“…In addition, HS can improve the moisture retention in sandy soils (Selim et al, 2009). In plants, HS has an effect similar to that of auxin hormone, with improvements of the root system development (Canellas et al, 2002;Zandonadi et al, 2007) and activation of proton pump ATPases present in the cell membrane (Canellas et al, 2002;Mora et al, 2010), which results in an increased nutrient uptake (Eyheraguibel et al, 2008;Baldotto et al, 2009) and plant biomass production (Abu-Zinada & Sekh-Eleid, 2015). Specifically for potato cultivation, the use of HS associated, or not, with mineral fertilizer has resulted in increased vegetative growth, plant height, leaf area, and DM production (Abu-Zinada & Sekh-Eleid, 2015), increased wateruse efficiency, and specific gravity and starch content in tubers (Alenazi et al, 2016), and promoted the increase of potato tuber yield (Sanli et al, 2013;Alenazi et al, 2016).…”