Influence of Treatment with Different Levels and Periods of Temperature on Dormancy and Sprouting of Tubers of Some Potato Varieties

Abstract

This research was carried out in order to study the effect of heat treatment on the dormancy of the tubers of potato varieties Spunta, Synergy, and Panela. Potato tubers were stored at 4°C for two weeks. Tubers were exposed to temperatures (15, 20, and 25°C) during four periods (0, 1, 2, 3 weeks). The completely randomized design (CRD) was used in the experiment, with three replicates for each treatment, and each replicate consisted of one kg of tubers.The results showed that all treatments were superior to the control in all the studied traits. Spunta variety outperformed the other studied varieties in the speed of dormancy breaking by 30 days, in the number of sprouts on the tuber by 2.50, in the number of sproutsper the sample by 12.99, in the number of apical sprouts by 11.28, in the average daily growth of 0.30 cm per day, in the total weight of the sprouts/tuber by 11.50 g, as well as in the total weight of the sprouts per sample by 57.50 g / kg.While the variety Synergy was superior in the number of basal sprouts by 2.30. On the other side, the highest temperature (25° C) was superior to the rest of the temperatures in all studied traits, also the longest storage period (3 weeks) outperformed the other periods of storage in all studied traits. In general, the interaction of the Spunta variety with the highest temperature (25°C) and the longest storage period (3 weeks) was superior to the overall studied traits.