Effect of soil solarization on true potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) seed germination, seedling growth, weed population and tuber yield

True potato seed of 17 progenies were evaluated during 2002-03 and 2003-04 crop seasons for 12 characters related to seed germination, seedling growth and weed population in nursery beds and tuber yield of transplanted seedlings under non-solarized field conditions. Solarization was found to have beneficial effect on seed germination, seedling growth and yield of transplanted seedlings. Total weeds and major annual weedCornopus didymus were reduced to a great extent due to solarization. However solarization had no effect onCyperus rotundus. Progenies also showed significant differences among themselves for the various characters studied. The progeny x solarization interaction was also significant for all the characters. Yield increase in present study shows that the approach involving raising of seedlings in solarized nursery beds and subsequent transfer of seedlings to non-solarized field would be cost-effective and profitable for raising true seed crop of potato.