Potato yield and quality as affected by foliar application with cytokinin and salicylic acid

Abstract EN

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.

) ranks fourth on the list of the most important food stable worldwide.

It cultivates in Egypt in three cycles, of which is the summer cycle where the predominant high temperature stress which exert an adverse effect on the growth of the whole plant.

Therefore, this study hypothesized that foliar application of cytokinin-phenylurea-derivative as (CPPU) and salicylic acid (SA) could be a crucial role in this context.

Thus, two open field experiments were conducted during summer seasons of 2016 and 2017, in a private farm of sandy loam soil, at Abou Elmatamer city, Behiera Governorate, Egypt.

Certified imported potato seeds of 'Cara' cv.

were used after splitting-up.

Cut seedy explants (ca.

40 g) contain one eye each were planted at 0.80 m wide and 0.17 m apart between hills, using four concentrations of the synthetic cytokinin CPPU (0.00, 0.04, 0.08, and 0.12 mM) and five concentrations of SA (0.00, 1.00, 2.00, 3.00, and 4.00 mM) were foliar applied separately and in combinations.

Control plants were sprayed with distilled water.

The effects of both variables and their combinations were investigated on the vegetative growth-related characters, yield and its components, tuber quality, leaves and tubers chemical composition.

The obtained results declare, in general, that foliar application treatments of cytokinin as CPPU and salicylic acid (SA) alone or in combination to potato plants gave, significantly, the highest average values of both yield and quality compare to untreated plants.

The combination between 0.12 mM CPPU plus 4.00 mM SA might be considered as an optimal treatment for the production of high yield and good quality of potato plants under the environmental conditions of Behiera Governorate and other similar regions.