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Yield compensation in gappy potato crops and methods to measure effects of fungi pathogenic on seed tubers
Author(s) -
HIRST J. M.,
HIDE G. A.,
STEDMAN O. J.,
GRIFFITH R. L.
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
annals of applied biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1744-7348
pISSN - 0003-4746
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7348.1973.tb01319.x
Subject(s) - biology , yield (engineering) , crop , agronomy , cropping , horticulture , agriculture , ecology , materials science , metallurgy
SUMMARY Pathogens damage potatoes in so many ways and at so many stages of cropping, transport and storage that it is difficult to estimate their total effect. This paper describes methods used to measure how fungal pathogens affected crop health and yield, and experiments that measured how much the yield lost through gaps was compensated by extra growth of neighbouring plants. Some tubers in stocks were diseased, so healthy controls were not available and contrasts could be made only by selecting grades differing in symptom severity. The differences measured represented only part of the damage because many infections are symptomless, and vigorous plants compensate for the small yields of weak or absent neighbours. Plots gapped randomly to varying degrees at emergence or flowering showed that yields were decreased by 0–332 (± 0–129) % an d“833 (± 0–094) % respectively, for every 1 % of plants removed. When up to 24 % of plants were removed the regression of percentage gaps on yield did not become significantly non‐linear.