Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

REALIZATION OF THE BIOLOGICAL POTENTIAL OF POTATO VARIETIES IN THE AGRICULTURAL CONDITIONS OF THE UPPER VOLGA REGION

Z.I. Usanova, M.N. Pavlov, N.S. Chernikova and S.E. Pryadein

Abstract

The paper presents the results of research carried out in 2017-2019 on well-cultivated sod-podzol soil in the Tver region (Russia) to study the reaction of 12 modern potato varieties to changes in agro-climatic conditions in the region when cultivated using environmentally friendly technology with 90 cm spacing. It was found that a fuller realization of the biological potential of the varieties was observed in one year (2019) with increased air temperatures (17.0 ºC) during the “seedling-flowering” period and moderate temperatures (15.0 ºC) during the “flowering-ripening” period. Under these conditions, the varieties Kolomba, Vineta, Skarb, and Lyubava formed programmed yields (30 t/ha) and even higher yields (30.84-37.60 t/ha) due to the high photosynthetic activity. A direct positive dependence was established between the yield capacity and the accumulated temperatures (r = 0.82) and the amount of precipitation (r = 0.84). A negative dependence(r = -0.82) was observed for the average daily temperature during the “flowering-ripening” period. On average for three years, the Colomba, Valiza, and Buren varieties with the yield capacity of 83.6-89.9% of the programmed level, as well as Gala and Valiza (yield capacity of 74.4-77.4% of the programmed level) realized their biological potential most fully.