POTATO

Propagation and planting

Varieties

Among the high yielding varieties, Kufri Jyothi (early), Kufri Muthu (medium), and Kufri Dewa (late) can be tried in the high ranges of Kerala.

Planting

Potato is propagated by planting tubers. Whole potato tuber or cut pieces (50-60 g size) longitudinally cut from bud-end to stem-end can be used for plating. For planting 1 ha, 1000-2000 kg seed tubers are required. Seed tubers are treated with 1 ppm of GA 3 for one hour and then dried in shade for getting uniform sprouting. Tubers are filled in gunny bags after drying and kept in vertical position in well-ventilated dark room for 10 days for encouraging sprouting. Seed pieces should be treated with mancozeb (@ 1 kg in 450 litres of water) before planting to protect them from soil borne diseases. Tubers can be planted on ridges 50-60 cm wide at a spacing of 15-20 cm between the plants. Earthing up is needed during the growing phase (30 days after planting) and 70 days after planting.

True potato seed (TPS)

The shortage of quality seed tubers, high seed cost, difficulty in transportation due to bulkiness of seed tubers, and virus infection in seed tubers are some of the important problems associated with use of seed tubers as planting material. To overcome these problems, True Potato Seed (TPS) is used as planting material.

TPS is a botanical seed developed in the berry of the plant as a result of fertilization.
These seeds are raised for crops commercially. Only 100 g of TPS costing around Rs. 3000/- is sufficient for cultivating in one hectare, as against 2.5t/ha seed tubers, which cost Rs. 20,000-30,000/-, thus effecting a drastic reduction in cost of cultivation. Potato crop can be raised from TPS using seedling transplants or through seedling-tubers produced in preceding crop season. In former method, the TPS seedlings raised in nursery beds are transplanted in the field and grown to maturity. While, in latter, the TPS seedlings are grown to maturity in nursery beds to obtain seedling-tubers. These seedling-tubers are used as a seed for raising normal potato crop in next season.