Effect of Plantlet Age and Different Biological Fertilizers on Mini-Ttuber Production of Three Potato Cultivars in Aeroponic System

This study was performed to investigate the effect of plantlet age and different biological fertilizer on mini-tuber production of three potato cultivars in aeroponic system for achieving the highest mini-tuber number and weight, in Ardabil Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Station. In the first year (2014), 200 plantlets of three commercial potato cultivars; Agria, Caesar and Banba were propagated by single node cutting method, in the laboratory. In the second year (2015), plantlets were planted in a factorial experiment based on completely randomized design with three replications and three factors, in the greenhouse. The first factor included three plantlet ages (30, 40 and 50 days), the second factor was three potato commercial cultivars (Agria, Caesar and Banba) and the third factor was three different biological fertilizers [control, Biofarm and three bacteria combination (Enterobacter cloasse strain Swri1, Azosprillum lipoferum strain of and Sedomonus putida strain 169)]. Analysis of variance showed that the effects of plantlet age and plantlet age × biological fertilizer intraction on lateral stem number per plant, cultivars and cultivars × biological fertilizer intraction on mini-tuber number and weight per plant were significant. The effect of biological fertilizer was significant on mini-tuber number and weight per plant, average mini-tuber weight, plant height and lateral stem number per plant. The application of combination of three bacteria in Banba potato cultivar increased mini-tuber number and weight per plant. The mini-tuber number and weight per plant were 119.8 mini-tubers with 862.9 gram per plant in combination of three bacteria. It was concluded that for increasing the mini-tuber number and weight per plant in potato cultivars, application of combination of three bacteria (Enterobacter cloasse strain swri1, Azosprillum lipoferum strain of and Sedomonus putida strain 169) is recommended.