A comparison of potato seed tuber yields in beds, pots and hydroponic systems

The objective of this study was to compare potato seed tuber production of cvs. Monalisa and Agata growing in beds, pots or hydroponics, with either single or staggered harvests. All culture systems were established in plastic sheeting-covered greenhouses protected with an anti-aphid network. The beds and 3 L pots were filled with Plantmax® substrate and placed in suspended beds. The hydroponic system utilized NFT (Nutrient film technique) and 4 m × 15 cm × 7 cm PVC tubes with a 4% slope and the fertilizers were a commercial formula. Each experiment was 4 treatments in factorial Scheme 2 × 2 with 2 cultivars (Monalisa and Agata) and 2 harvest methods (single and staggered). All three experiments were carried out in randomized design with 6 replicates and 7 plants per replicate. The hydroponics system presents some advantages: as harvest easiness, mineral nutrition control of plants, efficient use of water besides reducing the costs with pesticide. This system allows many harvest during the cycles culture allowing to maximize potato seed tubers harvest. The hydropony system was better statistically for tubers/plant number in single and staggered harvest. In all systems, the non-destructive harvest provided larger amount of tubers/plant, being the length and biomass these tubers smaller than in single harvest. There were significant interaction between culture system and harvest methods for the number of tubers per plant, tuber length and tuber fresh weights. The number of tubers per plant in hydroponics was 147% higher than the bed and pot systems for a single harvest. Even, tuber production from a staggered harvest in hydroponics was 286% greater than in the bed and pot systems for Monalisa and Agata cvs. Tuber lengths from potatoes growing in beds were 17% longer than those growing in pots or hydroponics from a single harvest. It was observed that tuber fresh weights in bed system, from a single harvest, were 51% larger than pot and hydroponic systems. Numbers of sprouts per tuber ranged from 2.55 to 3.04 for the 3 culture systems and 2 harvest methods. The sprouts length ranged 0.51–0.92 for Monalisa and Agata cultivar growing in bed, pots and hydropony system.