| Abstrakt: |
Potato yield and tuber quality are constrained by water and nutrient deficiencies and often influenced by cold storage. This is commonly resolved with excess usage of chemical fertilizers, which deteriorates soil quality. Profitably interventions to manage water and fertilizers rate are imperative. We aim to investigate the effect of compost combined to decline in NPK fertilizer on potatoes and their pliability to drought stress and cold storage. The two years field experiment (2020–2021; 2021–2022) was conducted in the central of Tunisia with the potato variety Spunta. Treatments included 100% crop reference evapotranspiration (ETc), 75% ETc and 50% ETc, two NPK rates (100% and ½ NPK) and soil compost (0 t and 40 t ha−1). Measures included tubers yield, nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) and potassium (K) contents, antioxidants and antioxidant capacity. Physico-chemical aspects and tuber composition were evaluated at 0 and 60 days of storage at 4 ºC. Data revealed that 75% ETc (entire/½ NPK) + compost treatment enhanced Ferric Reducing/Antioxidant Power (FRAP) and maintained tuber yield and size, dry matter (DM), starch, membrane stability index (MSI), skin thickness (ST), soluble solids content (SSC) and firmness. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that i) cold storage decrease the antioxidant capacity, N and K concentrations, ii) cold stored tubers from compost were less influenced by changes in DM, starch and titratable acidity (TA).The 75% ETc + 100% NPK + compost and 75% ETc + 50% NPK + compost treatments combinations may be recommended for potato production and sustainable agriculture under drought stress. |
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