Potato crop guide
Growing potatoes and getting high yield of quality crop requires knowledge and expertise.
Here are just few of the facts
The potato ranks as the world's fourth most important food crop, after maize, wheat and rice.
- Since potatoes are sensitive to the chloride anion, it is essential to use chloride-free fertilizers, which contribute to increased yield and quality.
- Potato growth is classified into five distinct growth phases, and each growth stage has to be considered when managing the crop.
- The highest requirement for potassium is during the bulking up stage of the tubers. The flowering of potato plants indicates the beginning of this morphological stage.
- Adequate control over Nitrogen (N) supply is highly important to obtain high yields of excellent quality potatoes.
- Calcium deficiency interferes with root growth, causes deformation of foliage growth tips, and may result in reduced yields and poor quality.
Stage 1: Sprout development
Sprout develops from eyes on seed tubers and grows upward to emerge from the soil. Roots begin to develop at the base of emerging sprouts.
Stage 2: Vegetative growth
Leaves and brunch stems develop from aboveground nodes along emerged sprouts. Roots and stolon’s develop at below-ground nodes. Photosynthesis begins.
Stage 3: Tuber initiation
Tubers form at stolon tips but are not yet appreciably enlarging. In most cultivars the end of this stage coincides with early flowering.
Stage 4: Tuber bulking
Tuber cells expand with the accumulation of water, nutrients, and carbohydrates. Tubers become the dominant site for deposition of carbohydrates and mobile inorganic nutrients.
Stage 5: Maturation
Vines turn yellow and lose leaves, photo-synthesis decreases, tuber growth slows, and vines eventually die. Tuber dry matter content reaches a maximum and tuber skins set.
