Effect of Explant Age and Applied IBA on Growth and Rooting of Apical Stem Cuttings of Potato for Early Generation Seed Potato Production

The aim of this work is to study the effect of explant age and exogenously applied IBA on the growth and rooting potential of potato apical stem cuttings for production of first- generation seed potatoes. The experimental protocol consists in taking apical stem cuttings from potato plantlets at different physiological ages (30 and 60 days old) in interaction with the growth regulator indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) at different concentrations (100, 200, and 300 ppm) to study the production of potato minitubers. The results of the present study showed that mini-cuttings from young potato plants (30 days old) have a higher rooting capacity than mini-cuttings from mature plants. In addition, IBA concentrations, especially at 300 ppm, have a significant effect on most of the characteristics studied, e.g. rooting %, root number, root length, shoot length, and number of leaves. Regarding yield attributes, application of IBA at 300ppm gave the highest average tuber number (6.66) and tuber yield (142.97g) was higher in 30days old explant cuttings. The data presented in this study may encourage potato growers to use potato stem cuttings as a new, cheaper method of growing potatoes instead of expensive imported seed tubers. It is suggested that the use of apical stem cuttings can be a quick and effective method for mass propagation and to increase the yield of minitubers in the seed potato production cycle.