TITLE:
Effect of Potassium Levels on Growth and Productivity of Potato Varieties
AUTHORS:
Daniel Zeru Zelelew, Sewa Lal, Tesfai Tsegai Kidane, Biniam Mesfin Ghebreslassie
KEYWORDS:
Eritrea, Potassium, Potato Varieties, Tuber Yield
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.7 No.12,
August
23,
2016
ABSTRACT: Potato is one of the priority vegetable crops in the highlands of Eritrea
growing as a key component in the livelihood systems of farmers. Potato requires a
variety of balanced plant mineral nutrients for growth and
development without which yield and qualities of tubers are reduced. Potato
growers in Eritrea commonly use Di-ammonium Phosphate, Urea and Farmyard manure
while potassium fertilizers are overlooked assuming that the soil is developed
from K rich parent material and contains sufficient amount of K to support crop
growth. However this assumption is based on the result obtained forty-seven
years ago. As a result the yield and quality of potato produced is very low as
compared with international standards. Therefore the present experiment was
conducted to assess the effect of potassium levels on growth and productivity
of potato varieties at Hamelmalo Agricultural College, Eritrea. The experiment
was conducted in factorial Randomized Complete Block Design with fifteen
treatment combinations of three varieties (Ajiba, Zafira and Picasso) and five
potassium levels (0, 75, 150, 225 and 300 kg K2O/ha) replicated
thrice. The results of the study showed that both variety and potassium had
significant effect on growth and yield parameters. Aerial stem number, leaf
number per plant and plant height were increased with increasing K levels from
0 to 150 kg while number of days to maturity was increased in the range of 0 - 300
kg K2O/ha. The result also indicated that variety Ajiba treated with 300 kg K2O/ha produced significantly highest tuber weight
(1.14 kg) per plant and tuber yield of 49.38 t/ha. The economic analysis result
revealed that maximum gross margin 13,665.816 USD/ha was obtained from the
application of 300 kg K2O/ha. On the whole, it gives an impression
that using potassium fertilizer according to soil requirements will have good
influence on growth and tuber yield.
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