Comparison of potato vegetative traits in aeroponic and solid culture systems

The solid culture cultivation is the common method for minituber production in Iran. This method has several disadvantages including low performance and high potential risk to pathogen infections. Aeroponic system is a new method, which does not require soil and has been successfully used for minituber production. Considering the fact that there is a positive correlation between growth and the performance of minituber production, evaluation and optimization of plant growth can significantly increase the efficiency of minituber production. This project was conducted at Seed and Plant Improvement Institute in Karaj in order to compare the impact of these two cultivation systems in growth characteristics of the Agria cultivar in 1391-1392. Two culture systems compared by t test in 36 replication. For growth evaluation, stem height, stem diameter, internode length, Dry matter content of stem and root, root length, stolon length, stolon diameter and number of stolons were recorded and analyzed. Results showed that except the dry matter content of both root and stem, other traits were significantly different (P ≥1%) with each other. Based on the results, aeroponic system had a significant impact on increasing the vegetative growth, so that the height of the stem with the average of 240.18 cm and root length with the average of 79.58 cm in aeroponic system were more than twice compared to the height of the stem and root length in the solid culture system. Stolon characters were highly correlated with mini-tuber production efficiency. In aeroponic system, the average number and the average length of stolons were 21.25 and 14.14, respectively, which were much higher than that of in solid culture system.

Aeroponic, solid culture, Potato, Culture system, Vegetative traits