Abstract
Selection of drought-tolerance (Solanum tuberosum L.) genotypes is essential to enhance tuber yield and quality for food and processing. The aim of the study was to evaluate effect of water deficit on tuber yield, quality and drought-tolerance of selected potato genotypes at different growth stages. Tuber quality of eight potato genotypes were evaluated under well-watered (Ww) and water-deficit (Wd) conditions at four different growth stages, namely, vegetative (VG), tuber initiation (TI), tuber bulking (TB) and maturity (MAT) stages using an 8 × 4 × 2 factorial treatment with three replications. Data was collected on morphological traits such as tuber yield (TY), number of tubers (NT), tuber size distribution (TSD) and dry matter content (DMC). Significant (p < 0.05) genotype x water condition x growth stage effect were observed for TY, NT, TSD and DMC, indicating varied responses of genotypes to water conditions across growth stages. Correlation analysis shown significant and positive associations among medium tubers and yield (r = 0.76; p = 0.05), between large tubers and number of tuber (r = 0.42; p = 0.05) at VG stage, DMC and yield (r = 0.79; p = 0.010) at TI stage and highly significant negatively correlated with NT (r = -0.94; p = 0.001) at TB stage. Mondial and Sifra produced high percentage of medium (35-55 mm) and large tubers (>55 mm) across all growth stages. Genotypes Bikini, Mondial, Sababa and Sifra were identified as drought tolerance genotypes due to high yield observed under water deficit conditions.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
