Influence of foliar nutrients on growth and yield of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.)

To promote optimum growth and yield, the potato plant requires a steady stream of the nitrogen along with an adequate supply of phosphorus, potassium and micro nutrients. Hence, the present investigation was undertaken to evaluatetheeffect of foliar nutrients on growth, andyield of potato at Vegetable Research Centre of GBPUA&T, Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) during rabi season of 2017–2018. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design consisting ofeleven treatments with four replications. During the study, various observations in growth attributing character viz. plant height, number of leaves per hill, number of haulms per hill and stem diameter was recorded at dehaulming stage whereas, fresh and dry weight of haulms per hill were recorded at de-haulming stage. The yield and yield attributing character such as grade wise number of tubers, total number of tubers and total weight of tubers per plot and per hectare was recorded at harvesting stage. The findings of present investigation revealed that performance of potato crop was significantly influenced by different foliar application treatments. Among all treatments, 75% N of RDF as basal + 2% foliar spray of 20:20:20 water soluble fertilizer at 30 & 45 DAP (T₁₁) was found best with respect to overall plant growth and yield attributing characters.