Quality of potato tubers from cultivar ‘atlantic’ as affected by phosphorus fertilization

Abstract

To evaluate the influence of phosphorus (P) fertilization on the potato tuber quality of the cultivar ‘Atlantic’ experiments were conducted in soils with medium (36 mg dm-3) and high (70 mg dm-3) P availability. The treatments consisted of five P2O5 rates (0, 125, 250, 500, and 1,000 kg ha-1). The experiments were conducted in a randomized block design, with four replications. Only in soil with medium P availability, the phosphorus fertilization decreases protein, but increases starch content of the tubers until rate of 595 kg ha-1 P2O5. Phosphorus fertilization increases the tuber size and marketable yield, but in a more expressive and until higher rates in soil with medium P concentration, in which the influence of tuber size on marketable yield is higher. In two conditions of P availability, the phosphorus fertilization has greater influence on the tuber size and the production ofprocessed material (dry matter yield of tubers) than on the quality characteristics of tubers that influence in the quality frying.