Abstract:
Potato is one of the profitable cash crops in Sri Lanka. Nearly half the cost of cultivation is
accounted for seed tuber. Explore the possibility of using cut tubers, as seed material is an
effective mean to reduce the seed cost. Tuber decay caused by the soil microorganisms is the
major problem in using the cut tubers as planting material. Among the different treatments
carried out to prevent the decay of cut tubers caused by microorganisms Lantana camara leaves
were found to have significant effect in controlling tuber decay, expressed in terms of
germination of cut tubers (P e•0.05). The cut tubers treated with Lantana camara leave
significantly reduced the tuber decay over the rest of the cut tuber treatments. The growth and
development of the plants produced from cut tubers were almost similar to that produced from
whole tubers. The yields produced by plants from whole tubers and cut tubers treated with
Lantana camara leaves did not differ significantly. It has been estimated that the use of cut tubers
as planting material reduced the seed cost by 18.7%.