Abstract
Three potato cultivars, Kufri Badshah, Kufri Chandramukhi, and Kufri Jyoti were grown in low potassium (K) soil with and without K in a pot experiment to test their K uptake efficiency. Two harvests were taken to obtain final dry matter accumulation (DMA) rates of shoot and root growth and K uptake per unit root (K-influx). Relative DMA without K (expressed as percent of DMA with K) was 66, 75, and 90% for Kufri Badshah, Kufri Jyoti, and Kufri Chandramukhi, respectively, showing that Kufri Chandramukhi had a higher K uptake efficiency than other cultivars. High K uptake efficiency of Kufri Chandramukhi was due to its high K-influx while low K uptake efficiency of Kufri Badshah and Kufri Jyoti was due to low K-influx which nullified the effect of their high root-shoot (DMA) ratio. The potassium efficient cultivar, Kufri Chandramukhi, utilized more K from non-exchangeable soil source (46%) than Kufri Jyoti (25%) or Kufri Badshah (17%).
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Mr. A. K. Sharma and Mr. Raj Kumar, Technical Officers, for their help in the chemical and statistical analysis.