ANÁLISIS CLÁSICO DEL CRECIMIENTO EN TRES VARIEDADES DE PAPA (Solanum tuberosum L.).

Dry biomass and leaf area growth data were collected every decennial from three potato varieties developed under field conditions at the experimental areas of the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, with the aim of evaluating the behaviour of different growth indexes: Leaf Area Index (LAI), Net Assimilation Rate (NAR), Relative Growth Rate (RGR) and Crop Growth Rate (CGR), as well as Source Power (SP) and Demand Power (DP). Thus, seed tubers imported from Call White, Santana and Spunta varieties were planted in three plots following a sample design during 2010 and 2011. Cultural farming was performed according to the Technical Instructions for potato crop. Samplings to gather primary data started 30 days after planting until harvesting. Every time, 10 plants were randomly sampled per each variety, in order to know by oven drying the amount of dry biomass produced in different organs and to estimate leaf area from linear measurements of leaves as well as using previously obtained regression equations. Mean, maximum and minimum temperatures were recorded along crop cycle. Differences on the indexes evaluated were detected between varieties. Likewise, the influence of temperatures on growth is discussed in general, due to its importance in dry mass production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]