Preliminary report on the use of spring grown seed for planting the late potato crop on the eastern shore of maryland

Summary

• 1. The treatment of spring-grown Irish Cobbler, Katahdin, Chippewa and Warba potato tubers with sodium thiocyanate solution will shorten the rest period sufficiently so that a marketable crop of potatoes may be obtained on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

• 2. The treated spring-grown seed of the Irish Cobbler will come up approximately two weeks later than seed from the previous year kept in cold storage; whereas the treated seed of the Katahdin and Chippewa varieties will come up approximately one week later. With the Warba variety in a one-year test, results seem to indicate that treated seed and stored seed will emerge at approximately the same time.

• 3. The plants from the treated seed of the Irish Cobbler, Katahdin and Chippewa varieties will come up over a period of one or two weeks and a reduction in stand may be expected. In a one year test with the Warba variety all the plants germinated at the same time and the stand from treated and stored seed was almost the same.

• 4. There seem to be good commercial possibilities with the Warba variety in the production of a late potato crop in Maryland from spring-grown seed by soaking the cut tubers for one hour in a solution of sodium thiocyanate (one pound to twelve gallons of water) immediately before planting.