Effect of Full, Half and Quarter Size Potato Tuber Seed on Growth and Yield of Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.)

Potato is a crucial food and cash crop in Bangladesh, acting as a staple crop for food security due to its nutritional value, broad adaptability, and early maturity. However, the potato productivity is limited by several factors. One of the crucial limiting factors is the size of the seed tuber, which is not specified. During the period from November 2022 to February 2023, a study was carried out in the research field of the Department of Agriculture at Noakhali Science and Technology University, Bangladesh to investigate how varying tuber sizes impact the growth and yield of potatoes. The study was structured in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three treatments and three replications. The treatment combinations were T₀ (Quarter size of potato tuber), T₁ (Half size of potato tuber), T₂ (Full size of potato tuber) respectively. Data was collected from various phases of plant growth and development viz, plant height, number of leaves per hill, number of stems per hill, number of tuber per plant, gross yield per hectare, unmarketable yield per hectare, marketable yield per hectare, small size tuber (%), medium size tuber (%) and large size tuber (%). The highest unmarketable yield (5.81 t ha^-1), small size tuber (37.73%) and medium size tuber (40.92%) was recorded from T₀ (Quarter size of potato tuber) whereas the lowest unmarketable yield (3.11 t ha^-1), small size tuber (19.07%) and medium size tuber (32.92%) was obtained from the treatment T₂ (Full size of potato tuber). Highest plant height (53.12 cm), number of leaves per hill (491.67), number of stems per hill (7.48), number of tuber per plant (19.66), gross yield (33.43 t ha^-1), marketable yield (30.19 t ha^-1) and large size tuber (48.03%) was found in treatment T₂ (Full size of potato tuber) whereas lowest data recorded from treatment T₀ (Quarter size of potato tuber). Observing the results, it can be stated that planting of full size of potato tuber seed for potato cultivation gave better growth, yield and yield contributing characters of potato.

Keywords: Potato; Tuber size; Growth; Yield.