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Potato production

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ADDITIONAL INFOS

Crop cycle

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Potato (Solanum tuberosum) crop cycle

The crop cycle is very short, three to four months and has 9 main development stages (from planting to haul destruction). The plant is characterized by a shallow root system which must be compensated by good fertilization.


Seed Planting with sprout	Pre-emergence 2 days before emergence	Emergence 70% emergence 20 to 30 days


Full emergence 30 to 40 days	Beginning of tuber formation 50 to 60 days	Mid tuber formation 70 to 90days


Full tuber formation 85 to 120 days	Maturity Senescence 85 to 130 days	Haul destruction 85 to 130 days

Plant description
It is difficult to give a unique description of the potato plant since its characteristics depend on the species and/or varieties. The plant can have up to 10 stems and 7 pairs of leaflets per leaf (one leaflet terminates the leaf). Flowers have various colors (white, purple, pink, blue) and produce seeds mainly used for plant breeding. Tubers are grown from underground stems.

Ecophysiology
The plant has an important response to temperature. The vegetation zero is located at 6°C: potato is thus very sensitive to frost. Tuber formation is best under low temperatures (< 18°C) and short days (12 h) whereas vegetative growth is best when temperatures are high (> 25°C) and days long (between 14 h and 18 h).

If potato can be grown in most soils, capping situations (clay) must be avoided or carefully prepared as they might stop tuber thickening. Much care must be taken with fertilization since the plant is quite sensitive to soil salinity (risk of water uptake decrease).

© ICS 2002 - 2008 Disclaimer	Document created : june 2002 - updated : mars 28, 2008
	Publication director : Jean-François MARTIN - ICS - 61 rue de la Coppinerie - 17220 Bourgneuf - France

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