A review on potato microtuber storability and dormancy

Potato microtubers plays important role in seed potato production technology as it has great advantage of storage, transport and mechanization due to their little size and reduced weight. Dormancy in potato microtubers is very important and storage conditions as well as size of microtubers influences the dormancy in microtubers. Increasing size of the micro-tuber resulted in significant increase in the viability and sprouting ability of microtubers with reduced durations of dormancy and weight loss at the end of storage. Small microtubers are more vulnerable to storage damage. The larger microtubers lost moisture content more slowly and retained firmness longer when stored at 40C. Development of dormancy during storage strongly affected by the storage condition especially the temperature regime, the presence of light and the relative humidity. The dormancy duration was linearly and inversely correlated with the length of storage. Storage containers and conditions are also important for microtuber storage. Endogenous hormones ABA, ethylene, cyokinin and gibberllic acid play a significant role in tuber dormancy regulation.Microtubers with thick diameter which have passed more times in dormancy and have better functionality than small microtubers with less time in dormancy. Growth regulators like gibberellic acid, thiourea, gibberllic acid + thiourea, randite and carbon disulphide plays significant role in dormancy breaking of microtubers