Abstract

Possibilities to enhance potato productivity in the Sahel region of Tunisia have been the domain of active investigation during the last several years. Many field experiments were carried out on the potential of using different plating depths to grow profitable potato crops. In the research station of the higher institute of agronomy of Chott-Mariem in the Sahel region of Tunisia, two varieties of potato: Alaska and Safrane, were mechanically planted at two different depths: 10 and 15 cm in a sandy loam soil. After three months of growth, the effect of planting depth was determined using fresh and dry weights of the above and below ground biomass as well as tuber yield. The results showed that in a light textured soil, plants of two potato varieties planted at 15 cm depth outperformed those planted at a 10 cm depth. In addition, for tuber yield, the Alaska variety was more productive than the Safrane variety with increasing yield of tubers than 2% for depths of 15 cm and 11, 9% for depths of 10 cm.

Key words: Potato, planting depth, light soil, agronomic parameters, Tunisia.