Evaluation of Performance of Different Potato Seed Types Grown in Khartoum State

Abstract

Evaluation ofperformance of differentpotato seed types grown in Khartoum State 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 main objective was toevaluate threedifferent 8 types of seed(imported seed class E, first generation produced in Merowi Dam area and farmer’s seed) usingseed potato tuber varieties( Bellini and Mondial) for growth and yield. The parameters measured in the experiment included emergence, growth estimation during growing season, yield and yield components, dry matter and examine the virus infection during season pressure (PLRV and PVY) percentage. Farmer seed and first generation seed were comparable in days to emergence and were fasterthan imported seed inbothseasons. 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 highly better than imported seed in season two.The results showed significant yield differences.The highest yield was obtained by first generation seed type while the basic seed gave the lowest yield.The local types of seed tubers (first generation and farmer seed) gave similar yields and wereboth better than the imported seed in the second season. Two important viruses were identified as potato leaf roll virus (PLRV) and potato virus Y (PVY), depending on sero-diagnosis using Double Antibody Sandwich Elisa test (DAS Elisa test). Theincidences of these viruses werein the range7.14-28.57%for PLRVand 0.0%-35.7 forPVY. The locally multiplied farmer seedtubers showed the highest virusincidence compared toimported seed.First generation seed tuber recorded similar percentage and were better than farmer seedtubers. The lowest virus incidence was encountered by imported tubers.