Assessment of heat tolerance in potato (Solanum tuberosum ssp.tuberosum) under controlled environmental conditions: the ‘cutting technique’

Summary The ‘cutting technique’ or ‘tuberisation stimulus’ (TS) technique was investigated as a method of identifying heat tolerant clones ofSolanum tuberosum ssp.tuberosum. TS levels were assessed, using leaf cuttings, for 100 experimental clones growing under heat stress in a controlled environment (35/15°C day/night temperatures, 16 h photoperiod). No correlation was found with the tuber yields of these clones when grown in an irrigated trial in Israel. The relationship between TS levels and tuber production was investigated using early and later maturing cultivars grown with and without heat stress. These experiments showed that the cv. Blanka had high TS levels in all environments and high tuber fresh weights when grown under heat stress. However, the correlation between TS levels and tuber fresh weight for all cultivars was weak (r=0.45). The results indicated that this TS technique is unlikely to be an accurate method of screeningtuberosum clones for heat tolerance.