The potato minituber production from microtubers in aeroponic culture

Minituber production by traditional method is an expensive procedure due to limited productivity. In order to increase the multiplication rate of seed material in vitro, multiple techniques have been assayed in the last decades. The aeroponic system is a soilless culture system, where roots are kept in a dark environment saturated with aerosol of nutrient solution. Aeroponics technology is potentially efficient for specific potato cultivars. The aim of this study was to investigate the multiplication rate of microtubers of national cultivars in aeroponics while maintaining weekly intervals between harvests. The total number of harvests was 14 to 15 depending on year. The results of the experiments were analysed with ANOVA and means were separated with the Tukey's test at 5% P-value. The most important parameter of minituber production, their number, was on average 32.5-36.0 per plant and 1268-1396 per m(2) depending on cultivar. Number of minitubers was two to three times greater in the case of aeroponic production than by traditional method. A full economic analysis is necessary to prove that this production technique can be put into practice.