RESPONSE OF DIFFERENT CULTIVARS OF POTATO TO FOLIAR SPRAY WITH BORON AND BIO-STIMULANTS

In Egypt, enhancing the yield and improving the quality of potato is a great important target nowadays due to overpopulation. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is evaluating the influence of three levels of boron (0.00, 150 and 200 mg L-1) in the form of H3BO3 (17% B) and two bio-stimulants applications (i.e. yeast and seaweeds extracts) on performance of three potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) cultivars namely Lady Rosetta, Spunta and Diamond. Material and methods: a field trial was carried out under sandy soil conditions in Egypt. The three potato cultivars were planted during two seasons (2017/2018 and 2018/2019) on 15th of November under a split-split-plots design with three replicates. Chemical constituents in leaves i.e. N and B and photosynthetic pigments i.e. total chlorophyll and carotene were measured. Also, quality parameters of tubers i.e. starch, TSS and V.C and yield as metric ton fed-1 were determined. Results: The cultivar Spunta gives higher response in all studied parameters followed by Diamond and lately Lady Rosetta. Also, all studied cultivars of potato significantly respond to foliar spraying with boron, where the values significantly increase with increasing B level from 00.0 mgL-1 to 150.0 mgL-1 and then significantly decrease at 200 mgL-1. Regarding the both investigated bio-stimulants,' yeast extract ' is the best one for all studied potato cultivars, while the seaweeds extract comes in the second-order. Conclusion: Boron is beneficial for potato plants at low concentration only. Also, yeast and seaweeds extracts could find a place in vegetables crop fertilization management program.