Seed
preparation
Potato
is propagated vegetatively, therefore in common parlance when we say potato seed
it refers to the tubers which are meant for seed purposes.
The use of tubers for seed purposes leads to many special situations in
case of potato as against other crops.
Firstly it increases the cost of cultivation so much so it accounts for
almost 40-50% of the cost of cultivation.
Therefore seed cost is a major factor in potato production and since seed
size and spacing affects the seed rate it has to be judiciously
adopted. Further, the best use of the seed has to be made so as to get high
yield.
In this context scheduling the removal
of seed from cold storesand its handling upto planting, pre sprouting etc
are important.
It is needless to emphasize that only when the seed management is
properly done, the other inputs can show their effect on the yield.
In some areas e.g. Southern hills, western Indo Gangetic plains more than
one crop is raised. In this case produce of the previous crop is used as seed in
the next crop.
In such cases, seed
dormancy has to be accounted for and dormancy breaking becomes
important.
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