Effect of Planting Date on Growth and Yield of Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) in Semi-arid Tropics of Central India

The present experiment was carried out at the Research Farm of ICAR-Central Potato Research Institute (Regional Station), Gwalior (M.P.) during the Rabi season of 2021-22 to study the influence of planting dates on performance of potato crop. Total seven different planting date as treatments viz., D1- 15/09/2021; D2- 30/09/2021; D3- 15/10/2021; D4- 30/10/2021 (Timely planting); D5- 14/11/2021; D6- 29/11/2021 and D7-14/12/2021 were tested in randomized block design (RBD) with four replications. The potato (cv. Kufri Mohan) was planted with a seed rate of 3.5 t ha-1 and with a spacing of 60 cm x 20 cm. The recommended dose of chemical fertilizers viz., 180:80:120 kg ha-1 N:P2O5:K2O, respectively was applied to the crop. The various growth and yield attributes and yield viz., plant height, number of stem plant-1, haulm yield, tuber yield, biological yield and harvest Index were recorded. The results revealed that the timely planting treatment recorded 18.6-69.0% and 13.1-52.5% higher yield than early and late planting, respectively. Thus, the timely planting of potato (D4) showed significant positive effect on growth and yield of potato crop whereas the early (D2 and D2) and late planting (D6 and D7) treatments showed poor growth and yield performance.