Importance of nutrition in potatoes

The application of amino acids when filling potato tubers can influence the improvement of productivity and quality.

The development cycle of potato plants is basically divided into five stages, which include planting, initial growth, tuberization, tuber filling and maturation. At each stage, morphological changes occur, due to specific physiological stimuli, such as different hormonal balances, which are related to genetics and external factors, such as temperature, light, water and nutrients.

Each potato plant cultivar has, in its genetic characteristics, specific nutritional and climatic requirements to achieve their respective productive and qualitative potentials. To achieve these greater potentials, it is necessary to meet each factor of these requirements, which range from choosing a suitable location for planting, such as a place with the ideal altitude, through adequate physical preparation and the choice of healthy seed potatoes with good force. The producer must also pay attention to choosing the appropriate cultivar for the region and planting date, in addition to providing soil previously cultivated with crop rotation plants and/or that has an adequate balance of microbiota, without leaving aside an adequate irrigation supply. And yet, there are two other fundamental factors: the use of balanced nutritional management and good phytosanitary control during the development of the different growth phases of the crop.

With this preparation, the time has come to meet the needs of the potato plant at each phenological stage, providing the best possible condition for it to absorb water and nutrients from the soil in sufficient quantities to efficiently carry out various physiological processes, such as photosynthesis for the generation of carbohydrates. It is the latter that will be used for the physiological maintenance of the leaves or will even help in the formation of new tissues in the aerial part and in filling the tubers.

However, even seeking through cultural management to meet the demands of the need for genetic material, every year, in the different regions of Brazil, there are stressful situations, such as excess or lack of rain, variation in temperature and luminosity, which can provide nutritional imbalance, thus affecting plant development and the formation of potato tubers.

For example, in the tuber filling phase, in which the plants reach maximum vegetative growth and tuber growth and filling are occurring, the plants also reach their maximum point of nutritional demand. So, at this stage, plants become more sensitive to stress, which, depending on their levels, can negatively influence development, leading to possible physiological disorders that can result in variation in size, as well as lower productivity and final quality of the plants. potato tubers.

Therefore, it is essential to provide a better nutritional and physiological balance for plants, so that they can achieve better performance, thus minimizing the effect of environmental stress. In agriculture, there are currently solutions based on amino acids, which, when combined with other nutritional elements, provide an increase in the efficiency of foliar and root absorption of nutrients, helping to maintain physiological levels, reducing stressful conditions and, thus, favoring a better development of potato plants as a whole.

Amino acids, in addition to promoting plant nutrition as nutrient complexing/chelating agents, facilitate absorption via roots and leaves; when they are bioactive, they provide several benefits to the physiology of plants, as they have several functions naturally in plants, as components of proteins, precursors of endogenous plant hormones and in reducing stress factors in cultivation.

Therefore, when growing potatoes, it is always necessary to provide better conditions for the development of the different phenological phases, with emphasis on the formation and filling phase, so that the plants can reach better levels of their productive potential, with better quality and uniformity in the tuber size and, thus, greater final profitability.

 

Marcos Revoredo, Alltech Crop Science, Unesp Jaboticabal