Growth and Quality Responses to Plant Spacing in Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Varieties

The present investigation was conducted during winter season of 2020 at Experimental Farm of Vegetable Sciences, DAV University, Jalandhar to study the growth and quality responses to plant spacing in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) varieties. Experimental material consisted of four varieties (Kufri Pukhraj, Kufri Jyoti, Kufri Badshah, Kufri Chandramukhi) sown at three spacings (70 cm × 20 cm, 60 cm × 20 cm, 50 cm × 20 cm) and laid in Factorial Randomized Block design with three replications. Observations on number of leaves per plant at 30 DAS, number of leaves per plant at 60 DAS, number of leaves per plant at 90 DAS, Plant height (cm) at 30 Days After Sowing (DAS), Plant height (cm) at 60 DAS, Plant height (cm) at 90 DAS, average tuber weight (g), number of tuber plant, marketable tuber yield per plot (kg), unmarketable tuber yield per plot (kg),tuber yield per plot (kg), TSS, ascorbic acid (mg/100g), starch content (%) and dry matter content (%) were recorded. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) revealed significant effect of spacing, varieties and their interaction for all the characters under study. It was observed that plants sown at spacing S1 (70 cm × 20 cm) resulted in superior performance for most of the traits studied. Among cultivars, desirable results were observed in V1 (Kufri Pukhraj). Considering the interaction of varieties and spacing it was concluded that Kufri Pukhraj sown at a spacing of 70 cm × 20 cm can result in superior performance with respect to growth, yield, and quality parameters of potato.