Influence of Colored Plastic Mulches on Growth, Yield and Quality of Colored Potato Cultivars

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to study the performance of colored potato cultivars under different colored plastic mulches at the Horticulture Farm, Department of Horticulture, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, from October 2022 to February 2023. It consisted of two mulch treatments, viz., black polythene mulch and red polythene mulch, and eight colored potato cultivars, viz., BAU Alu-1, BAU Alu-3, BAU Alu-4, BAU Alu-6, BAU Alu-7, AC-10062, BARI Alu-72, BARI Alu-77. The study was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. Colored mulches had a significant influence on growth, yield components, and yield of colored potato varieties. The results revealed that black polythene mulch promoted better growth (plant height, foliage coverage, weight of tubers per hill) and yield performance, producing the tallest plant height (60.91 cm), highest number of leaves per plant (63.36), number of tillers per plant (4.25), leaf area (139.04 cm²), tubers per plant (3.51), and maximum yield (18.97 t/ha). However, red polythene mulch showed slightly lower performance, though it produced a higher dry matter percentage (21.05%) compared to black polythene mulch (20.71%). Significant varietal influences were also observed. BARI Alu-77 gave the tallest plant height (62.78 cm), BAU Alu-4 had the highest number of leaves per plant (68.73), AC-10062 had the highest number of tillers per plant (4.40), and BARI Alu-72 produced the highest yield (26.77 t/ha). The combination of black polythene mulch with BARI Alu-72 resulted in the highest tuber yield (28.83 t/ha), whereas the lowest yield (3.81 t/ha) was recorded from BAU Alu-1 under red polythene mulch. This study concludes that the use of black plastic mulch is economically beneficial, and it improves growth and yield of colored potato cultivars under rainfed conditions.