Abstract

Low productivity of potato in Malawi is mainly due to lack of quality seed tuber coupled with the absence of a potato seed certification programme which leads to farmers achieving less than 7 t ha^-1 against potential yield of 40 t ha^-1. With regards to this, an assessment of potato (Solanum tuberosum L) seed tuber production under aeroponics in Malawi was conducted in order to assess aeroponics as a system of producing minitubers in Malawi. In vitro plantlets and apical stem cuttings of three clones (CIP381381.13, CIP381381.20 and CIP395016.6) were used as source material for the aeroponic study in the greenhouse. A two factor factorial experiment arranged in a completely randomised design (CRD) with four replicates was laid out. Data collected included the following: Percentage plants survival to harvest, root length, plant height, number of minitubers per plant, date from transplanting to first tuberisation, number of harvests and tuber weights. Days to first tuberisation from both material sources was observed 28 days after transplanting. The results show that the in vitro plant material source yielded significantly better seed potato tuber numbers per plant (24.3) than apical stem cuttings (3.4) (p<0.05). Among the in vitroclones, CIP 381381.13 gave significantly higher tuber numbers (30.0) per plant as compared to the other clones. This indicates that in vitro plantlets have potential to give a viable material for seed potato tuber production under aeroponics.

Key words: Seed potato, aeroponics, apical stem cuttings, in vitro plantlets, Solanum tuberosum, Malawi.