Irish potato (<i>Solanum tuberosum</i> L.) yield in the Sokoto-Rima river valley

Abstract

Trial were conducted during 2001/2002 and 2002/2003 harmattan seasons under irrigation at Usman Danfodiyo University, Teaching and Research Fadama Farm at Kwalkwalawa, Sokoto State order to study the effects of fertilizer and period of weed interference on the yield of two varieties of Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). The treatments consisted of four NPK (20:10:10) fertilizer rates (0, 80, 160 and 240 kg/ha), three weeding regimes (0, 4 and 6 WAP) and two potato varieties (BR68-18 and RC 7716-17).
The results showed that fertilizer increased the amount of weed dry matter during the 2002/2003 trial with the highest weed dry matter obtained at 240 kg/ha of N P K. The unweeded (control) treatment gave the highest weed dry matter (1.9 and 3.3 t/ha) compared to weeded treatments at 4 (0.3 and 1.4 t/ha) and 6 (0.6 and 1.8 t/ha) WAP in both trials. Potato canopy height responded to fertilizer in both trials but it was influenced by weeding only during 2002/2003 trial. RC7716-17 produced higher canopy heights of 39.8cm and 35.1cm during the 2001/2002 and 2002/2003 trials compared to BR68-18 (4.7cm and 27.3cm), respectively.

Nigerian Journal of Horticultural Science Vol. 9 2005: 49-54