The assessment of nutrition conditions, yield and the quality of potatoes when applying a new organic and mineral fertilizer

The materials of long-term field experiments to study the effectiveness of the use of a new organic and mineral fertilizer (NOF) of local production for potatoes of Adretta and Aramis varieties were summarized. The assessment of the effect of this fertilizer at different rates and methods of application on leached Chernozem in the conditions of the forest-steppe zone of the Nazarovo district was carried out. Potatoes belong to intensive type of food crops having high agroecological requirements for growing conditions. The assessment of these conditions in the most important phase of vegetation, potato flowering, was given by complex indicators of soil fertility: the content of total moisture, soil reaction, and the availability of basic nutrients. The results of soil diagnostics showed that in fertilized variants, in comparison with the control, the soil moisture in arable and sub-arable layers had been higher due to the moisture-intensive peat and vermiculite in the composition of NOF. On all fertilized variants, a significant shift in the soil reaction in terms of actual and exchange acidity was not recorded, which makes it possible to evaluate positively the new fertilizer containing the components of acidic nature. The assessment of the availability of basic nutrients indicated the optimal conditions for potatoes nutrition when applying NOF, both in terms of the sum of mineral forms of nitrogen (ammonium and nitrate), and of the content of mobile phosphorus and exchangeable potassium. In the years of the research optimal for weather conditions, a higher efficiency of NOF was established, and sufficiently high levels of yield of potatoes of both varieties were obtained. In dry years, low yield levels were typical for potatoes of the variety Adretta in 2016 and the variety Aramis in 2018, both in the control variant and when introducing NOF. In these years, when the rate of fertilizer application increases, toxic effect was manifested due to the increased concentration of soil solution and the negative effect of chlorine, which is part of the NOF. The maximum efficiency was obtained by applying a minimum dose of a new organic and mineral fertilizer during the planting of tubers, as well as during fertilizing and row-to-row processing, depending on the conditions of the year. Potato tubers of the Aramis variety in comparison with the Adretta variety are capable of a stronger accumulation of nitrates. According to the content of nitrates, potato products of both varieties are characterized as environmentally safe in all years of research and all variants.