Early potato production is positively affected by potassium fertilization [electronic resource]

Includes bibliographic reference

Two field experiments were conducted during 2017-2018 and 2018-2019, at the Experimental Farm, Faculty
of Agriculture, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt with aim of investigation of potassium application on earliness
of potato. To achieve this goal, five different net potassium levels: 0, 60, 90, 120, and 150 kg/Feddan were applied and
potato tubers were harvested at two harvesting times: 90 and 105 days after planation. The results reported that both
potassium application and harvesting time as well as their interaction significantly affected most of the studied traits.
The highest values of plant height, plant fresh weight, plant dry matter, tuber dry matter, marketable yield/feddan, total
yield/feddan, soluble solid content (SSC), nitrogen (N) content and potassium (K) content were obtained from the
plants received 120 kg K and harvested at 105 days after planation. While, the potassium fertilized plant at 120
kg/feddan and harvested at 90 days achieved the maximum values of total yield per plant, total sugar and non-reducing
sugars. However, the difference between these two treatments was not necessarily significant for some traits. In
addition, the results of the current study interestingly clarified that potassium level (150 kg) negatively affected some
yield attributes in both harvesting times compared to the other potassium levels. Consequently, the result of the current
study indicates that high level of potassium (120 kg) can hasten the earliness of potato, which may achieve notable
financial profits for potato growers.

Summary in Arabic