Role of cultivation conditions in potato sloughing as indicated by CPEM method

The new CPEM (cooked potato effective mass) method was used to study the sloughing of a potato variety grown in two successive years in six regimes given by different levels and forms of fertilisation and irrigation. The sloughing process is characterized by the cooking time, i.e. the starting point of disintegration, and by the speed of disintegration. Both parameters are also evaluated in dependence on tuber density in linear models of cooking and disintegration stages. Effects of different cultivation regimes were observed in both stages. The sloughing sensitivity to tuber density expressed via the cooking time seemed to be a relatively stable variety parameter independent of growing conditions. The fertilisation reduced the level of sloughing, i.e. higher cooking time values (P < 0.0023), and at the same time lower disintegration rates (P < 0.006) were indicated for fertilised tubers. No influence of irrigation was observed in our study.