Evaluation of Growth Parameters and Yield Parameters of Three Cultivars of Potato Grown in Hamelmalo, Eritrea

The experiment was conducted at Hamelmalo Agricultural College farm station from September 2014 to January 2015. The design of the experiment was randomized complete block in triplicate. The growth parameters (plant height, stem number, leaf number at 30 and 60 days after planting) and yield variables were recorded in ton/ha. Among the cultivars; Zafira scored the highest number of plants per plot (32.6 plants/plot) as compared to Picasso (25.53 plants/plot) and Ajiba (22.07 plants/plot). The cultivars Ajiba and Zafira scored the highest vegetative growth. The highest growth and yield parameters were obtained from cultivars Ajiba (29.33 ton/ha) followed by Zafira 27.99 ton/ha) though both cultivars had the highest incidences of blights and collar rot diseases. The correlation analysis indicated there was no significant association among insect pests and yield ha-1. However, the growth parameters showed significant correlations with yield ha-1 at 0.01 level of significance.