Abstract
Research was carried out on potato (Solanum tuberosum L., cv. Spunta) growing in the field in the Campania region (southern Italy) in 2007 and 2008, adopting organic farming practices, in order to evaluate the effects of two mulching treatments (black biodegradable film and bare soil) and six plant densities (12.5, 10.0, 8.3, 7.1, 6.2 and, as a control, 5.3 plants per m2) on growth, yield and quality of “new potato” winter-spring and summer-autumn crops. Only in the case of the summer-autumn crop cycle, mulching resulted in a higher yield, plant dry matter and leaf area compared with the bare soil control, while in both crop cycles this latter treatment induced a delay in harvest. The winter-spring cycle gave a higher production of 40-70 mm tubers, while the summer-autumn cycle resulted in a higher vitamin C content. For the winter-spring crop cycle, the plant density of 8.3 plants·m-2 resulted in the highest yield for food-use tubers, whereas the highest production of seed tubers was obtained with a density of 12.5 plants·m-2. The plant density of 8.3 plants·m-2 also resulted in the highest plant dry matter and leaf area. For the summer-autumn crop cycle, the 10 plants·m-2 density gave the highest production of 40-70 mm calibre tubers, as well as the highest plant dry matter and leaf area. In this cycle, the 6.3 plants·m-2 density resulted in the highest production of 70-80 mm calibre tubers. In terms of cost effectiveness, the choice of biodegradable mulching could save the expense of manual weed control and, in the case of the summer-autumn crop cycle, it is also associated with a higher yield. Overall, tuber yield increased with plant density but the final production was also affected by the crop cycle. This may depend on the different environmental conditions and duration which characterized each cultural cycle and, therefore, affected the vegetative development of organic new potatoes.
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Claims 14
Claim · model-written summary
Mulching increased summer-autumn yield versus bare soil.
- Taxon
- potato
Solanum tuberosumt0 - Treatment
- mulchinge0
- Outcome
- yielde0
- Direction
- highere0
- Qualifier
- summer-autumn crop cyclee0
- Comparator
- bare soil controle0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Only in the case of the summer-autumn crop cycle, mulching resulted in a higher yield, plant dry matter and leaf area compared with the bare soil control”
t0“potato”
Claim · model-written summary
Mulching increased summer-autumn plant dry matter and leaf area.
- Taxon
- potatoSolanum tuberosumt0
- Treatment
- mulchinge0
- Outcome
- plant dry matter and leaf areae0
- Direction
- highere0
- Qualifier
- summer-autumn crop cyclee0
- Comparator
- bare soil controle0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Only in the case of the summer-autumn crop cycle, mulching resulted in a higher yield, plant dry matter and leaf area compared with the bare soil control”
t0“potato”
Claim · model-written summary
Bare soil delayed harvest in both crop cycles.
- Taxon
- potatoSolanum tuberosumt0
- Treatment
- bare soil controle0
- Outcome
- harveste0
- Direction
- a delaye0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“bare soil control, while in both crop cycles this latter treatment induced a delay in harvest”
t0“potato”
Claim · model-written summary
Winter-spring crops produced more 40-70 mm tubers.
- Taxon
- potatoSolanum tuberosumt0
- Treatment
- winter-spring cyclee0
- Outcome
- production of 40-70 mm tuberse0
- Direction
- highere0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The winter-spring cycle gave a higher production of 40-70 mm tubers”
t0“potato”
Claim · model-written summary
Summer-autumn crops had higher vitamin C content.
- Taxon
- potatoSolanum tuberosumt0
- Treatment
- summer-autumn cyclee0
- Outcome
- vitamin C contente0
- Direction
- highere0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“the summer-autumn cycle resulted in a higher vitamin C content”
t0“potato”
Claim · model-written summary
At 8.3 plants·m-2, winter-spring food tuber yield was highest.
- Taxon
- potatoSolanum tuberosumt0
- Treatment
- 8.3 plants·m-2e0
- Outcome
- yield for food-use tuberse0
- Direction
- higheste0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“the plant density of 8.3 plants·m-2 resulted in the highest yield for food-use tubers”
t0“potato”
Claim · model-written summary
At 12.5 plants·m-2, winter-spring seed tuber production was highest.
- Taxon
- potatoSolanum tuberosumt0
- Treatment
- 12.5 plants·m-2e0
- Outcome
- production of seed tuberse0
- Direction
- higheste0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“the highest production of seed tubers was obtained with a density of 12.5 plants·m-2”
t0“potato”
Claim · model-written summary
At 8.3 plants·m-2, plant dry matter and leaf area were highest.
- Taxon
- potatoSolanum tuberosumt0
- Treatment
- 8.3 plants·m-2e0
- Outcome
- plant dry matter and leaf areae0
- Direction
- higheste0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The plant density of 8.3 plants·m-2 also resulted in the highest plant dry matter and leaf area”
t0“potato”
Claim · model-written summary
At 10 plants·m-2, summer-autumn 40-70 mm tuber production was highest.
- Taxon
- potatoSolanum tuberosumt0
- Treatment
- 10 plants·m-2e0
- Outcome
- production of 40-70 mm calibre tuberse0
- Direction
- higheste0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“the 10 plants·m-2 density gave the highest production of 40-70 mm calibre tubers”
t0“potato”
Claim · model-written summary
At 10 plants·m-2, summer-autumn plant dry matter and leaf area were highest.
- Taxon
- potatoSolanum tuberosumt0
- Treatment
- 10 plants·m-2e0
- Outcome
- plant dry matter and leaf areae0
- Direction
- higheste0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“the 10 plants·m-2 density gave the highest production of 40-70 mm calibre tubers, as well as the highest plant dry matter and leaf area”
t0“potato”
Claim · model-written summary
At 6.3 plants·m-2, summer-autumn 70-80 mm tuber production was highest.
- Taxon
- potatoSolanum tuberosumt0
- Treatment
- 6.3 plants·m-2e0
- Outcome
- production of 70-80 mm calibre tuberse0
- Direction
- higheste0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“the 6.3 plants·m-2 density resulted in the highest production of 70-80 mm calibre tubers”
t0“potato”
Claim · model-written summary
Biodegradable mulch could save manual weed-control expense.
- Taxon
- potatoSolanum tuberosumt0
- Outcome
- the choice of biodegradable mulching could save the expense of manual weed controle0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“the choice of biodegradable mulching could save the expense of manual weed control”
t0“potato”
Claim · model-written summary
Overall tuber yield increased with plant density.
- Taxon
- potatoSolanum tuberosumt0
- Treatment
- plant densitye0
- Outcome
- tuber yielde0
- Direction
- increasede0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Overall, tuber yield increased with plant density”
t0“potato”
Claim · model-written summary
Final production varied with crop cycle.
- Taxon
- potatoSolanum tuberosumt0
- Treatment
- crop cyclee0
- Outcome
- final productione0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“the final production was also affected by the crop cycle”
t0“potato”
The same questions in other papers
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See all 29 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.