Effect of Genotype, Substrate Combination and Pot Size on Minituber Yield in Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.)

Abstract: Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is one of the major vegetable crops that are grown world –wide because of its economical importance. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the production of virus free plantlets from meristem culture in two cultivars of potato. The specific objectives was to study genotype (2 commercial cultivars of S. tuberosum, Marophona and Agria), substrate combination including 3 planting bed soil/sand/perlite (1:1:1), turb/perlite (1:1) and turb/rice hull/perlite (1:1:1), pot size with 19 cm (large) and 13 cm (small) diameters and their interactions on number and total weight of minitubers. A single excised meristem tip was carefully placed on the filter paper bridge of the culture tubes containing MS liquid and then semisolid medium. The virus-free plantlets were transferred to pots with above mentioned substrates and pots. Statistical analysis revealed that there are significant differences between potato cultivars, substrates, pots size and substrate × pot size interaction effects (p<0.01). However, there was no significant difference between other interaction effects on number and total weight of minituber. The Marophona cv. with 9 minituber/pot and 65 gr/plant averages was better than from Agria cv. with 7 minituber/pot and 57 gr/plant averages for number and total weight of minituber,respectively. Turb/perlite in large pots has the highest value for total weight (95gr/plant) and number of minituber (15minituber/plant). Furthermore the finding of this study indicated a positive relationship (r = +0.99) between number of minituber and total weight of minituber (per plant)