Effect of Different Concentration of Liquid Nutrient Solution on Potato Tuber Initiation of Two Varieties (Granola And Golden Star) under Hydroponic System
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Date
2011
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Uva Wellassa University of Srilanka
Abstract
The potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) belongs to Solanaceae family. Potato is grown mainly in the up country wet zone of Sri Lanka. Non availability of good quality disease free seeds of desirable varieties at the correct time for planting is considered as the main constraint for increasing the productivity of potatoes in Sri Lanka (Nugaliyadde et al., 2005). The total seed potato requirement in the country is around 19,000 tons per year (anonymous, 2011). At present, very high demand for locally produced high quality seed is created. Technologies, such as aeroponics and hydroponics are developed to produce high quantities of pre-basic seeds tubers locally within a short period (Mazeen et al, 2008). The Agricultural research station, Sita-Eliya was successfully producing minitubers of the variety Granola in hydroponics system. It was producing approximately 80-150 minitubers per plant in short period of time, under hydroponics system. However, a longer period is needed for seeds production of Golden Star than Granola, under hydroponics system because of the longer tuber initiation period which is nearly two months, longer stolon length (> 3 feet) and longer root system. Therefore, tuber initiation period, plant growth, stolon length and root length should be reduced to increase the seed production in a short period of time. Therefore, before releasing a variety it should be capable of supplying a large numbers of seed potatoes according to the requirement. Thus, there was a requirement for producing minitubers from Golden Star variety in a short period of time. This study aims to evaluate different liquid nutrient levels in order to control plant growth and time taken for tuber initiation under hydroponics system.
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Keywords
Agriculture, Food Science, Crop Production Technology