Organic Farming and Water Stress of Potatoes: Effects on Yield and its Components and Quality of French Fries

The present study was carried out at the Experimental Farm, University of Sadat City, Egypt for two successive seasons (2013/2014 and 2014/2015). Spastiano as a new Scotch potato cultivar in Egypt was used. The split plots in Complete Randomized BlockDesign (CRBD) was applied. The study aimed to investigate the effect of organic farming using natural spraying foliar ores of (biophertel 10 g/L + Biocide 5 g/L+bentocide 10 g/L) and 500kg/fed soil application with natural elements mixture versus the conventional farming under four levels of water stress (100%, 80%, 60% and 50% of the ETc irrigation requirements) on potato. The significantly highest potato yield, size and number oftubers were figured out at irrigation level 100% ETc byconventional farming during season of 2014. The lowestvalues for the potatoes yield and its components characters were observed at irrigation level 50 % ETc by organic farming. Increase water stress resulted in decline the aforementioned characters during the two seasons. No significant differences could be traced regarding textureand colour of tubers cultivated by organic and conventional farming at 100 % Etc. Slight variation could be observed in terms of gross chemical composition of potato tubers cultivated by conventional and organic farming. No significant effect could be observed neither for type of farming nor water stress on sensorial acceptance of French fries. On the other hand, organic farming of potatoes resulted in lowering the oil retention in French fries.