Muthoni J.¹ , Kabira J.N.¹ , Kipkoech D.¹ , Abong G.O.² , Nderitu J.H.³

1.KARI-National Potato Research Centre-Tigoni. P. O. Box 338 00217 Limuru. Email:kari.tigoni@yahoo.com
2.Department of Food Science, Nutrition and Technology, University of Nairobi. Email:georkoyo@yahoo.com
3.Mount Kenya University.
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Horticulture, 2015, Vol. 5, No. 13   doi: 10.5376/ijh.2015.05.0013
Received: 03 Jun., 2015    Accepted: 05 Aug., 2015    Published: 08 Nov., 2015

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Muthoni J., Kabira J.N., Kipkoech D., Abong G.O., and Nderitu J.H., 2015, Prolonging the shelf-life of seed potato tubers at farm level: Cold storage or Diffused Light Store? International Journal of Horticulture, 2015, Vol.5, No.13 1-4 (doi: 10.5376/ijh.2015.05.0013)

Planting well sprouted potato tubers is key to achieving high yields. In the face of climate change, it is even more important to have well sprouted tubers to ensure a crop matures even when rains are low and erratic. A study was conducted in 2011-2012 at KARI-Tigoni to evaluate the behavior of common Kenyan potato varieties after cold storage (at 40C) and diffused light storage (DLS) for a period of up to eight months. Eight potato varieties commonly grown in Kenya and of different maturity periods were used. Five kilograms of each potato variety was put in the cold store or DLS store for a period of 8 months in 2011. These were replicated three times. After 8 months, data was collected on weight loss and general acceptability of seed tubers. During the long rains season (March-June) 2012, the tubers from the store were planted out at KARI-Tigoni. Data was collected on plant emergence and yields at harvest. All the cold-stored tubers were acceptable after eight months storage; the opposite was true for DLS-stored materials. However, the DLS stored tubers gave high yields than the cold-stored ones.

Cold store; Diffuse light storage; Seed potato tubers