• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.31-37
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• 2010

Two field experiments were carried out in 2002 to evaluate effects of the sizes of tubers produced through a wick-based hydroponics on growth and yield of seed potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L. 'Dejima'). Nine sizes of seed tubers (<1, 1~3, 3~5, 5~7, 7~10, 10~20, 20~30, 30~50, and 50~80 g) were used in spring crop. In fall crop, however, tubers except for the 1 g and 50~80 g wereused with tubers 7 and 15 g produced through aeroponics. Emergence rate greatly increased as tuber size was increased up to 10~20 g and then leveled off in both croppings. The number of days from planting to emergence in spring crop was about 34 days regardless of tuber size, while that in fall crop decreased from 34 to 16 days as tuber size increased from 1~3 to 30~50 g. The number of stems per plant, stem length and diameter, and leaf size tended to increase with tuber size. As the seed tuber size increased up to 10~20 g, the number of tubers per plant, average tuber weight, total and seed tuber yields linearly increased and then slowly increased with seed tuber size. Total and seed potato yields were not significantly different between tubers produced through a wick-based hydroponics and an aeroponics when similar sized tubers were planted in the fall cropping.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.294-298
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• 2009

A glasshous experiment was carried out in 2002 to evaluate growth differences between two wick types, and to determine the optimum number of wicks in a wick-based hydroponics for production of 'Dejima' seed potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.). The six minitubers ($7.0{\pm}0.2g$/tuber) produced through aeroponics were planted in a polystyrene box (51 cm long $\times$ 31 cm wide $\times$ 20 cm high) containing growth medium (perlite+peatmoss 1:2, v/v mixtures). Before the boxes were filled with the medium, 6 wicks per box were vertically and 2 to 10 wicks were horizontally installed, respectively, at the bottom of the boxes through holes. Comparing with 6 vertical wick treatment, 6 horizontal wick treatment increased the number of tubers per plant, but decreased average tuber weight. Yield of tubers greater than 5 g (seed potatoes) was not significantly affected by wick type. As the number of the horizontal wicks per box was increased from 2 to 6, the number of seed potatoes increased from 2.8 to 8.0/plant and then leveled off. Average tuber weight increased with increasing the number of the wicks up to 8 and then leveled off. As the number of the wicks per box was increased from 2 to 6, seed potato yield increased from 1.81 to 6.59 kg/$m^2$ and then slowly increased up to 10 wicks per box, reaching 12.9 kg/$m^2$. The results indicate that installing 8 wicks per box ($0.16m^2$) horizontally for the wick culture system in production of 'Dejima' seed potatoes is beneficial considering seed potato yield, cost of wicks, and convenient filling with medium.