Full Length Research Paper

Effect of pot size, planting date and genotype on mini-tuber production of Marfona potato cultivar

G. R. Balali¹*, M. R. Hadi¹, P. Yavari¹, H. Bidram², A. G. Naderi¹ and A. Eslami

¹Potato Biotechnology Research Department, University of Isfahan, Iran.

²Department of Statistic, University of Isfahan, Iran.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: rbalali@sci.ui.ac.ir. Tel: +00983117932792. Fax: +00983117932171.

Accepted 6 March, 2008

This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of pot size, planting date and type of genotype on mini-tuber production of Marfona potato cultivar (Solanum tuberosum L.) in greenhouse conditions.  Four genotypes (M-129, M-128P, M-127P and M-124P) originated from virus free sprouts and a genotype of the same cultivar (Marfona) originated from apical meristem, in 3 sizes of pot and 3 planting date were investigated.  The results showed that using larger pots of 3-liter has no advantage and pots smaller than 2-liter is not suitable for mini-tuber production. Also, time of Nov 18 was the best of date for planting of potato in studied conditions and delay in date of planting reduced the mini-tuber production. The reduction in number of mini-tubers and growing period was greater for the genotype M-129 compared with the other potato genotypes. Furthermore, higher numbers of mini-tubers were produced by the M-127P and M-124P genotypes and M-127P had the highest total weight of mini-tubers.  However the number of mini-tubers per plant was higher for genotypes originated from meristem culture than genotypes obtained from sprouts. It seems that genotypes originated from potato sprouts are not as efficient as the apical meristem ones. On the other hand, later genotype showed more homogenous in growth rate and phenotype.

Key words: Solanum tuberosum, pot size, planting date, mini-tuber.