Potato Production

Planting time

Summer crop

• Normally planted in November to mature towards the end of the rainy season.
• Earlier planting leads to high yields but lifting can be difficult.
• Use late blight resistant varieties

First Winter Crop

• Planted from February to April to mature before frost according to area, but later in the lowveld to
take advantage of cooler weather.
• Varieties resistant to Late blight should be grown.
• Supplementary irrigation is essential.

Second Winter Crop

• Planted in late July to early August.

• Use flood irrigation to reduce Late blight.
• Overhead irrigation increase risk of late blight.

Varieties

Montclare
• A very high yielding variety (about 40t/ha), producing medium quality tubers, which tend to be
large and of poor shape with deep eyes.
• It is white skinned and white fleshed, oval to pear shaped.
• It is late maturing variety 17 – 19 weeks and is an uneven sprouter.
• It’s resistant to Early and Late Blight but is susceptible to virus diseases.

BPI
• A medium-early variety, taking 14-15 weeks in the ground.
• White flesh, good oval shape, white hard skin that is smooth with shallow eyes

• High yielding ( about 25t/ha) and excellent quality

• It is fairly resistant to Late blight, susceptible to early blight without protection.
• An even sprouter.

Pimpernel

• The best processing variety in Zimbabwe.

• Late maturing variety 17-19 weeks, medium yield(around 20t/ha).
• Red skinned, yellow fleshed tubers for ‘chip’ trade.
• Tubers are oval, small to medium with deep eyes.
• Keeps well, has good field resistance to Late blight and is fairly tolerant of virus diseases.

•
Inyanga Amethyst

• The most grown variety in Zimbabwe

• Late maturing 17-19 weeks, white purple flowers.
• Tubers are white fleshed flat oval, shallow eyed, white skin with slight russet and quick sprouting.

• Consistently high yielder, both in summer and winter, 35 – 60t/ha.

• Good resistance to Late blight.

Garnet
• Late maturing variety, 17 – 19 weeks
• Tubers are round and medium sized with white skinned and yellow fleshed
• Has high tolerance to late blight
• Has a tendency to form malformed tubers under certain conditions which are not conducive to
the table market but still acceptable to the processing market
• It is a good yielder, 26t/ha and has good crisp qualities

Jasper
• A late maturing variety
• It has some tolerance to late blight and frost.
• Tubers have white flesh and skin which are round to oval with shallow eyes. The skin has some
slight surface roughness but the tubers have a good appearance.
• It is a high yielder, 30t/ha

Diamond
• Medium to late maturing variety
• It combines good tuber distribution and high yields.
• It has moderate field tolerance to late blight but it is susceptible to early blight without protection.

Seed

• Seed is supplied in 30 kg pockets containing sizes from 25 to 56 mm and an average of 400

tubers per pocket

• Grade ‘AA’
Varietal purity:99. 5%
Health :Not more than 0.25% leaf roll or severe mosaic viruses.
​ Not more than 2% visible mild mosaic
​ No bacterial wilt at any growth stage
For farmers doing seed production ​
​
• Grade ‘A’
Varietal purity:99.5%
Health: Not more than 1% leaf roll or severe ​mosaic viruses
​Not more than 2% visible mild mosaic
For farmers producing table potato.
• Grade ‘XX’
As for Grade A, but tubers have been subjected to a limited amount of mechanical damage.
 • Grade AA is available for a limited period (June-July) in any one year, while Grade A is
available throughout the year.
• Newly sprouted seed produce the most vigorous plants and highest yield. Newly sprouted
seed is used when the sprouts are between 5 and 15 mm long.
• Tubers which are firm, disease free, reasonably free of damage and which have strong
sprouts should be selected. Seed is sorted according to size and tubers smaller than 25
mm are discarded.

Seed rate
Summer crop : 70 pockets/ha
Winter crop : 85 pockets/ha

Soils
• Best soils are medium textured sandy or silt loamy soils with good organic matter content
and a pH of between 5.0 and 5.5 (CaCl2).
• Deep plough to 600mm, disc and harrow land to a fine tilth which is necessary for good
tuber development.

Sprouting

• On a commercial scale, seed potatoes are usually unsprouted when obtained. These should
preferably be sprouted under daylight conditions in diffuse light in chitting trays with
protection only from the strongest sun.
• Chitting trays allow for air circulation, they can be stacked to reduce storage space, allow for
easy access of tubers, tubers can be easily exposed to the light, rots can be easily isolated
and also reduce sprout damage during handling as seed will be planted from the trays.
• Chitting tray dimensions: Tray length 75cm
Tray width 60cm
Tray Depth 7cm
Spacer height 6cm

Forced sprouting

o
• Heat: A constant temperature of 30-35 C will initiate sprouting. Merely covering with a tarpaulin
in moderate sunshine will help.
• Gibberellic Acid: Uncut tubers are dipped in a solution of 32ml GA/200litres water. This will
suffice to treat seed enough to plant a hectare. Tubers are dipped for 5 mins. Leave the tubers
to dry in a cool place and plant as soon as first sprouts appear. Sprouts usually appear in 2
weeks.
• NB: An overdose of GA can cause elongated stem growth, reduced root formation and tuber
deformation
• Never store wet tubers as this will create conducive conditions for development of soft rot.
Exterme temperatures will ‘cook’ the tubers and scorch the developing sprouts
• Other force sprouting chemicals are Ethylene, Rindite, Chlorhydrin, Carbon Disulphide and
Thiourea.
• In cases were seed is bought late, employ mini-chitting ,that is, planting the seed as soon as the
eyes open and the developing bud appears.

Spacing

• Tubers are planted in furrows 7-10 cm deep under irrigation.

• Dryland planting may be up to 15 cm deep.
• Interrow spacing is 90 cm and the inrow spacing is 30 cm. .
Planting

• A uniform tilth is required and where flood irrigation is used ridging is essential.
• Where overhead irrigation is used planting is done on flat land and ridging is done later.
• Hand planting is done behind a tractor-drawn ridger, which opens the furrows.
• Tubers are placed in the open furrow and are closed by the soil thrown during the following pass.

Fertilisation

• Compound C (5:22:18) 1300-2100 kg/ha.

• Comp C application according to nutrient status of soil : Good soil 1500kg/ha Medium 1850kg/ha
Poor 2050kg/ha. Soil testing is recommended.
• 100-150 kg/ha ammonium nitrate, top dressing 2-3 weeks after emergence or when plants are
20cm.
• The top dressing should be applied between rows or per plant before the final earthing up
(banding or placement respectively). Broadcasting is usually done when the nutrient status of the
soil is good.

CCultivation
u • Sensitive to root damage
l • Ridging up is essential to ensure tubers are well covered and
t protected from greening and tuber moth.
i • Re-ridging should be complete by the time the plant is 25cm
v high
a
• Wide flat topped ridges are the most satisfactory .
t
• The ridges should be made as low as is consistent with good
i
ocoverage for the tubers and for efficient flood irrigation.
• High steep ridges are subject to greater erosion and more rapid
n
drying due to the greater surface area exposed to the sun.

Irrigation

• Irrigate to a depth of 600 mm at planting.

• No further irrigation is done during emergence.
• Watered regularly from flower buds appearance until maturity.
• Excessive watering leads to undue leaching of nutrients and reduces the keeping quality of
potatoes.

Irrigation guide .

Soil Type Hot Months Cold Months Irrigation

required
Light soils 3-4 days 5-7 days 25-30 mm

Medium 5 - 6 days 10 - 12 days 40-45 mm

soils
Heavy soils 6 – 7 days 12 - 14 days 50 - 55 mm
Weed Control

• The first 4-6 weeks after the shoots emerge are the most critical for weed control..
• Earthing up by ridging is necessary to protect the tubers from greening, tuber-moth and Late
blight and should planned so as to be an integral part of weed control
• Herbicides that can be used are Topogard, Dual, Sencor, MCPA and 2-4D.

Pests of Potatoes

Pest Symptom Control Comment

Root-knot .Swellings, Rotate with nematode resistant
nematode called galls, on grass leys of Emerlo love grass,
(melodoygene roots Katambora and Sabi paniocum
javanica spp. grass. Curaterr 10G 200g/100m

Potato Tuber Tunnels Clean fields by removing all potatoes Do not ridge before
Moth between the after harvesting. spraying since
lower and upper Weed off alternative host like (apple pesticide will not
leaf surface, of peru) Nicandra physalis reach covered
stems tuber. Ridge up tubers to bury them with leaves.
250mm soil Azodrin 40 155ml/100L
water carbofuran 20kg/ha
Dursban 4E 500ml/ha in 100L/water
Carbaryl/85 WP 200g/100
Aphids Wilting, Diazinonn 200g/100L Full cover spray.
Transmit premature
necrotic virus Y senescence Marshal 25 EC 400m/100L water Full Cover spray
, and Virus Y Dimethoate
Cutworms Chew through Monocrotophos 215ml/100
stems at ground chlopyrifos. 1.1 L/ha
level

Red spider mite Fine webbing Dimethoate 40EC Repeat as necessary.

on under 800-10000ml in 100L Water.
surface of
leaves causing
silvering and
mottling of the
leaves.

Disease

Disease Symptom Control Comments

Late blight Small brown lesions with pale Fungicide, sprays Start spraying before
phytophtora green border which rapidly necessary disease appears and
infectans coalesce to form black water especially in repeat weekly.
soaked areas. In severe February- March.
 conditions all foliage destroyed
within 5 days of onset. On tubers Captan WP
seen as rosy red necrosis of 200g/100L water
margin tissue.
Early Blight Target spots, roughly circular dark Mancozeb 1.7- Most fungicides that
(Alternaria solan) brown with concentric markings. 3.3kg/ha control late blight also
control early blight.
Bacterial Wilt Wilting of foliage Use certified seed
Psudomonas Brown discolouration of vuscular and crop disease
Solanacearum. tissue and white bacterial ooze free hand.
out of cuts across stems or
tubers.
Viral diseases Control vectors – aphids
Leaf drop streak – Use of certified seed in aphid
Virus Y free areas.
Mosaic–Potato
Virus X

Physiological disorders
Black heart - Black centre caused by storage at high
temperatures
Hollow heart – Irregular cavities caused by rapid or
irregular growth
Internal Browning – Occurs on fertile soils which are acid
and phosphate deficient.

Harvesting

• At about 90 – 100 days from planting.

• Harvesting is done when 95% of the leaves have died off.
• When chemical haulm destruction has occurred lifting should be completed inside 10 days to
avoid attack by Black scurf (Rhizoctonia)
• Harvesting begins when the potato skin has hardened sufficiently to reduce physical damage
during lifting.
• The highest yields are obtained when the tubers are harvested 12-15 days after 95% of the
leaves have died off under conditions of overcast cool weather.
• In hot dry conditions the tubers should be moved to a sheltered place immediately after
harvesting to avoid a reduction in the keeping quality.
• Wash very muddy potatoes only. These should be left to drain and dry before storage
• After picking, store potatoes in small heaps in the shade for a week to allow for curing thereafter
grade and transport to the market.
.

Yields
Yield of up to 40t/ha can be obtained
Average summer yield is 17-20 t/ha
Winter crop 24-27 t/ha.
However yields of 60t/ha are possible
Storage
o o
• Between 3 C and 5 C, potatoes will only start sprouting after 8-12 months.
• Clean pest free tubers should be dressed with 1% Malathion dust at a rate od 25g/10kg and
stored in a clean room that has been treated with a suitable insecticide like Malathion 25WP,
250gin 5litres water/100m2 of surface.
• Where rotting has been experienced spray with 2% formaldehyde or 2% Copper Sulphate a few
days before the insecticide is sprayed.
• Wash very muddy potatoes only
• Store potatoes under dark, cool, humid and well ventilated stores.

AGRITEX HORTICULTURE BRANCH 2011 ​Page 5