The Effect of Using Legume and Non-Legume Plant Residues as Green Manure on Potato Growth and Yield

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Plant Production and Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran

2 Department of Plant Production and Genetic Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran

3 Department of Plant Production and Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Razi University, Iran

Abstract

In sustainable agriculture, one of the effective strategies to improve potato yield as the fourth most valuable plant in human nutrition is the use of cover crops in crop rotation. This research was conducted to investigate the effect of three cover crop species (clover, vetch and barley) planted as pure and mixed as green manure on growth and yield of potato in the Agricultural Research Farm of Razi University, Kermanshah in the form of a randomized complete block design with three replications. The results showed that in all stages of measurement including vegetative growth (before flowering), tuber formation, tuber filling and maturity potato showed higher plant height, leaf area, leaf dry weight, stem dry weight, the number of main stems and leaf relative water content under green manure treatments compared to control (without cover crops). Moreover, the use of cover crops led to the highest number of potato tubers produced. Cover crops had also a positive effect on the diameter grading of the tubers at the maturity stage, as the highest large tubers (211 per m-2) were observed in the treatment of 40% clover + 40% vetch + 20% barley. Also, under this treatment, potato tuber yield increased by 8 ton ha-1 compared to the control treatment. In general, the results revealed that the use of cover crops as green manures can be a suitable method to improve growth characteristics and yield of potato especially when a mixture of legume and non-legume species are used.

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Iranian Journal of Field Crop Science
Volume 55, Issue 4
December 2024
Pages 131-147

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History

  • Receive Date: 16 April 2024
  • Revise Date: 14 June 2024
  • Accept Date: 16 June 2024
  • Publish Date: 21 December 2024

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