The experiments were carried out in the Eerika test site of Rõhu experimental station of Institute of agricultural and environmental sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences in 2012–2016. There were 5 succeeding crops in rotation: red clover, winter wheat, pea, potato and barley undersown with red clover. Four cropping systems were studied. The objective of present research was to investigate the effect of cropping systems on the yield components of potato and on the quality parameters of tubers. Another target was to study the effect of potato cropping systems on the soil nutrient content.
The results of the 5 year study revealed that the cropping systems did not have any significant effect on the formation of potato yield components and the quality parameters of the tubers. It was concluded that soil nutrient content is of vital importance in potato cultivation because the crop harvest leaves the soil depleted of nutrients. By cultivating the potato in an organic field the soil potassium content was decreased by 15%. It was also observed that the content of magnesium was limited after potato harvest. In order to compensate for the nutrient deficiency winter cover crops with high K and Mg binding properties and deep root systems should be used according to the specific cultivation site
