Study the Effects of Irrigation Regimes on Yield and Some Qualitative Characteristics of Three Cultivars of Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.)

In order to study the effects of irrigation regimes on yield and some qualitative characteristics of three cultivars of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.), an experiment was conducted in 2009 in the research field of the College of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. A factorial experiment was arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Experimental factors were three irrigation regimes including: I1: 100% of water requirement of potato in Mashhad, I2: 70% of water requirement of potato in Mashhad applied before tuber initiation and I3: 70% of water requirement in Mashhad applied at all growth period of potato and the used cultivars were Agria, Almera and Sinora. The results indicated that in all irrigation regimes, Agria was better in tuber yield and number of marketable tuber compared to other cultivars and also had the highest amount of mean marketable weight tuber and starch percentage, whereas Almera had the highest significant dry matter compared to other cultivars. Also with increased in irrigation level, all quantitative and qualitative characteristics except tuber specific gravity weight improved. So concerning to the result of this experiment, with 30% decrease in volume of applied irrigation water before tuber initiation, a fairly significant yield can be expected for Agria compared to other cultivars.