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Plant density

  • Chapter
The Potato Crop

Abstract

Potato seed tubers show a wide variation in size and possess a variable number of growing points (buds) arranged in groups (eyes) over their surface. At the end of dormancy some buds develop into sprouts and after planting a variable proportion of these sprouts develop into main stems. Thus, a potato plant consists of a variable number of stems, the exact number depending upon the size and treatment of the plant’s parent tuber. The individual stems of a plant are wholly dependent upon their parent tuber for growth until emergence and a considerable time may elapse after emergence before the stems become fully independent. Thus, the competitive interference between stems of a potato plant changes considerably with time and this together with the variation in number of stems per plant necessarily results in the effects of plant density being complex. As variation in the number of stems per plant may be associated with variation in their size and performance it is clearly unsatisfactory to assess density in this crop on a simple plants per unit area basis.

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Authors
  1. E. J. Allen
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agriculture and Horticulture, Reading University, UK

    P. M. Harris

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Allen, E.J. (1978). Plant density. In: Harris, P.M. (eds) The Potato Crop. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7210-1_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7210-1_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-412-12830-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-7210-1

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