The influence of the duration of the storage period of aeroponic minitubers on the growth and development of potato varieties in field conditions

When using minitubers as planting material in seed production, there is a problem of sparseness of seedlings, which is associated with different duration of the storage period of minitubers (since harvesting from an aeroponic installation to the appearance of the first single shoots). The purpose of the research is to establish the influence of the duration of the storage period of aeroponic minitubers on the growth, development and productivity of various potato varieties under field conditions. The research was carried out in 2020-2022 in the conditions of the Novosibirsk region, the soil is leached medium loamy chernozem. The objects of the research are aeroponic minitubers of early-ripening (Yuna, Terra, Legenda) and mid-ripening (Zlatka, Sokur) potato varieties for December, March and April harvesting periods. It was established that the storage period of minitubers of various varieties was 179-184 days when collected from an aeroponic installation in December, 91.7-118.3 days in March, 71.3-99.7 days in April. The use of minitubers as planting material for growing high-quality potato seeds is justified during the December and March harvesting periods. Potato plants from the December planting material had a germination rate of 98.5 %, germinated 20 days earlier, had a larger average leaf area, the initial yield on the first recording date was 2.6 times greater and the final yield was 1.4 times greater than the plants from the March planting material. Minitubers of the December period provided the highest yield (22.8 t/ha) and the yield of seed tubers (76.3 %), with March harvest time the corresponding values were lower by 6.8 t/ha and 15.9 %, with April harvest period – by 15.9 t/ha and 34,0 %. It is not practical to use minitubers of the April harvest time with a storage period of 91.7-118.3 days as planting material, since it is impossible to obtain yield for the most of the studied varieties. The Sokur (mid-ripening) and Terra (early-ripening) varieties showed the highest yields of 20.4 and 19.5 t/ha.