The Effect of Chelated Calcium and Mulches on Some Growth and Yield Characteristics of Potato Plants Grown in Basrha

Abstract An experiment was conducted in the agricultural research station - College of Agriculture - University of Basrah to study the effect of four type of mulching (rice straw (organic), transparent polyethylene, black polyethylene and no mulch) and four concentrations of chelated calcium (0,1.5, 3 and 4.5 m l −1 ) on growth and yields of potato cv. Buren. It was carried out as Split Plot Design by Randomized Complete Block Design (R.C.B.D) with three replications, the least significant difference test (L.S.D) was used to compare the averages at a probability level of 0.05. The results may be summarized as follows: The black polyethylene mulch gave a significant increase in plant height, tuber number, tuber weigh, plant yield (1.283 g), marketable yields (57.41 ton ha −1 ) and total yields (60.22 ton ha −1 ), Spraying potato plants with calcium at 3.0 ml l −1 concentrations increased significantly in main branches, plant height, number of leaves, leaf area, tuber number and total yields (55.77 ton.ha −1 ), 4.5 ml −1 superior in tuber weigh, plant yield (1.188 g), marketable yields (53.88 ton ha −1 ). The interaction between mulching and calcium had a significant increase in all characters in the study.