Evaluation of Performance of Different Potato Seed Tubers Types Growing in Khartoum State

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted during winter seasons of 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 at the Experimental Farm of the College of Agricultural Studies, Sudan University of Science and Technology at Shambat. The objective was to evaluate the performance of three different types of seed tubers (imported seed class E, first generation produced in Merowi Dam area and farmer’s seed) using seed potato tuber of two varieties ( Bellini and Mondial) for growth and yield. Parameters measured in the experiments included emergence, growth rate during growing season, yield and yield components and percentage incidence of potato leaf roll virus (PLRV) and potato virus Y(PVY) during two season. Farmer seeds and first generation seeds were comparable in days to emergence and were significantly high than imported seed in both seasons. Numbers of stems were not significantly different between treatments in both seasons. For crop cover, all seed types were similar in season one, while farmer seed and first generation seed preformed similarly and were far better than imported seed in season two. In the first season the results showed significant yield differences. The highest yield was obtained by first generation seed while basic seed gave the lowest yield. Local seed tubers (first generation and farmer seed) gave similar yield and were highly better than imported seed in second season. Two important viruses were identified namely PLRV and PVY, using sero-diagnosis Double Antibody Sandwich ELISA test (DAS ELISA test). The incidences of these viruses were in the range of 7.14-28.57% for PLRV and 0.0%-35.7 for PVY. The local multiplied farmer seed tubers showed the highest virus incidence compared to imported seed. First generation seed tuber recorded similar percentage and were better than farmer seed tubers. The lowest virus incidence was encountered by imported tubers