YIELD AND GROWTH ANALYSIS OF POTATO (Solanum tuberosumL.) VARIETIES UNDER DIFFERENT INTER ROW SPACING AT SILTE ZONE, CENTRAL ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Potato (Solanum tuberosuml. ) is a very important food and cash crop in Ethiopia. This experiment was conducted with the objective to increase production of potato through selecting appropriate varieties and determining appropriate spacing at Silte zone, central Ethiopia during belg cropping season.The experiment was arranged in a factorial combination of three inter-row spacing (60 cm , 75cm and 90 cm), and four potato varieties(Belete, Gudene, Chala and Local cultivar) in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Interactive effects of variety and inter-row spacing significantly (P˂0.05) influenced most of the parameters considered. Days to flowering, leaf area index, total tuber number, marketable tuber number, total tuber yield, average tuber weight per plant, unmarketable tuber number and tuber yield and harvest index were significantly affected by the interaction effects of variety and spacing. Plant height, dry matter content, 90% plant maturity, crop growth rate and relative growth rate (P˂0.05) influenced by the main effect variety and spacing. Days to 50% emergency, Leave number per plant and Stem number per hill were influenced only by the main effect variety. Local cultivar requiring the longest duration (101.22 days). Plant height increased significantly in to increasing inter-row spacing.Gudene varieties produced largest stems number per plant and local cultivar produced smallest stems number per plant. The highest (38.57 t/ha) total tuber yield was recorded from Gudene variety at spacing of 60 c m , whereas the lowest (22.28 t/ha) tuber yield was recorded from local cultivar at spacing 90 cm. The highest marketable (30.48a t/ha) tuber yield was obtained from Gudene variety and lowest was obtained from Local cultivar (18.41t/ha). The Crop Growth Rate values increased progressively with time reaching peak at 45-60 DAP. Therefore, from this study, it can be concluded Gudane and Belete varieties at inter-row spacing of 60 cm and 75 cm resulted in highest marketable tuber yield could be recommended to potato growers in the study area.