Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is considered an important vegetable crop since it contains
valuable nutrients including dietary fibers, carbohydrates, vitamin C, and essential minerals. The
aim of the study was the investigation of different treatments including vermicompost, NPK
fertilizers and the combination of vermicompost and NPK fertilizers on the potato crop
production. Vermicompost used was from the company of VIORGAN consisted of earthworm
castings and it was applied to the field at the rate of 300 g/m2
. Regarding the NPK fertilizer, it
was set as 12- 12-17 and applied at a rate of 60 g/ m2 another application of half dose of
vermicompost and half dose of fertilizer and finally the control with no treatment applied.
Potatoes was selected from the Spunta variety 28-35 Belgium and they applied at the rate of
200 g/m2
. Soil samples were collected after harvest of each block and they subjected to
physicochemical analysis in terms of pH values, electrical conductivity, total carbon, nitrogen,
micro and macro-nutrients content such as S, Fe, Mn, Mg, Cu, Si, B, CaCO3 etc. The potato yield
and the height of plants as well as the number of shoots of potatoes were also determined.
The combination of vermicompost with the chemical NPK fertilizer enhanced potato production
and promoted growth parameters in potato plants such as the height of the plants. Thee
obtained results confirmed that the vermicompost combined with chemical fertilizer and not
alone can act as activator of plant height and as biofertilizer increasing the crop productivity
since it contains humic substances that can be easily absorbed by the plants. The different
treatments did not significantly affect the concentration of micro- and macro-nutrients of the
soil systems. Potato yield is significantly correlated with the height of plant, the number of
shoots, and the concentration of specific nutrients in soil such as C, S and Fe.
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