Abstract
Possibilities to enhance potato productivity in the Sahel region of Tunisia have been the domain of active investigation during the last several years. Many field experiments were carried out on the potential of using different plating depths to grow profitable potato crops. In the research station of the higher institute of agronomy of Chott-Mariem in the Sahel region of Tunisia, two varieties of potato: Alaska and Safrane, were mechanically planted at two different depths: 10 and 15 cm in a sandy loam soil. After three months of growth, the effect of planting depth was determined using fresh and dry weights of the above and below ground biomass as well as tuber yield. The results showed that in a light textured soil, plants of two potato varieties planted at 15 cm depth outperformed those planted at a 10 cm depth. In addition, for tuber yield, the Alaska variety was more productive than the Safrane variety with increasing yield of tubers than 2% for depths of 15 cm and 11, 9% for depths of 10 cm. Key words: Potato, planting depth, light soil, agronomic parameters, Tunisia.
Highlights
The potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) belongs to the Solanaceae family, genus Solanum and is one of the most important food crops in Tunisia, as well as many other countries
Shallow planting is preferred in wet and heavy soils because in such soils deep planting of the tubers may lead to exhaustion of stored food before the sprouts emerge above the soil
In the context of studies of the interaction of soil plant machine, we have found it useful to study the effects of mechanical planting depth on agronomic
Summary
The potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) belongs to the Solanaceae family, genus Solanum and is one of the most important food crops in Tunisia, as well as many other countries. To obtain a homogeneous culture, the tubers should be distributed evenly with a specific spacing between rows and a uniform planting depth (Baarveld et al, 2002). In addition to planting depth, crop yield is influenced by variety, soil, temperature (Gopal et al, 1998), photoperiod (Pruski et al, 2001), light intensity (Gopal et al, 1998) nitrogen nutrition (Etemad and Sarajuoghi 2012) potassium (Naik and Sarkar, 1998) planting density, plant height, the number of stems on the surface, number of tubers formed by size. That depth of planting can be achieved through well-regulated machinery taking out a regular spacing of rows, a regular distribution of tubers in a planting depth and uniform coverage of land by ridging was reported by Haider et al (2012). In the context of studies of the interaction of soil plant machine, we have found it useful to study the effects of mechanical planting depth on agronomic
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