Transition in quality attributes of true potato seed (TPS) under split application of nitrogen and boron

Abstract

In Bangladesh, the utilization and expansion of potato production is limited via TPS technology due to the quality of true potato seed (TPS). Keeping it in view, two experiments were conducted during October 2013 to April 2014 and October 2014 to April 2015 to investigate the effect of split application of nitrogen (SN) and boron (B) on quality hybrid TPS. The TPS-67 (♂) and MF-II (♀) were used. The experiment comprised two factors namely factor-A [nitrogen splitting (4 levels): SN0 = 2 splits (conventional), SN1 = 3 splits, SN2 = 4 splits and SN3 = 5 splits (SN)] and factor-B [boron (4 levels): B0 = 0 kg B ha− 1, B1 = 4 kg B ha− 1, B2 = 6 kg B ha− 1 and B3 = 8 kg B ha− 1] whereas SN and B were treated as main plot and sub-plot, respectively under split-plot design with three replications. Most of the quality traits increase significantly up to SN3 which were statistically similar to SN2 and similar trends were found in the case of B application. Although, we found the maximum TPS yield in both years from the combination of SN1B3 (3 split applications of N and 8 kg B ha− 1); but based on quality parameters, the combination of SN3B3 exhibited the maximum results in case of 100-TPS (86.87 mg), protein (11.01%), lipid (21.95%) and germination (98.11%) which was statistically similar to SN2B3 and SN2B2 combinations whereas the SN0B0 exhibited the worst one. Finally, it may be concluded that the combination of SN2B2 (4 split applications of N and 6 kg B ha− 1) is the best for producing quality TPS from the potato mother plant under the prevailing climatic condition of Bangladesh.