Studies of Dormancy Break of some Accessions of Hausa Potato (Solenostemon rotundifolius (Poir) J.K.Morton) in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria

Abstract

An experiment was carried out at Ritdun Integrated farm, Kangang road, off Miango Road, situated at altitude 44 09Ft on latitude 09⁰ 88¹N and longitude 08⁰ 85¹E, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria between the months of February and May 2018 to study the breaking of dormancy of some accessions of  Hausa potato(Solenostemon rotundifolius). The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design consisting of six accessions which were replicated three times and stored at room temperature. The data collected were subjected to analysis of variance and the means were separated using the least significant difference (LSD_0.05). The parameters assessed include: days to the breaking of dormancy, number of sprouted tubers, length of sprouts tuber and weight of whole tubers left after storage.  The results showed that Langtang 2 took the longest number of days (161.00) to break dormancy while Gembu 2 was the earliest to break dormancy (76.67), but the difference was not significant. All the accessions resulted in a significantly higher mean number of sprouted tubers, length of sprouts except at week 14 and mean weight of whole tubers left after storage except at week 4 and 14 which were similar. Generally, there was increased in sprout number and sprout length overtime for all the accessions studied. The weight of the whole tubers left decreases with time throughout the storage period. It can be concluded from this study that   Hausa potato accessions varied in days to break of dormancy, number of sprouts, sprout length and weight of whole tubers left after storage. It is therefore recommended that further study should be carried out to evaluate the break of dormancy in Hausa potato using plant growth regulators.