Effects of environment on tuber production, potassium absorption, and susceptibility of potatoes to virus disease in Poland

Abstract

1. The transfer of potatoes from optimal maritime conditions (Pomerania) to the Carpathian mountain, 300–1200 meters above sea level. resulted in a decrease in single plant yield, of 44 g for the variety Epoka and 59 g for the variety Ackersegen for each 100 meters increase in altitude. 2. A year to year increase of K in potato tubers planted in the Carpathians was found. Under our mountain conditions the content of K in potato tubers was correlated with a decrease in yield. 3. Transfer of potatoes from the mountains into the lowlands, irrespective of the kind of soil in which the plants had grown, caused a considerable increase in yield and a decrease of K in the tubers in the first year of cultivation. The most probable factor responsible for this phenomenon is temperature. The mean monthly temperature during the vegetative period decreases as elevation increases. The conditions under which parent and grandparent generations were grown affected the yield in the lowlands. When tubers produced at low temperatures in the mountains, were planted near Cracow, yield was increased, the K content of the tubers decreased, and there was little spread of leaf roll and streak. 4. Potatoes transferred from low lying mountain stations, below 400 meters above sea level, to the lowlands did not respond with increase in yield, nor did the K content in the tubers decrease. Also the plants were highly susceptible to streak and leaf roll.