Effect of Planting Depth and Mulching Materials on Yield and Yield Attributes of Potato in Dadeldhura, Nepal

Abstract

Potato, a staple crop for hill and mountainous region has significant contribution in maintaining food and nutrition security. It alone shares around 2.17% of Gross Domestic Product. With phenomenal climate change, pest and disease are increased, hills are and mountains are getting dried leading to moisture deficit which in turn are decreasing the yield of potato. So, with this existing trouble this study has focused to discover innovation in major two agronomic practices: planting depth and mulching. But, the farmer of Nepal often uses haphazard planting depth and mulching which contribute to the low yield. Thus, in order to study, its effect on planting depth and mulching, a research was conducted in the Dadeldhura district of Nepal in 2019. The research was carried out in factorial 2×3 Randomized Complete Block Design which consist of mulch and unmulched condition as 1 st factor and three different planting depth of (10cm, 15cm and 20cm) as 2 nd factor. So altogether there are six treatments with four replications. Data were collected on growth, tuber yield and quality parameter and analyzed using R-studio software. Regarding 1 st factor, mulched treatment was found significantly superior than un-mulched treatment in case of all yield attributes like plant height, stem number, canopy and leaves number. Total tuber yield was found 3.626 kg/m 2 in mulch treatment which was highly significant (P<0.01). In case of 2 nd factor, tuber planted at a depth of 15cm produced maximum number of aerial stem per plant 5.2 (P<0.001) number of large size tuber per plant 9.025 (P<0.01) and tuber yield 3.82kg/m 2 (P<0.01) as compared to other planting depth of 10cm and 20cm. There was no any significant difference in case of interaction between the two factors. Therefore, it can be concluded from the result that with the use of mulching and planting depth of 15cm all yield attributes and yield of potato was found to be superior under the climatic condition of Dadeldhura, Nepal.