Co-Authors:
Harvey, B.M.R., Department of Agricultural Botany, The Queen's University of Belfast, Newforge Lane, Belfast, BT9 5PX, United Kingdom
Lee, H.C., Northern Ireland Horticultural and Plant Breeding Station, Loughgall, Co. Armagh, United Kingdom
Susnoschi, M., Division of Vegetable Crops, Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, Israel
Abstract:
The 'cutting technique' or 'tuberisation stimulus' (TS) technique was investigated as a method of identifying heat tolerant clones of Solanum tuberosum ssp. tuberosum. TS levels were assessed, using leaf cuttings, for 100 experimental clones growing under heat stress in a controlled environment (35/15°C day/night temperatures, 16 h photoperiod). No correlation was found with the tuber yields of these clones when grown in an irrigated trial in Israel. The relationship between TS levels and tuber production was investigated using early and later maturing cultivars grown with and without heat stress. These experiments showed that the cv. Blanka had high TS levels in all environments and high tuber fresh weights when grown under heat stress. However, the correlation between TS levels and tuber fresh weight for all cultivars was weak (r=0.45). The results indicated that this TS technique is unlikely to be an accurate method of screening tuberosum clones for heat tolerance. © 1988 Kluwer Academic Publishers.