Seed potato minitubers production in a reused substrate

Ronei França De Almeida,Roberta Camargos De Oliveira,Regina Maria Quintão Lana,Alexandre Igor De Azevedo Pereira,José Magno Queiroz Luz

doi:10.14393/bj-v36n0a2020-53568

Ronei França De Almeida, Roberta Camargos De Oliveira + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.14393/bj-v36n0a2020-53568

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Abstract

Minituber production is an important step to obtain high-quality seed potatoes. This production is carried out in a greenhouse using a large volume of commercial substrate acquired in specialized trade. An alternative to reduce the volume of substrate purchased for each production of minitubers would be to reuse it, which would be a way to optimize its use. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of reused substrates in the minituber production. The experiment was conducted in Tapira-MG with the Atlantic potato cultivar. The experimental design was a randomized block with six treatments and four replications, where each plot was represented by a box (0.15 x 0.4 x 0.5m: height, width, and length, respectively) containing substrates. Treatments consisted of formulation 04-14-08 rates (0, 25, 50, 75, and 100 g box-1) added to reused substrate and a control consisting of a new virgin substrate. At 45 days after transplanting, the following characteristics were evaluated: stem size (cm), and quantities of fresh and dry matter of aerial part of plants. Harvesting was performed manually, counting, and calculating the yield of tubers according to class. The reuse substrate with enriched nutrient regardless of the rate, when compared to the use of a new virgin substrate, did not interfere in potato plant development and in the total productivity of minitubers of classes I, II, III, and IV. This can be a feasible alternative for optimizing the use of the virgin substrate. The rate of 25 g box-1 of 4-14-8 is sufficient to provide the needs of potato in nutrients, ensuring high productivity.

Highlights

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the third most important food crop in the world, being the first non-grain commodity and the crop that produces the highest content of nutrients (ZHAO et al, 2016)
There was no significant difference between the mean values of the virgin and reused substrate plus 25, 50, 75, and 100 g of 04-14-08 box-1 for the following variables: stem size, fresh and dry matter of aerial part of plants
The addition of nutrients to the substrate reused at 45 days after transplanting (DAT) gave the same vegetative development compared to the virgin substrate (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the third most important food crop in the world, being the first non-grain commodity and the crop that produces the highest content of nutrients (ZHAO et al, 2016). According to the Brazilian Association of Potatoes (ABBA), potato agribusiness involves around 5,000 producers in 30 regions of seven Brazilian states (MG, SP, PR, RS, SC, GO, and BA) and production varies between 3 million and 3.5 million tons (EMBRAPA, 2016). In 2019 were sold a total of 870 thousand tons of potatoes (CONAB, 2019). Potato is propagated asexually by "seed tubers", which are the costliest production component. Most of the seed potato seed used in Brazil is imported from other countries, especially the Netherlands (SOUZA et al 2012). The investments in this agricultural input can reduce the production cost and increase the competitiveness against the imported potato seed (CALORI et al, 2017)

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