Effect of Manure, Bio-fertilizer and Mulching on Storage Quality of Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Cv. Kufri Bahar

The experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of manures, bio-fertilizer and mulching on storage quality of potato at CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications. Crop was planted during the second week October in both growing season 2010–11 and 2011–12 to compare two mulches level along with sixteen manures and bio-fertilizer levels. The plot size was 13.30 m². The potato variety Kufri Bahar sprouted tubers with optimum size (35–40 g) treated with bio-fertilizer according to the treatments was planted at 60 cm row to row spacing and 20 cm plant to plant spacing. Result showed that non-mulching treatment significantly reduced the physiological loss (12.56% and 9.74%) and decay loss (25.15% and 13.16%) of tuber over mulching after 60 days of harvesting in both growing seasons respectively. Whereas, after 15 days of harvesting mulching treatment significantly reduced the physiological loss (2.12% and 2.40%) of tubers compared to the non-mulching. Application of vermicompost (6.0 t/ha) with bio-fertilizer recorded lowest physiological (11.67% and 11.19%) and decay loss (22.56% and 11.04%) of tuber in both growing seasons, while maximum physiological (15.09% and 14.38%) and decay loss (28.28% and 16.24%) was observed from bio-fertilizer alone. Sugar content in tuber significantly increased by mulching treatment and for other quality characteristics there was non-significant difference was observed for mulching and manure and bio-fertilizer between among treatments.