Review of different propagation media for potato mini tuber production under screen house

Abstract

Scarcities of healthy and quality potato tuber seeds are the problem of the production of potatoes in the world. Especially, in developing countries it is a serious problem that cause decline in the production and productivity of the potatoes and hampers the profits of producers. To alleviate this problem, many countries produce the mini tubers in screen house from diseases-free planting materials in pots or seed bade made of pathogen-free media. Most reviewed papers indicated that a media used to grow potato in screen houses are made of a combination of different substrates for the suitability of the crop gown on it as it provides sufficient nutrients, aeration, support, and water. Developed countries use rock wool, vermiculite, peat, and other expensive media made by factories while the underdeveloped use cheap materials that are easily available in their surroundings like forest soil, sand, compost, and FYM (farm yard manure). There is also limited research concerning these materials in developing countries, especially, about the ratio of mixing and types to be mixed. The expensive materials used for pot media making are not found in Ethiopia though there are surplus raw materials. Therefore, this review was conducted to assess the information available about the different screen house growing media used worldwide and conceptualize for future utilization. It is concluded that researchers should work on the availability of healthy and quality tuber seed by increasing the numbers produced in screen house through agronomic and other techniques of production solving problems related to potting media.