Evaluation of the reaction of potato varieties to foliar fertilizing with KJ

The paper presents the results of 3-year experimental studies on the effect of foliar treatment with potassium iodide (KJ) on the productivity and quality of potato varieties of different ripening periods. Analysis of the results of the experiment on the productivity of different varieties depending on the number of foliar fertilizing showed that at 95.0 % probability the response of the studied potato varieties to foliar fertilizing with iodine is different. On average, over three years, early maturing varieties (Udacha and Red Scarlett) turned out to be the most responsive to the use of KJ, providing a yield increase of 8.0–17.0 % with two-fold treatment with potassium iodide. It was found that the yield and quality of the studied varieties were affected by the amount of precipitation, primarily during and after the period of potassium iodide treatments. Heavy precipitation during this period increased iodine migration and reduced the effect of foliar treatments with KJ. The maximum effect of KJ was obtained in a fairly favorable and less humid 2020 (HTI 1.1). The effect of foliar fertilizing with potassium iodide on the iodine content in potato tubers turned out to be dependent on the number of treatments and fluctuated over the years of research in the studied varieties from 0.170–0.223 to 0.508–0.587 mg/kg. With a high confidence level (P = 0.95), it can be argued that the Red Scarlett variety exhibits an individual behavior in iodine absorption in relation to other evaluated varieties. An analysis of the results on the productivity of different varieties depending on the number of foliar treatments showed that, against the background of a relative experimental error in the range from 5.2 to 8.6 %, the calculated indicator characterizes a high degree of reliability of the results obtained.