Processing Quality of Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Tubers as Influenced by Soil and Climatic Conditions

In order to examine the difference in processing quality of potato tubers among localities, chemical properties of soils were analyzed and climatic conditions were investigated. Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.) were grown at seven localities of Korea during two years from 1994 to 1995. Soil samples and tubers were obtained from 2 to 3 commercial farms per locality with 10 days interval from 70 days before harvesting. As the result of that, higher correlation in processing quality was found with organic material content among soil conditions. On the climatic conditions, minimum temperature and sunshine hours during the period from 30 to 11 days before harvesting exhibited highly significant negative correlations with all quality parameters except reducing sugar content. Additionally, regression equations based on the observed level of these factors showed the relatively high coefficients of determination for dry matter content and chip color. To produce higher quality potatoes for processing, therefore, climatic conditions such as minimum temperature and sunshine hour and soil condition such as organic matter content have to be considered before the selection of areas or fields.