EVALUATION OF PRODUCTIVITY AND QUALITY OF PROMISING POTATO VARIETIES OF DOMESTIC SELECTION IN THE CONDITIONS OF THE VOLGOGRAD REGION
According to the research results, varieties with high plasticity and productivity for cultivation in the conditions of the Volgograd region were identified: from early - Zhukovskyy, Udacha; from medium-early - Comandor and Ariel; from medium-ripe - Miraj and Vimpel. Stable indicators for a number of economically valuable traits indicate a high adaptive ability of the studied varieties, which have the maximum effect on yield, resistance to viral, fungal and other diseases. Introduction. Potato is a highly plastic plant and easily adapts to a variety of growing environment conditions. This explains the huge area of its cultivation, a large variety of varieties different in the duration of the growing season, economically useful signs, and resistance to adverse environmental factors. However, for all its versatility, potatoes remain a temperate climate crop. In this regard, agro-ecological testing of promising varieties, as well as the study of their adaptive ability to adverse climatic conditions of the region is an urgent area of research. The purpose of the research is to give a comparative assessment of the adaptability of potato varieties of domestic selection of different ripeness groups according to a set of characteristics for the conditions of the Volgograd region. Object. Potato varieties of domestic selection, early-ripening - Zhukovsky, Udacha, Krepish, Meteor; medium-early - Armada, Komandor, Mechta, Ariel; medium-ripe - Miraj, Krasa Mescheri, Fritella, Favorit, Vimpel. Materials and methods. The research was carried out at the experimental site of the Experimental station « Oroshaemoe» of the Federal State Budget Scientific Institution «All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Irrigated Agriculture», a total of 14 varieties were on agro-ecological testing. The cultivation technology is combed with elements of Dutch, before planting, the soil was treated with a milling cutter with the introduction of fertilizers at a dose of N90P90K30. Planting density is 50-60 thousand tubers / ha according to the scheme 0.70 x 0.25 m. The accounting plot is 4-row. The experiment is based on the method of split plots with a single-tier systematic arrangement of varieties. The plot area is 70 m2 (2.8 m x 25 m), the accounting area is 50 m2. The area of the experiment was 0.3 hectares. During the growing season, phenological observations, dry matter content (by weight method) and starch (by polarimetric method) were carried out. After harvesting, the structure of the crop from one plant was determined (weight, number of tubers under the bush, weight of one tuber, yield from 1 ha), marketability. The studies were carried out at a planting rate of 3000 t/ha. The method of watering is sprinkling with a BAUER machine. The water regime in the studies was maintained by pre-irrigation threshold at the level of 80% - lowest moisture capacity. Results and conclusions. An assessment is given on the adaptability of varieties to natural and climatic conditions, their tolerance is determined by a number of unfavorable factors that have a negative impact on productivity, marketability and quality of tubers. In each group of ripeness, promising varieties with high agro-ecological plasticity and productivity, as well as having high economic, biological and commercial qualities, have been identified. The maximum accumulation of tubers is possible with the intensive development of the aboveground mass on all the studied varieties, this is noted by mid-August, the growth of the tops reached 300-760 gr. Subsequent records carried out at the end of the growing season indicated the cessation of tuber growth due to the death of a significant part of the tops, but the pattern of increasing productivity by varieties remained and amounted to 29.0-15.6%. The earliest harvest was obtained from varieties in a short period forming biomass simultaneously from tops and tubers: Komandor, Udacha, Gulliver, Ariel, Armada, Krasa Mescheri, somewhat later - from smoo