Agronomic response of <i>Dioscorea rotundata</i> Point cv. `Blanco Guinea' plants obtained from minitubers produced in greenhouse

Abstract

From having minituber of Dioscorea rotundata Point cv. `White Guinea' obtained at greenhouse, the objective was to determine the agronomic response of plants of this cultivar obtained from direct planting of minitubers in field. Six experimental variants with minitubers were formed according it fresh weight and in vitro plants previously acclimatized. At four weeks of planting the number of sprouted minitubers per plot was quantified and six weeks after planting the survival of each plant materials it was determined. At harvest the number of tubers per plant and fresh weight of tubers / plant (kg) was evaluated. The fresh weight of minitubers influenced the sprouting of these and survival of plants under field conditions. The type of planting material did not influence the number of tubers per plant at 36 weeks of field crop but in its fresh weight. Minitubers with higher fresh weight than 26.0 g produced the highest percentage of sprout and fresh weight of minitubers per plant. It was demonstrated that minituber can be used for direct field planting and the agronomic response of plants is higher than the in vitro plants. Key words: fresh weight, tuber, seed, yam