Effect of the variety and origin of plants on the production of virus-free potato minitubers in the aeroponic growing system

Abstract

The effects of variety and origin of planting material were examined in the aeroponic growing system. The potato cultivars 'Cleopatra', 'Kennebec' and 'Agria' were used for the experimental purposes, originating both in vitro and from minitubers of the previous season's crops. Plants originating from minitubers were found to be simpler and cheaper to prepare for the aeroponic system of cultivation compared to plants obtained in vitro. The first harvest of the 'Cleopatra' minitubers began 43 days after planting in aeroponics, whereas the harvest of the 'Kennebec' and 'Agria' minitubers occurred 20 days later. The 'Cleopatra' cultivar yielded an average of 14.37 minitubers, followed by the 'Kennebec' cultivar and "Agria" cultivar with 16.91 and 19.43 minitubers on average, respectively. In the 'Cleopatra' and 'Kennebec' cultivars, the plant of the in vitro origin had a significantly larger number of tubers per plant than the plants originating from previous vegetation minitubers. In the 'Agria' cultivar, the in vitro created plants had a larger number of minitubers. The average mass of minitubers of all the cultivars under consideration was significantly higher in the plants originating from minitubers. A successive harvest of minitubers allows them to reach the desired size with dominant minitubers weighing over 8 g, which are considered large.