Effect of perforated foil and polypropylene fibre covers on growth of early potato cultivars

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a three-year research on the effect of perforated polyethylene foil and polypropylene fibre covers on the growth of early potato cultivars at various lengths of plant covering period (2 and 3 weeks after plant emergence). Plants grown under covers were higher, produced higher mass of above-ground parts, and were characterised by a smaller value of leaf weight ratio (LWR) and leaf area ratio (LAR) compared with the cultivation without covering. In the case of plant covering for 2 weeks after emergence the mass of leaves at the time of cover removal was on average almost 2 times higher and the mass of stems over 2.5 times higher than in the cultivation without covering; the values of LWR and LAR were however smaller by 0.094 and 0.137 m

Keywords

• early potato
• perforated polyethylene foil
• polypropylene fibre
• height of plants
• mass of leaves
• mass of stems
• leaf weight ratio (lwr)
• leaf area ratio (lar)