Response of Potato (Solanum Tuberosum) to Foliar Application of Iron , Manganese, Copper and Zinc

In order to study the influence of foliar application of Zinc , Manganese,Copper and Iron on yield and dry matter percentage of potato crop, an experiment was conducted at AL-Qaam Agriculture research station, AL-Anbar province , Iraq. The experiment was a factorial in randomized complete block design whit four replication in 2011. Treatments were foliar application of micronutrients : control (no foliar application) , half concentration and full concentration . Solutions were sprayed 10 days before flowering , during flowering and 20 days after flowering. Plants were harvested after ripened and plant characteristics including tuber weight, number of tuber per plant, tuber yield, and percent of dry matter, were measured. Results showed that Zn , Mn, Fe and Cu application increased all plant characteristics relating to yield components , yield and dry matter percentage of potato crop. Application of full micronutrients mixture increased yield to 22.89 ton ha-1 which, was 8.74% higher compare with control. However application of half concentration decreased yield of potato tuber to 20.01 ton ha-1. Results of ANOVA showed significant effect of Application date on mean weight of tuber and tuber yield. application of micronutrients mixture during flowering increased tuber yield in compare with application of of micronutrient mixture at 10 days before flowering and 20 days after flowering up to 13.74 and 16.18% ,respectively. The interaction(concentration x application date ) was significant , Foliar application of full concentration during flowering increased number of tuber per plant ,mean weight of tuber ,tuber yield and dry matter percentage . In conclusion, we can improve the yield of tubers by application of micronutrients mixture during flowering.