Growth, Quality, and Yield of Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) As Affected by Plastic Mulch and Row Number in Paddy Field in South Korea.

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of plastic film mulch and row configuration on growth, quality, and yield of potato grown at drained paddy field before rice transplanting in South Korea (Gangneung, average sea level 5 m). Mulch treatments were no-mulch (NM), black plastic mulch (BPM), and transparent plastic mulch (TPM). And, seed tubers of four cultivars (‘Superior’, ‘Haryeong’, ‘Goun’, and ‘Atlantic’) were sown at 80 cm ridge spacing for one-row cultivation (OR) and at within-row spacing of 40 cm for two-row cultivation (TR) per bed of the width 80 cm. Both BPM and TPM, in early spring season, showed higher soil temperatures than NM and leaf area index (LAI) in BPM or TPM was also higher than that in NM. TR, at 40 days after sowing (DAS), showed higher LAI than OR, but, after 50 DAS, LAI in OR was higher than that in TR. In specific gravity (SG), there was no difference by mulch or row configuration. Dry matter rate or starch content also showed similar trend to the SG. Meanwhile, the most decayed tubers were shown in NM, but there was no statistical difference between BPM and TPM. Secondary growth phenomenon was not shown in the other cultivars except for ‘Haryeong’. In average tuber weight (ATW), OR was heavier than TR and, in OR, there was no difference between BPM and TPM, while, in TR, ATW of TPM was the heaviest. In marketable tuber rate (MTR), BPM and TPM were higher than NM, while there was no difference between them. Marketable tuber yield (MTY) showed a similar pattern to the MTR, but, in row configuration, MTY of OR was much higher than that of TR.