Assessment of soil, yield and yield contributing parameters of potato in legume intercropping and silicon application in Texas, United States
Date
2023-08
Authors
Joshi, Binod
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Abstract
Potatoes account for nearly 15 percent of all vegetable sales in the United States and have a total economic value of approximately $3.91 billion. Unfortunately, potato production and productivity are declining due to increased pests, diseases, and climate change threats. Potatoes are particularly susceptible to damage from moisture and other climate-related factors. Degradation of land and excessive use of chemical fertilizer are two additional contributing factors contributing to the potato production problem. Because of this preexisting issue, the focus of this research was placed on two agricultural methods: the intercropping system and the application of silicon. For this reason, a research experiment was carried out in San Marcos, Texas, with a randomized complete design having six treatments and four replications, namely, sole potato, potato with pea, potato with fava bean, silicon applied potato with pea, potato with silicon, and silicon applied potato with fava bean. The experiment aimed to assess the yield and yield attributing parameters of potatoes in yield and to estimate the correlation among different parameters with yield. The plant height, leaf number, canopy, stem girth, and soil parameters related to yield collected were analyzed using R-studio. The research findings show an increment in yield and yield attributing potato parameters in intercropping compared to control. The average value of soil properties such as pH, organic matter, and soil moisture content did not differ significantly among the different treatment combinations. However, intercropping has a higher mean value of major soil parameters than sole cropping. The findings show that yield positively correlates with yield-attributing parameters like plant height, canopy, leaf number, and aerial stem. The tuber yield was 0.35 and 0.31 pounds per plant in potato-fava bean intercropped with silicon application, which was statistically significant at (p<0.01). Both phases of growth duration showed that intercropped potato and fava bean had a higher and more significant number of tubers per plant compared to sole cropping. The ANOVA results did not show statistically significant differences among different treatment combinations for 50 and 90% germination days. However, the ANOVA results show statistically significant differences among treatment combinations in both growing seasons for tuber yield. The silicon-applied potato fava bean intercrop offers more yield than the control. The harvest index value was found insignificant among different treatment combinations. Additionally, yield attributing parameters show statistically significant differences among treatment combinations such as plant height (p<0.05), leaf number (p<0.05), canopy (p<0.05), aerial branch (p<0.01), and stem girth (p<0.05). Furthermore, the correlation value among different parameters was found to be significant for (plant height-p<0.01, r=0.54, canopy- p<0.01, r=0.60) at 30 days after sowing, (plant height-P<0.01, r=0.44, canopy<0.01, r=0.56) at 45 DAS and (plant height- p<0.05, r=0.51, leaf number(r=0.31, stem girth -p<0.05, r=0.44) at 60DAS. Therefore, the results from the experiment indicate that intercropping has a positive effect compared to sole cropping among yield and yield attributing parameters on potatoes under San Marcos, climatic condition of Texas. However, to validate these findings more research should be conducted on a large scale on a multi-year and multilocation including the benefit-cost ratio of intercropping.
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Keywords
potato, legume, silicon, intercropping, agricultural sciences
Citation
Joshi, B. (2023). Assessment of soil, yield and yield contributing parameters of potato in legume intercropping and silicon application in Texas, United States. (Unpublished thesis). Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.