Potatoes Production Using Different Cultivation Systems on Rooftops

Abstract

Potatoes are one of the main consumption vegetable crops in Egypt. Rooftop potatoes production can make a big difference in increasing the availability of potatoes near consumption centers within cities, which will help bring the price down as a result to cut transportation costs. Rooftop potatoes production may also help support household self-sufficiency; that every family can produce its
vegetable crop needs from their rooftop gardens. In this context, an experiment has been conducted in the rooftop garden of Central Laboratory for Agricultural Climate, Agricultural Research Center, Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, Dokki, Giza, Egypt during two successive seasons of 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 respectively. The experiment aimed to determine the suitable cultivation
system and plant density for producing potatoes on rooftops using substrate mixture consisted of coco peat: perlite: sand (2:2:1 v/v/v). 2 cultivation systems (deep beds “DB” and horizontal bags “HB”) and 3 planting densities (6 plants /m2 “PD-1”, 9 plants /m2 “PD-2” and 12 plants /m2 “PD-3”) have been tested in this experiment. The experiment was arranged in split plot design with three replicates.
The cultivation systems were arranged in the main plots, while planting density was arranged in the sub plots. Results indicated that for the effect of cultivation system deep beds system has proved that it’s more suitable for potatoes production on roof tops than horizontal bags system; plants grown in deep beds system recorded higher values regarding plant height, number of leaves, fresh and dry weights of aerial parts, both yields per plant or m2, average tuber weight and percentages of (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) in leaves. Regarding the effect of plant density, cultivate 6 plants per m2 recorded the highest values comparing to the other tested plant densities in plant height, number of leaves, aerial parts fresh and dry weights, yield per plant, average tuber weight and (nitrogen,
phosphorus, potassium) % in leaves. Nevertheless, even the yield / plant was lower in case of cultivate 9 plants /m2 but the total yield per m2 was higher as affected with the more plants were cultivated in m2.