Effect of Deficit Irrigation Conditions on Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Cultivars in Ardabil Climatic

Selection of tolerant cultivars to water stress in areas with reduced rainfall is important. A split plot experiment based on a randomized complete block design with three replications was conducted at the Ardabil Agricultural Research Center during 2015-2016. The experiment factors consisted of three irrigation regimes: full irrigation (with 100% water requirement) considered as control and 15 and 30 days irrigation intervals assigned to main plots and five potato cultivars consisted of: 397081-1 and 397082-10 Clones and Agria, Caesar and Savalan cultivars assigned to sub plots. In this experiment, clones 397082-10 and 397081-1 and Savalan cultivar had relative superiority in terms of tuber yield, tuber dry matter, water use efficiency and high marketable tuber yield compared to Caesar and Agria. Also, in both years of experiment, the trend of variation of these cultivars for the studied traits were similar under deficit irrigation interval of 15-days. The results were not significantly different against control treatment. As a result, 15-days interval irrigation can be used to save water in the Ardabil area.