Rooted Apical Cuttings:
- Apical cuttings are vegetative parts of the potato taken from the top (apex) of a young potato plant grown in a controlled environment like a screen house or greenhouse. They are a game changer in areas where seed potato production is affected by seed degeneration leading to spread of seed-borne pests and pathogens from one season to the other. Example of the pests and pathogens that accumulation and spread include Potato leaf roll virus (PLRV) and bacterial diseases like bacterial wilt.
- Use of apical cuttings is a clean seed system that provides quality, disease-free, and healthy seed potatoes for enhanced potato production. These apical cuttings are usually rooted in soil or other media to grow into new, healthy potato plants that are transplanted in the field after hardening. Once planted in the field, they produce tubers that are classified as the basic seed.
How to produce apical cuttings:
- Tissue culture technique is used to produce clean mother plants (disease-free) in the laboratory from which apical cuttings (young shoots) are clipped, then rooted in trays or soil to produce vigorous seedling-like plants. The rooted cuttings are then transplanted to the field after hardening, where they grow and produce tubers.
Advantages of rooted apical cuttings include:
- Disease-free planting material: Produced through tissue culture, ensuring clean starts.
- Faster multiplication rate: More seeds in less time compared to traditional tubers.
- Increased yields: Healthy plants mean better harvests and consistent quality.
Rooted Apical cuttings at different stages: (a) mother plants in the rooting media, (b) apical cuttings transferred to the trays with rooting media (c) hardened rooted apical cuttings in the screen house (d) transplanted apical cuttings at the space of 75cm x 30cm (e) rooted apical cuttings growing in the field.
