Mini-tuber production as affected by planting bed composition and node position in tissue cultured plantlet in two potato cultivars

Abstract

The virus-free plantlets resulted from the meristem culture of two potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) cultivars i.e., Marphona and Desiree were grown and their shoot tips and roots were cut off. Stems were sectioned to three upper, middle and lower segments and transferred onto four planting beds: (a) peat mass: perlite (3:1), (b) turf: perlite (3:1), (c) Leaf mould: perlite (3:1) and (d) rice hull: turf (1:1). The mini-tubers were harvested and biometrically analyzed for their number, total weight, average weight, average numbers of eyes and the average diameter of the mini-tubers generated by a single plant. It was revealed that rice hull: turf (1:1) was superior to other beds. The effect of stem position node on the total weight of minitubers, except an interaction between node position and planting-bed was non-significant. Desiree was only superior in total weight of the generated mini-tubers compared to Marphona.