Impacts of Potassium, Auxin and Cytokinins on Yield and Quality of Potato cv. Hermes

Abstract

Two field experiments were conducted in the summer seasons of 2020 and 2021 to study the effect of potassium fertilization (0, 40, and 80 Kg K2O fad -1 ), foliar application of NAA (0, 5 and 10 ppm), and CKs as two types (BAP and TDZ at 0, 10 and 20 ppm) on yield and quality of potato tubers c.v. "Hermes". Generally, the examined levels of each studied factor were affected significantly on all yield and tubers quality traits, in both seasons. Also, the best level of each factor was 80 Kg K2O fad -1 , 5 ppm for NAA and 10 ppm TDZ for CKs. According to the first order interaction between the pairs of three main factors, the best treatment combinations were 80 Kg K2O+5 ppm NAA, 80 Kg K2O+10 ppm TDZ, and 5 ppm NAA+ 10 ppm TDZ, in both seasons. Moreover, the second order interaction among the three studied factors was found to affect significantly all the studied characters with superiority of treatment combination of 80 Kg K2O+5 ppm NAA+10 ppm TDZ, in both seasons. The treatment combination of 80 Kg K2O+5 ppm NAA+10 ppm TDZ could be a recommended for increasing potato yield with keeping high quality of potato tubers.