Effect of Water Deficiency in Different Stages of Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Growth

Abstract

The experiment was conducted to assess the sensitivity of potato yield to different irrigation levels at different growth stages. Irrigation levels were determined as percentages (WI 100% as readily available water to the crop (RAW)), and for the rest of the treatments (WII 75%, WIII 50%), as they were applied separately to all four stages of crop growth i.e., vegetative (SI), tuber initiation (SII), tuber bulking SIII, and tuber maturation (SIV). The design of complete random sectors was adopted to perform the experiments. The results revealed that all the studied parameters: plant height (cm), vegetation plant weight (g), number of tubers per plant, tuber weight (g), tuber yield (ton/ha), and crop water productivity (kg/m3) varied among irrigation water levels at different stages of growth. It was found that the two stages, SII and SIII in potato crops, were more sensitive to deficit irrigation compared to other stages. According to the obtained results, in the case of water abundance conditions, the treatment WII SI can be applied to obtain the highest water crop productivity. In conditions of water scarcity, it becomes necessary to apply the treatment WIII SIII to obtain the highest crop water productivity.