EFFECT OF INTER ROW SPACING ON GROWTH, YIELD AND TUBER QUALITY OF POTATO (Solanum tuberosum L.) VARIETIES IN HADIYA ZONE, SOUTHERN, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Potato is the very important food and cash crop in Ethiopia, especially in the high and mid altitude areas. It is important to select better yielding potato varieties with appropriate plant density per unit of area to get for better yield and tuber quality in given location. This experiment was conducted to determine proper inter row spacing for potato varieties and to select better performing potato variety at Hadiya zone Misrak Badewaccho district, during the year 2022 G.C main cropping season. The experiment was arranged in a factorial combination of three inter row spacing (70 x 30 cm, 60 x 30 cm and 50 x 30 cm) and five potato varieties (Gudane, Zemen, Belete Jalene and local) in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The result revealed that days to 50% emergence and stem number per hill were significantly affected by variety, days to 90% maturity, plant height, leaf number per plant, leaf area index, harvest index, total biomass, total tuber yield, tuber number per hill and tuber size distribution were significantly affected by main factors (variety and inter row spacing) but not by interaction. Days to 50% flowering, leaf area, marketable tuber yield, unmarketable tuber yield, marketable tuber number, unmarketable tuber number, dry matter, total starch content and specific gravity were significantly influenced by main factors (variety and inter row spacing and interaction). The highest, stem number per hill, plant height, leaf number per plant, leaf area, leaf area index, harvest index, total dry biomass, total tuber yield, tuber number per hill, marketable tuber yield, marketable tuber number dry matter and specific gravity was scored from Gudene variety whereas, lowest data was recorded from local variety. The highest stem number per hill, plant height, leaf number per plant, leaf area, total dry biomass, tuber number per hill, specific gravity and total starch content recorded at inter row spacing (70 x 30) cm. The highest interactive effect was scored from marketable tuber yield from Gudene (36.00t/ha -1 ) and Belete (34.67t/ha -1 ) variety and at inter row spacing (60 x 30 cm) whereas, lowest interactive effect was recorded from local (12.83t/ha -1 ) variety and at inter row spacing (50 x 30 cm). Therefore, from this study, it can be concluded that Gudene and Belete varieties at inter row spacing (60 x 30cm and 70 x 30cm) resulted in highest marketable potato yield. The results obtained in this study are based conducted at single season and single location it should be repeated to validate this result before recommending to the area.