Effect of variety and planting method of micro-plants on potato mini-tuber production during off-season in north-western Himalayas.

Keeping in view the huge requirement of quality seed-potatoes an attempt was made to explore the possibility of growing potato mini-tubers using micro-plants during the off-season (mid August _ December) in high hills of north-west India. Four-week old micro-plants of two potato cultivars of hills, viz. Kufri Himalini and Kufri Giriraj were planted in two different methods of planting i.e. flat bed and furrow systems. Both the varieties produced mini-tubers successfully with significant differences in the number of mini-tubers per unit area. Mini-tuber production potentiality was not affected significantly with the method of planting of micro-plants. Numbers of mini-tubers were significantly more in Kufri Himalini (312/m2) than Kufri Giriraj (230/m2) and the respective yields were 3.25 and 2.79 kg/m2.