POTATO

GENERAL INFORMATION

Potato is most important food crop of the world. It is economical crop and referred as Poor man friend. Its origin is in South America. It is rich source of starch and vitamin. It is used as vegetable also used for making of chips. It is used for several industrial purposes for production of starch and alcohol. Potato is grown almost in all states. Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Punjab, Karnataka, Assam and Madhya Pradesh are major potato growing states. In Punjab, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana and Patiala are major potato producing belts.

temprature

14°C - 25°C

Sowing Temperature

15°C - 25°C

Harvesting Temperature

14°C - 20°C

Rainfall

300-500 mm

SOIL

It can grow on wide range of soil, ranging from sandy loam, silt loam, loam and clay soils. It gives best yield when grown under well drained sandy loam and medium loam soils with rich in organic content. They can grow in acidic soil. It cannot grow under waterlogged soil also saline, alkaline soils are not suitable for potato cultivation.

POPULAR VARIETIES WITH THEIR YIELD

Kufri Alankar

It is recommended for cultivation of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Plants are tall with thick stem. It matures in 75 days in plains and 140 days in hills. Tubers are of oblong shape. It gives yield of 120 qtl/acre.

Kufri Ashoka

Plant is of medium height with medium thick stem. It gets mature in 70-80 days. Tubers are of large oval shape, white color with smooth skin. It is susceptible to late blight.

Kufri Badshah

Plants are tall with 4-5 stems per plant. Tubers are of large to medium, oval shape with dull white flesh. Tubers are tasty with good flavour. It matures in 90-100 days. It is tolerant to frost, resistant to late blight, early blight. It gives yield of 130 qtl/acre.

Kufri Bahar

Plants are tall with thick stem, 4-5 stem per plant. Tubers are of large, white, round to oval shape and flesh is of white color. It mature in 90-100 days and gives yield of 100-120 qtl/acre. Its keeping quality is average. It is resistant to late blight, early blight and leaf roll etc.

Kufri Chamatkar

Plants are medium and spreading with dark green foliage and more stems. It matures in 110-120 days in plains whereas 150 days in hills. Tubers are of round shape with yellow flesh. It gives yield of 100 qtl/acre in plains and 30 qtl/acre in hills. It is resistant to late blight, brown rot, charcoal rot and wilt.

Kufri Chipsona 2

Plants are of medium tall with few stems. Foliage is of dark green and flowers are of white color. Tubers are of white, medium size, round, oval shape with smooth skin. Gives average yield of 140 qtl/acre. It is resistant to late blight. It is highly suitable for making chips and french fries.

Kufri Chandramukhi

Plants are medium tall. Tubers are of oval, white with dull white flesh. It keeping quality is good. It matures in 80-90 days in Plains and 120 days in hill areas. Gives average yield of 100 qtl/acre in plains and 30 qtl/acre in hills. It is susceptible to late blight, brown rot, charcoal rot and wilt.

Kufri Jawahar

Plants are short, erect and compact with few stems, stem is thick. Foliage is of light green color. Tubers are of medium sized, round-oval shape with smooth skin. It is early maturing variety and ready to harvest in 80-90 days. It gives yield of 160 qtl/acre. It is not suitable for processing. It is resistant to late blight.

Kufri Pukhraj

Plant are tall with medium thick stems, stem are few. Tubers are of white, large and oval shape with smooth skin. It matures in 70-90 days and gives average yield of 160 qtl/acre. It is resistant to early blight and not suitable for processing.

Kufri Sutlej

Plants are medium compact and thick stem. Foliage is of grey green color. Tubers are large size with oval shape and smooth skin. It matures in 90-100 days with average yield is 160 qtl/acre. It has good consumer quality, it easy for cooking with mild flavour. It is not suitable for processing.

Kufri Sindhuri

Plants are tall with thick stems. Tubers are round, light red in appearance. Its flesh is of dull white color. Its keeping quality is good. It gets mature in 120 days in plains and 145 days in hills. It gives yield of 120 qtl/acre in plain areas. It is resistant to frost, late blight, charcoal rot and wilts.

Kufri Surya

The variety is resistant to summer season and is resistant to wilt disease. The variety matures in 90-100 days and it gives an average yield of 100-125qtl/acre.

Kufri pushkar

It is moderate maturing variety which matures in 90-100 days. The late wilt disease doesn’t occur in this variety and its potatoes are stored in normal conditions. It gives an average yield of 160-170qtl/acre.

Kufri Jyoti

The variety is resistant to late wilt disease. It gives an average yield of 80-120qtl/acre.

Kufri Chipsona 1

Late wilt disease doesn’t occur in this variety. It gives an average yield of 170-180qtl/acre. The variety is suitable for making chips.

Kufri Chipsona 3

Late wilt disease doesn’t occur in this variety. The variety has less sucrose content. The variety is suitable for making chips. It gives an average yield of 165-175qtl/acre.

Kufri Frysona

The potatoes are 75mm in size which is suitable for making French fries. It gives an average yield of 160-170qtl/acre.

SOWING

Time of sowing

Accurate planting time is necessary for obtaining good yield. Best time of planting is when maximum and minimum temperature is from 30-32 °C and 18-20 °C respectively. For early season crop complete sowing from 25th September to 10th October. For medium duration crop, sowing should be done in first week of October to third week of October. While for late duration crop, complete sowing from third week of October to first week of November. For spring season, second fortnight of January is best time planting.

Spacing

For planting, use distance of 20 cm between tubers and 60 cm between ridges manually or mechanically. Planting distance vary with size of tubers. If diameter of tuber ranges from 2.5-3.5 cm, use planting distance of 60x15 cm where as if diameter of tuber is of 5-6 cm, use spacing of 60x40 cm.

Sowing Depth

Dig a trench of 6-8 inch deep and plant piece of potato with eye pointing up.

Method of sowing

For sowing, use tractor operated semi-automatic or automatic planter.

FERTILIZER

Fertilizer Requirement(kg/acre) UREA SSP MURIATE OF POTASH 165 155 40 Nutrient Requirement (kg/acre) NITROGEN PHOSPHORUS POTASH 75 25 25 Apply 200 qtl/acre of Farm Yard Manure or well decomposed cow dung at time of land preparation two weeks before planting. For optimum growth, it required Nitrogen@75 kg per acre in form of Urea@165 kg/acre, Phosphorus@25 kg/acre in form of SSP@155 kg/acre and Potash@25 kg/acre in form of MOP@40 kg/acre. Apply 3/4th of nitrogen fertilizer and whole dose of phosphorus and potash at time of sowing. Remaining 1/4th dose of nitrogen should be applied after 30-40 days after planting at time of earthing up operation. In case of light soil apply half dose of nitrogen and full dose of P and K at time of sowing and remaining half should be apply as top dressing in two time in equal splits at time of earthing up operation.

Earthing up

It is necessary to maintain proper aeration, proper soil temperature and moisture in soil for good growth of crop and proper development of tubers. In earthing up soil is drawn up around base of plant to encourage better tuber formation. It should be done when plant attained height of 15-20 cm. If required carry out second earthing up two weeks after first earthing up. It can be done manually with hoe or mould board plough or ridger for large areas.

>WSF

To promote bulking in Potato, Spray 13:0:45@ 2 kg and 100gm Magnesium EDTA per acre. Add fungicide Propineb@3 gm/ltr of water as prophylactic. To increase number of tubers and size, spray with Humic acid (12%) @ 3 ml+ MAP 12:61:00 @ 8 gm/DAP @ 15 gm/ltr of water in vegetative stage.