura (Sri Lanka))
Potato cultivation using conventional seed tubers is expensive. In Kalpitiya [Sri Lanka] seed cost accounts for about 70 percent of the total cost of production. A trial was conducted at Agricultural Research Station (ARS), Kalpitiya during the 1993-1994 Maha season to evaluate the feasibility of using wet seed tubers and suckers as alternative planting materials to the conventional seed tubers. Another on-farm trial was carried-out in the same season to study the feasibility of using potato suckers as planting material under farmer's management. At ARS, the standard seed tuber (whole, 30-55 g) produced significantly more main stems per plant than cut or desuckered tubers. It also had the highest yield, though not significantly different from crops grown from cut and desuckered tubers. In the on-farm trial, crops grown from standard tubers and desuckered mother tuber produced comparable number of main stems, suckers and leaves per plant. A decline in these parameters was observed in plots planted with "suckers". It was evident that the combined tuber yield of both transplanted sucker and the de-suckered mother tuber was higher than that obtained from the standard seed tuber. The results suggest that de-suckering can generate more income from limited number of seed tubers
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