The Business Place Network
SACK POTATO PRODUCTION
Agribusiness Training
1
2.0 POTATO HISTORY
Potato originality came from South America, near lake titicaca on the border of Peru and Bolivia.
• The crop was first cultivated in the mountain zone of Andes.
• The potato where brought to Europe and cultivated there towards the end of 16th
century.
• The potato is estimated to come in Africa towards the end of 16th century.
2.1 History of sack or bag potato production
• Sack potato theory started in the year 2007 on internet and the practical side was done
by a woman in Israel in January 2012 and that moved to Africa in January 2013.
2.2 Introduction to sack potato
• Sack potato production is mainly for urban people or farmers with limited space of land
and it’s a bid to try and utilize the piece of land available on their backyards gardens to
produce double the output at a small space of land
2.3 Advantages of sack potato production
• Close supervision of individual crop.
• Earthling up is easy by just filling the sack, sometimes up to one meter.
• You are able to put manure during sack re-filling.
• Easy monitoring of weeds
• More potato per single tube.
• During harvesting all potato will be harvested unto no cuts and no left over’s.
2.4 Disadvantages of sack potato
• In most cases sack can be used once or twice only
• Top soil can be bought in urban areas
• Labour intensive- no machinery to be used
2.5 PRODUCTION PRACTICE
• Manure produces good results and is a major source of Nutrition.
(a) TYPES OF MANURE RECOMMENDED
• Cow dug
• Humus
• Compost manure
2
(b) SOURCE OF MANURE NOT RECOMMENDED
• Poultry manure (droppings)
• Tobacco residue or dust (care should be taken since tobacco share diseases)
• Fresh cow dung
2.6 FERTILIZERS
(a) Basal
• Compound S or C
• Potato blend fertilizer
• Manure
• Ammonium Nitrate
2.7 APPLICATIONS OF FERTILIZERS
(a) Compound S, C or Potato blend
• 30g to 50grames of fertilizer per single tuber
• It should be applied only once during planting
PLANTING SEED POTATO / SEEDLING IN A SACK
arrange the sack in rows and make sure you have a path for movement and crop scouting
use a garden shovel to press three holes of about 10cm deep in a sack at the centre
place the potato seed in the holes with the sprouts facing upright
cover the seeds leaving the sprouts slightly under Neath the surface to avoid direct heat
from the sun
add the soil in a sack or refill the sack with top soil and manure every week leaving 3to5cm
of the crop out
(B) MANURE
• Mix 50% manure and 50% top soil up to the full sack. With the available of compound or
basal fertilizer will reduce the amount of manure .These should be done also during re-
filling of the bag or sack
(C) MIXTURE OF BASAL FERTILIZER AND MANURE
• Manure, top soil and basal fertilizer should be mixed well before putting into the sack.
• These should take 25% of the sack
• 21/2 shovels of top soil and 21/2 of manure can make that 25% or ¼ of the sack.
• 100 to 150grns of basal fertilizer should be mixed well into manure and top soil before
putting into the sack.
3
(D) DI GROW FERTILIZER
• We can get most of the potato crops nutritional need from DI grow liquid or soluble fertilizers.
Weeks DI Grow D1 Grow
From Germination Green Mis/ 15l Water Red Mls/ 15l Water
1 50 -
2 70 -
3 70 -
4 75 -
5 75 -
6 75 -
7 75 -
8 75 -
9 - 75
10 - 75
11 - 75
12 - 75
13 - 75
14 - 75
15 - 75
16 - 75
N.B
• A knapsack of 15L capacity should be used or a bucket of same capacity
• Upper and lower foliage should be sprayed with fine droplets
• Spray should be done early in the morning g or late in the afternoon when the evaporation
rate is low.
• Make sure there will be no rains 3 hours after spray,15Litres covers from 300- 6000 crops
(100 to 2000 bags/ sacks)
2.8 SEED SPROUTING
(a) Natural sprouting
• For the seed to sprout it needs a warm place and in a room that permit daylight
• We can use small trays or boxes called chitting trays.
• Place the seed in chitting trays and keeping it at a constance temperature of 30-35Oc
• Covering the seed with a sacking or a tarpaulin in moderate sunshine will help to start
sprouting
(B) ARTIFICIAL SPROUTING
• Immersing or dipping the tuber in gibberellic acid for 3-5 minutes and then put them on
chatting trays or on the floor covered by an old blanket or sack underneath will induce
sprouting.
4
3.0 VARIETIES OF POTATOES
TRUE POTATO SEED (TPS) BSS 295,
Large tubers,
Frost resistance.
Longer shelf life,
Good for processing,
BPI- 3-4 month’s maturity
Large tubes
More availability (seed)
PIPENEL
Late maturity
Resistant to draught
Mainly for chips
JUSPER
Resistant to late bright
High yielder
Oval, shallow eyed tuber. New variety
DIAMOND
A short variety 3 months
Mid to high yielder
AMETHYST
Long-season variety requiring 5 months to mature. Heavy yielder, good resistance to late
blight. It has good storage properties and a hard skin.
3.9 SEED PLANTING
• Seed rate is from 1 up to 6 in a single sack.
• Empty sacks of 10kgs, 25kgs, 50kgs, 90kgs, 150kg etc can be used for sack production
• Insert your tubers in the pressed holes of 5 to 10cm deep in your sack
• 3 tubers are recommended in 50kgs and 90kgs sacks.
• Seed should be covered and make sure none of them are out to direct sunlight.
5
4.0 Irrigation of potato
Capacity of soil Soil texture Hot mouth Cool mouth Total water
8% Light 3-4days 5-7days 30mm
12% Medium 5-6days 10-12days 40-45min
15% Heavy 6-7days 12-14days 50-55min
• An edition of 4 to 5 liters per week on every sack
• The first 3 weeks during the hot month may need at list a litter of water a day until the
crop foliage covers up
• Do not splash water into the foliage during watering or irrigating
5.0 CROP PROTECTION
Soil fumigation
• Temick 10G ® (aIdicard)- 1qm per plant station\Nemacure 400 ec (fenamiphos) 2gms per
plant station
NEMAT
• 2mls of mixed nevict per plant station.
2. PEST CONTROL
Pest & disease Area Control
Leafmine Leaves Dynamic, tamaron 600sl
Cutworm Plant stem Carbryl 18 WP Karate
False wire worm Soil Dursban 48ec
Lateblight Leaves Copper oxy, Dithen m4s
Early blight Leaves Copper oxy, Bravo
Potato tuber moth Tubers Chlorpyrifhos (Dursban)
Aphids Leaf Tamaron
N.B: Copper oxy,Dithen m4s should be applied weekly from second week after germination as
a preventative measure for early and late blight
6
6 ) HARVESTING
WHEN the crop is ripe, you can harvest by pouring the soils out and take the tubers .
You can get seeds from EDDA Seed Company through The Business Place Network Zambia
• D1 grow fertilizers
• Potato certified seed
• True potato seed (TPS)
• Seedlings (TPS)
• Gibberellic Acid
Due to the vegetative nature of potato multiplication, seed is usually given a categorization
determined by number of generations from the virus tested seed multiplication.
The categories are:
• Virus Tested Seed
• Foundation Seed
• AAA
• AA
• A
• B
• Table Ware
Seed not having these categorizations is 6th generation or more and is NOT recommended for
planting. The yield potential (production) and growing characteristics such as blight tolerance,
sprouting and emergence in the field diminish with succeeding generations.
