POTATO

Solanum tuberosum
CHROMOSOME NO.-2n=4x=48
Family: Solanaceae

ORIGIN:
Peru and Bolivia in South America
Among the major potato growing countries of
the world, China ranks first in area followed by
Russian Federation, Ukrain and Poland.
India ranks fifth in area and production in the
world.

Area : 1.32 m ha
Production : 24 m t
Productivity : 18 t/ha
In European and American countries, the
productivity is about 30-40 t/ha.
 Importance
 Important cash crop of India and is grown under wide range
of climate viz., temperate, subtropical, warmer plateau region
and Nillgiri hills.
 Great NI plains are very suitable for its cultivation
 Rich alluvial soil,
 Availability of plenty of water, and
 A very congenial climate
 This region accounts for nearly 82% of the potato area and
85% of the total potato production of the country.
 Plays a vital role in the economy of Himachal Pradesh.
 High hills are quite favourable for the production of disease
free tubers/seed potato.
 Area in H.P. is 16.2 thousand ha with a production of 140
thousand tones.
 Fits well in multiple cropping and inter-cropping systems due
to considerable flexibity in planting and harvesting time in
addition to its short duration.
 Uses
 Proved its worth in feeding the nation in
emergency.
 An important source of starch.
 Rich source of body building substances such
as vitamins (B1, B2, B6 and C), minerals (Ca, P
and Fe) and protein.
 All dietary substances except fat.
 Used as staple diet in many of the countries
specially in the west.
 Raw potato should not be consumed as they
result in cramps in stomach.
 Climate
 A cool season crop, tolerate moderate frost.
 20oC soil temperature for better germination.
 Young plants growth is good at 24oC but later
growth is favoured by a temperature of 18oC
 No tuberization when the night temperature is
more than 23oC. Maximum tuberization is
encountered at 20oC. Tuber formation stop
completely at about 29-30oC.
 Planting is done in the hills when the maximum
temperatures are about 20-22oC and minimum
temperature are about 12-15oC
Soils
 Well drained clay loam soils, rich in humus.
 pH 5 to 6.5.
 Varieties recommended for cultivation in
India
Early Varieties Main season varieties
(ready in 70-80 days) (ready in 90-95 days)
Kufri Ashoka Kufri Jyoti
K. Chandermukhi K. Sutlej
Kufri Jawahar K. Pukhraj, K. Megha
Kufri Lauvkar K. Badshah, Kufri Anand
Late Varieties Kufri Bahar, K. Sadabahar
K. Jeevan, K. Khasigaro, Kufri Sindhuri, Kufri Lalima
K. Neelamani, K. Naveen K. Deva, K. Sherpa, K. Swarna

FOR PROCESSING: Kufri Chipsona1, Kufri Chipsona 2,

Kufri Chipsona 3, Kufri Himsona

For H.P.: K. Jyoti, K. Chandermukhi, K. Giriraj, K. Himsona

AGRONOMIC PRACTICES
 Soil preparation and planting
► A well prepared soil provides sufficient room for the
development of tubers and also helps to retain
moisture.
► The fields are ploughed to a depth of 20-35 cm and
clods are broken.
► Hot weather cultivation consists of ploughing during
summer (May-June) and keeping it fellows, helps in
reducing the problem of soil borne pathogens/pests
and also controls perennial weeds.
► In higher hills, 2 ploughings with mould board
plough before snowfall in October-November and 2
ploughings before potato planting give desirable
tilth.
 Planting season
Region Season Planting Time Harvesting Time
North western hills
Very high hills Summer April-May Sept-Oct
High hills Summer Mid March-April Sept-Oct
Mid hills Spring Jan-Feb May-June
North central high hills Summer Mid Feb-March August-Sept.
North eastern high hills Spring Mid Dec-Mid Jan July-August
Shillong hills Summer March-April July-August
Autumn March-April Dec-Jan
Winter Jan-Feb May-June

North western plains (Jammu, Early Mid Sept Mid Nov-Dec

Pb, Western U.P., Har, Raj,
Autumn Mid Oct Feb-March
Plains of M.P)
Spring Jan April

North Central Plains Winter Mid Oct Feb-March

North Eastern plains

Bihar Winter Oct end to Nov.2nd week Jan-Feb

W.B. Winter Early Nov Jan-Feb
Contd…….
 Sowing Time in H.P.
Low Hill September- January
October
Mid Hill September December-
January
High Hill March- April April- May
 Seed preparation
 Propagated through tubers.
 The eyes on the tuber surface contain axillary buds.
 The tubers have a dormancy of nearly 8-10 weeks.
 When dormancy is over, axillary buds start germinating
and produce sprouts.
 Planting sprouted tubers put up fast and vigorous
growth.
Breaking of Dormancy
 Thiourea (Sodium Potassium thiocyanate) @ 1-2% treatment to
cut tubers for 1-1½ hours. 1 kg for 10q of seed tuber. or
 Tubers are kept in 5ppm solution of GA3 for 10 seconds. or
 Treat the tuber with acquous solution of thiourea for one hour
followed by dipping in 2 ppm solution of GA for 10 seconds. Or
 Ethylene chlorohydrine used as a gas treatment. 6 parts of
water and 4 parts of chemical is mixed and keep tubers in this
solution for 5 days in an air tight chamber at 70-80oF
temperature.
Preparation of tubers from cold storage:
 Warm up the tubers at 60oF for 10-14 days before sowing which
sprout quickly and give good germination stand.
 Seed rate and Spacing
◙ Seed rate-25-30 q per ha
◙ Proper combination of seed size and spacing is essential to get the required
number of stems per unit area.
◙ Planting 40-50 g tuber with 40-50mm diameter at a spacing of 45-60cm X 20-25
cm.
◙ Large tubers are cut into pieces, each containing atleast 1-2 eyes.
◙ Tuber cutting is not recommended specially when producing a seed crop
because of danger of transmitting viruses and bacteria.
◙ Special care is taken to avoid tuber decay when cut tubers are used for
plantation.

TREATMENT OF CUT SEED TUBERS

☻ Treat the cut tubers with 0.25% Dithane-Z-78 and
0.1% Bavistine to prevent rotting
☻ Heal cut tubers at 18-210C and 85-90% RH for 2-3
days (suberization) to prevent rotting.
☻ Don’t treat the tubers with any chemical if sprouts
are coming out.
☻ Treat with aglal (0.5%) for 5-10 minutes to control
scab disease.
 METHODS OF THE PLANTING
- Ridge and furrow method
 Most popular, carried out manually or mechanically
- Mechanical method
 Furrows are made with the help of tractor drawn 2-4 row
marker-cum-fertilizer drills so as to apply fertilizer in one
sequence.
 This is followed by planting of tubers with the help of 2-4
rows planter-cum-ridger
- On flat surface followed by ridges
- Care must be taken that seed tubers do not come in direct
contact of fertilizers.
Nutrient Management
FYM N (Kg/ha) P2O5 K2O
(t/ha) (Kg/ha) (Kg/ha)
FOR HP 100 120 80 60
FOR 100 150-180 60-80 100-120
 PLAINS
Full FYM, P and K and half N at planting time.
 Remaining N should be top dressed at earthing up .
 Interculture and weed control
♣ Mulching helps in conserving soil moisture, reducing
soil temperature and inducing quick germination.
♣ Local available materials such as pine needles or leaf
litters are quite effective in controlling run off losses
and conserving moisture.
♣ Weeds are effectively managed by cultural or chemical
methods or combination of both methods.
♣ Hoeing cum weeding in one month old crop followed by
earthing up, effectively control weeds.
♣ Pre-emergence application of fluchloralin@ 1 kg a.i.
per ha or alachlor@ 1 kg a.i. per ha or
pendimethalene@ 1.8 kg a.i. per ha or atrazine @ 1.0
kg a.i. per ha can effectively control the weeds.
♣ Post emergence application (5-10% emergence) of
paraquat@ 0.36 kg a.i. per ha is also effective.
♣ Post emergence application of Tok-e-25 @2.5kg a.i. per
ha at about 2-3 leaf stage is also helpful in managing
the weeds.
 IRRIGATION
 Pre-planting irrigation is advantageous for
uniform germination.
 Second irrigation is given after about a week
and subsequent as and when required.
 Light and frequent irrigations are better than
heavy and less frequent irrigations.
 Total water requirement =350-500mm
Critical stages
 Stolon formation
 Tuber initiation and tuber development
 Stop irrigation 10 days before harvesting to
allow firming of tuber skin.
 HARVESTING
 The crop is harvested when it is fully matured
 This can be characterized by when haulms turn yellow and no
pulling out of skin on rubbing of tubers.
 At the time of harvesting, field should not be too wet nor too dry.
 Tractor operated potato diggers are available for digging the
tubers from the fields.

Grading
3 grades according to size and weight of the tubers.
Grade A (Large): Tuber weight more than 75g
Grade B (Medium): Tuber weight between 50-75g
Grade C (Small): Tuber weight less than 50g

Yield
Early varieties 200 q/ha
Late Varieties 300 q/ha
 Post harvest handling
►Nearly 20% of total potato production is used as planting
material in the following season.
►Handling of seed stocks particularly become very
important.
►After harvesting, Keep tubers in heaps in cool places for
drying and curing of skin for 10-15 days.
►Heaps 3-4 m long wide at the base and 1 m in the central
height are the best.
►In hills, tubers are spread in well ventilated rooms for
drying.
►After grading potato tubers for seed crop next year are
treated with 3% boric acid solution for 30 minutes for
protecting against soil borne pathogen before storing in
the bags.
►In the plains, tubers after drying, curing and grading are
stored in cold stores where temperature is maintained at
2-4 0C with 75-80% RH.
 Marketing
The factors which makes marketing of potato as a
complicated process and result in high
fluctuation of prices and often glut situation are:
☻Transportation to long distances is problem as potatoes
are semi-perishable and bulky.
☻Often potatoes rot during transit because of high
temperature at the time of transport.
☻Problem is further compounded due to shortage of
transporting wagons.
☻Total cold storage capacity in the country is adequate only
to store 35-40% of the total production.
☻Functioning of CS many a time is not upto the mark and is
marked by various mal practices.
☻The markets in potato producing belts in NI plains are not
properly integrated with major consuming markets of
metropolitan cities.
 Value added products
Potatoes can be easily processed into dehydrated and
canned products like:
 Chips
 Flakes
 French fries
 Finger chips
 Granules
 Disc
 Cubes
 Flour etc.

◙ Processing industry is also picking up in the recent

past
◙ It is desirable to avoid glut and consequent difficulty
of storing large quantities of potatoes during period
of high temperature after harvest in the plains.
PHYSIOLOGICAL DISORDERS
1. HOLLOW
HEART
☻ Caused by rapid growth
☻ Tubers become oversized and remain empty
within leading to formation cavity in centre with
death of small area of pith cells
☻ Resulting in adjacent cracks and hollowness
as the centre expands during the growth.
 Avoid over fertilization particularly N
 Maintain optimum soil moisture conditions.

2. BLACK HEART
☻ Sub-oxidation conditions under potato
tuber storage in piles.
☻ Higher temperature & excessive
moisture resulted in blackening of
tissues in the centre.
☻ Appearance of tuber affect consumers
otherwise no decay.
♣ Provide proper ventilation
♣ Keep potato tubers in layers and do not store tubers in the heap.
3. GREENING
Factors associated with
increased glycoalkaloid
(solanin) contents
Mechanical injury,
Premature harvest,
Excessive application of
fertilizers
Exposure of tubers to sunlight
♣ Proper earthing up of tubers as the tuberization takes place
♣ Store tubers in darkness after digging up.
4. TRANSLUCENT END
► Related to environmental stress i.e.
draught and heat.
► Appear at the proximal end of the
tuber.
► Tubers show glossy appearance and
are irregular in shape. ♣ Avoid excessive N
► Results in decay in storage. supply
► These glossy areas are high in ♣ Maintain 50%
moisture in the
sugar and low in total soluble solids
5. KNOBBINESS
Uneven growth of tuber
cells/tissues.
Uneven watering causes
obstruction in tuber growth.
Heavy irrigation after a long dry
spell leads to growth of some
cells very fast
Frequent and optimum irrigation

6. CRACKING
Boron deficiency or uneven water supply
☻Application of Borax @ 20kg/ha
☻Frequent and optimum irrigation supply

7. SUN SCALDING
☼ High temperature (>30oC) and more sunshine in autumn.
☼ Emerging sprouts and leaflets are drastically affected i.e. tip burn.
☻ Pass Water through the furrows to lower the soil
 8. BLACK SPOT
 Internal browning of potato tubers.
 Occurs in vascular tissues with in 3 days of
mechanical injury.
 Phenoles are related to black spot in potato
tubers.
 Grow resistant varieties
 Proper storage and growing
conditions.

9.FREEZING INJURY
► Exposure of tubers to freezing
temperature during or after harvest.
► -1.5oC or below temperature.
► Discoloration of tissues
► Leads to unmarketable tubers.
► Tubers show more damage towards
proximal end.
► Avoid exposure of tubers to freezing
temperature
 10. SPROUTING
Often a serious problem in
storage
☻ Spraying maleic hydrazide @ 1000-6000ppm
about 2-3 weeks before harvesting.
☻ Chemicals like Chloro IPC (N-tetra chloro
isopropyl carbonate)@ 0.5% and/or nomyl/amyl
alcohol @0.05-0.12mg/ha inhibit sprouting

11. SWOLLEN LENTICELS

☻Exposure of the tuber to very wet conditions
in the field or in storage causes oxygen
deprivation.
☻Besides giving an unmarketable appearance
to the tuber, provide entrance to pathogenic
organisms, bacterial soft rot and pink rot .
♣ Avoid over-watering and provide good drainage
♣ Avoid harvesting low, swampy spots in the field.
♣ Avoid condensation in storage. Keep storage
well ventilated.
DISEASES
 EARLY BLIGHT

Causal organism- Alternaria

solani
 Concentric rings of brown to
black colour are formed on the
leaves.
 Heavily infected leaves fall off
after drying.
 Spots also appear on stems.
MANAGEMENT
♣ Destruction of crop debris by
burning
♣ Spray Ridomil MZ @2g/l or 0.3%
Blitox or 0.25% DM-45/DZ-78 at
fort night interval 3-4 times.
♣ Resistant varieties – Kufri
Naveen, Kufri Jeevan
 LATE BLIGHT
Casual organism:
Phytophthora infestans
 Lower leaves infcted
 Water soaked leisons
appear on the margins
 Cottony growth of fungus
on lower sides of leaves
 Decay of tubers

Management
☻ Use of disease free seed.
☻ Spray ridomil@ 2g per litre
☻ Resistant varieties like Kufri
Jawahar, Kufri himsona, K.
Jyoti, K. Swarnima, K.
BROWN ROT:
(Pseudomonas
solanacearum)
Wilting and
stunting of plants
Soil borne and
carried by infected
tubers used as seed
also.
MANAGEMENT:
Crop rotation with
maize and wheat.
Disease free tubers
BLACK SCURF
(Rhizoctonia solani)
• Sprouts are killed before emergence
• Cankers cause wilting of plants
• Black crust on tubers resulting in ugly
appearance
MANAGEMENT :
• Seed tubers should be treated with
Aratan-6 or Tefasan 0.2%.
• Keep the tubers for 5 minutes in Aglal-3
@0.5% or Aglal-6 @0.2%.
• Treat the seed tubers for 15 minutes in
solution of 0.1% acetic acid + 0.5%
ZnSO4.
• Use crop rotation
• Soil treatment with Brassicol @ 20-30 kg
 Management of some common disease
Disease Control measures
Common Scab  Seed treatment with 0.5% Agalol-3 for 30
minutes or
 Grow scab resistant varieties
Verticillium Wilt ► Use of disease-free seeds
(Soil borne ► Resistant varieties
disease) ► long rotations
Charcoal Rot ☻Surface disinfection with some fungicides.
Wart disease ☻ Soil sterilization by steam, mercuric chloride,
copper sulphate or 5% formalin.
☻ Resistant varieties – K. Jyoti, K. Sherpa and K.
Kanchan
Black Leg and ►Use of disease-free seeds
Soft Rot ►long rotations
Bacterial Soft Rot ► Separate diseased tubers from healthy ones
before storage.
► Treat Seed tubers with 0.5% solution of
Agalol-3/Aretan-6/Emisan-6 before storage,
for 30 minutes
 Management of some common
viral diseases
Latent Mosaic Mechanically transmitted (PVX, PVS or
PVM)
Use-disease free seeds
Local quarantine
Mild Mosaic Use-disease free seeds
Use resistant varieties.
Rugose or Vein- -do-
banding Mosaic
Purple top Leaf Roll Transmitted by leaf hopper
Use of certified disease-free seed
Control of insect vectors
 Management of Mycoplasmal diseases
Disease Control measures
Purple-top-roll  Control leaf hoppers (Alebrodes spp.)
Marginal ►Prevalent in North-west hills
Flavescence ►Use disease free seed material
Witch’s Broom ☻Prevalent in Deccan Plateau
☻Use disease free seed material
Potato ☻Prevalent in Deccan Plateau
Phyllody ☻Use disease free seed material
Rot knot ☻ Keep land fallow for a quite long time
nematode ☻ Follow crop rotation
☻ Nematicides like DD @ 225 l/ha should
Golden knot be injected in the soil.
nematode ☻ Place between the rows EDB @ 175
kg/ha 2 weeks before planting.
INSECT -PESTS
1.HADDA BEETLE:
(Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata)
 DAMAGING STAGE: Grubs and
adults
 Infected portion: Foliage
CONTROL:
 Spraying with 0.2% carbaryl
 dusting of 5% carbaryl @ 30 kg
per ha
2. Aphids(Myzus persicae)
 Damaging stage: nymphs and
adults
 Infected portion: leaves and
tender shoots+ stem
 Transfers viral diseases
CONTROL:
 Spray oxy demeton methyl@
0.025% or dimethionate 50 EC@
0.05%
 3. Potato tuber moth
(Phthorimaea operculella)

Damaging state: caterpillars

CONTROL:
Seed potato should be protected by
dusting 5% Malathion dust on and
around the heap at the rate of 5 kg per
tonne
Two sprays of fenvalerate0.01% or
cypermethrin 0.0075/ deltamethrin
0.0028%
 LEAF HOPPER
(Amarasca biguttela)
Nymphs and adult damage the
crop.
They transmit virus.

CONTROL
Spray malathion0.05%/oxy demeton methyl 0.025%/carbaryl
 0.1% 35EC@ 1.5 L/ha

CUT WORMS
►Caterpillar causes damage.

CONTROL
Drenching the soil
with chloropyriphos
20 EC@ 2.5 ml per L
 Seed Plot Technique
 Use of healthy seed in vegetative propagated crop is very
important
 Continuous use of same seed stocks year after year without
periodic replacement allows infiltration of diseases particularly
viruses.
 These viruses readily spread through contact of foliage and roots
in the field or through aphid vectors.
 Debilitating effect and bring down yield potential of infected
tubers.
 High hills were the traditional sources of healthy seed as
population of aphids remain low due to low temperature.
 Accounts for only 5% of the area under potato and this was not
enough to meet the seed requirement of the plains.
 In 1962, Cockerham (Scotland) came to India to do some studies
to increase the potato yield.
 On the basis of data on appearance and build up of aphids in
different months, successful cultivation of seed potato in plains
under low or no aphid condition is possible.
 “Seed Plot Technique” i.e. raising the healthy seed crop during
low aphid period available in northern plains.
 SEED PLOT TECHIQUE
 Planting before the commencement of 10thOctober
 Sowing at closer spacing of 45cm X15 cm for smaller size tubers
 Two inspections to rogue out diseased or off-type plants during
growing season
 Application of granular systemic insecticides at planting or earthing
up.
 Restrict irrigation when crop has tuberized well by the middle of
December, and later with hold it completely.
 At the end of December or first week of January, cut haulm before the
aphid population build up to 20 aphids per 100 leaves.
 If the crop is still green destroy the haulms by spraying 2% solution of
CuSO4 or cut them.
 The harvesting of tubers is done in Mid February to end February

 Hot weather cultivation and green manuring

 Crop rotation for 2-3 years.
 One or two sprays of systemic insecticides + spray of metalaxyl or
Mancozeb in December- January.
 Dip tubers in 3% boric acid for 30 minutes after harvest and
before storage of the produce.
 Technique helps in meeting the large requirement of healthy seed
in country.
 True Potato Seed
Cultivation through true potato seed is beneficial
because:
☻Seed material i.e. potato tubers required to cultivate
1.32 m ha area is around 33 m q (seed rate 25 q/ha).
☻Quality seed production, certification and storage of
such a huge quantity is very difficult.
☻Transportation of such a huge material is also
difficult and costly.
☻This can be used as food material.
☻True seed is free from viruses and many other
diseases as their management is easy due to small
area. Cost of cultivation is also less.
Methods of use of True potato seed

1. To raise seedlings and then

transplanting
2. Sowing of seed in nursery beds
and then raising them for
obtaining small sized potato
tubers which are used for
cultivation of the next crop.
These seeds are sown in raised
beds.
 Problems associated with true
potato seed
♣ Very small and weak as compared to
tomato, brinjal etc.
♣ It is not grown very deep & also low
application of fertilizers is required.
♣ It very difficult to maintain optimum
moisture conditions as it is sown very near
to the surface.
♣ Poor germination and unhealthy & weak
nursery seedlings of potato creating
problems to farmers.
♣ Therefore, farmers are not so
encouraged/enthusiastic to take up this
 Refined technique for raising TPS
♣ Make nursery bed of size 2 m x 1m & then bricks
are laid on these beds.
♣ Fine soil and FYM in equal proportion is put on thse
bricks making the surface 4-5 cm raised.
♣ Irrigation is given on the surface & the moisture is
reaches to the surface through capillary action of
the bricks.
♣ Sowing is done on this surface of the bricks.
♣ Seed is mixed with fine & well decomposed FYM &
then put FYM on the raised surface for good
germination or after broadcasting, the seed is
covered with FYM.
♣ 3-4 small seeds are kept at equal spacing on one
brick which is covered with FYM to raise small sized
tubers.