Effect on yield, nutrient uptake and quality of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) under integrated nutrient management

Abstract

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is a heavy feeder and highly responsive to nutrient input, where the proper quantity and timing of nutrient supply is most critical component in achieving high productivity in potato cultivation. To assess the crop response and productivity, the potato variety ‘Kufri Jyoti’ was taken under different integrated nutrient management practices. The recommended dose of fertilizer was at 150:80:100 kg N: P2O5: K2O/ha, 25 kg/ha of ZnSO4 and 15 kg/ha of Borax were applied during the experiment. The results indicated that there were highly significant effects of higher doses of nitrogen with recommended P and K combined applied with Zinc and Boron on tuber yield, plant NPK uptake efficiency and enzymatic activities. Results from the experiment expressed that the application of 125% RDN along with the application of Zn and B ensured maximum total tuber yield (24.73 t/ha), crop growth rate (5.222 g/m2/day), relative growth rate (0.066 g/g/day) at peak growth stages and quality such as starch (15.64%) and sucrose synthase activity (695 µg/g of fresh weight of tuber) of potato grown with the above nutrient management practices. This study indicated that production variation for higher nitrogen doses from inorganic sources of fertilizer existed among 16 different nutrient application treatments, and with better quality parameters.

Keywords

• crop growth rate
• RDN – Recommended Dose of Nitrogen
• relative growth rate
• sucrose synthase