Technology in potato cultivation aimed at efficient use of nitrogen

Environmental-friendly technology of potato growing was studied in field trial plots on Valečov Research Station belonging to Potato Research Institute Havlíčkův Brod between 2010 and 2014. The first part was focused on the effect of local application of mineral fertilizers on production yield and quality. The second part studied the effect of nitrogen fertilizer containing urease inhibitor (UREAstabil) compared to urea in increasing rates on yield and selected parameters of potato quality. In the first part of trials with liquid DAM 390, ammonium sulphate and urea the obtained results show that yield differences among selected fertilization variants were insignificant with certain tendency in favour of the variant with split nitrogen rate using DAM 390. For evaluated quality parameters no statistically significant differences among tested fertilization variants were recorded. In the second part of trials evaluating UREAstabil and urea applied at various rates during soil preparation prior to planting, applied rate had a higher effect on potato yields than nitrogen form. The results show that mutual comparison of urea and UREAstabil did not indicate any statistically significant yield differences