By Umar Nsubuga
Moses Kiptala, a resident of Mengya village, in Kween district, is a famous Irish potato grower, he says the crop needs care and one of them is propagation.
Propagation simply means the breeding of specimens of a plant or animal by natural processes from the parent stock.
He says Irish potato is propagated from seed tubers, these seed tubers must be free of diseases, especially bacterial wilt and viruses; and must have broken its dormancy.
The period taken for the Irish potato to break dormancy is dependent on the variety.
“Tubers which have been stored for so long should not be planted because they have very old sprouts which are weak and result in low vigour plants,” he says.
The best size of tubers for planting would be 40-80gm.
Kiptala says seed tubers should be planted intact without cutting them as this is discouraged as it could lead to the spread of bacterial wilt disease.
Damage on a seed tuber may also cause rotting of the tubers in the field, especially from root rot bacteria.
