Abstract
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is grown in over 160 countries. Weed competition and environmental stressors during the vegetative growth stage significantly impact crop yields. An experiment was conducted from 2012 to 2014 in Poland to assess the effect of herbicides linuron + clomazone (L+CH) and metribuzin (M) as well as herbicides mixed with biostimulants (linuron + clomazone and algae extract of Ecklonia maxima—auxins and gibberellins (L+CH+E) and metribuzin + sodium p-nitrophenolate, sodium o-nitrophenolate and sodium 5-nitroguaiacolate (M+S)) on weed infestation, marketable yield and yield components of the following three table potato cultivars: Bartek, Gawin and Honorata. In plots where potato had been treated with herbicides and herbicides mixed with biostimulants, a decline in the fresh matter of weeds was observed, ranging from 72.4% to 96.1%, which was followed by an increase in potato marketable yield (from 27.5% to 61%) and improved parameters of S. tuberosum yield components, compared with the control. Linear correlation coefficients indicated that the following characteristics: marketable yield, weight of tubers per plant and average weight per tuber were associated with weed infestation determined prior to potato harvest.
Highlights
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is one of four major agricultural crops grown worldwide as a staple food for humans [1,2,3,4,5]
The herbicide linuron + clomazone contributed to an eight-fold reduction in weed weight, and up to a 25-fold drop when the chemical was mixed with the biostimulant containing auxins and gibberellins compared with the control (Table 3)
This study showed that the average number of tubers per plant achieved in experimental plots with herbicide treatment was by 40%
Summary
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is one of four major agricultural crops (after wheat, maize and rice) grown worldwide as a staple food for humans [1,2,3,4,5]. Potato is propagated vegetatively, which exposes the crop plant to numerous harmful factors (weeds, pests, viral, fungal and bacterial diseases). As a result of reduced soil tillage and simplified harvest, delayed planting dates, natural manuring and continuous cropping, an increase in weed infestation of fields planted to potato has been observed [6,7,8]. Potato is susceptible to weed infestation as it is grown in widely spaced rows, and its initial growth and development are slow. Plants growing in fields infested with weeds produce lower yields of, usually, poorer quality. They require higher labour input and production costs [11,12,13]
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