Potash – The Most Important Nutrient for Potato Crop
How is Potash (Potassium, K) found?
Potash is found in brines in dead lakes and seas and beds of solid salts beneath the planet’s surface. These deposits must first be mined and processed before being used as potash fertilizer. Common potassium fertilizers are entirely water soluble and depending on the type of fertilizer used, split into two distinct components, the cation (K+) and the anion (Cl-, SO42- or NO3-).
Forms of Potash:
Potassium Chloride (K+&Cl-)
Potassium Sulphate (K+&SO42-)
Potassium Nitrate (K+&NO3-)
Benefits of Potash in Plants:
While potassium is only moderately active in the soil system, it is highly flexible in the plant system. Potash is necessary for sustaining plant growth and reproduction and is needed by all plants. Potassium (K) deficiency makes plants more susceptible to heat, drought or water stress. Additionally, plants that contain potassium are less resistant to worm attacks, diseases, and pest attacks. The inorganic cation K, which is the most common, activates several important enzymes, including those involved in protein synthesis, sugar transport, N and C metabolism and photosynthesis. K is essential for improving agricultural quality and yield improvement.
Importance of Potash in Potato Crop:
Potassium is the most important nutrient needed for potato crop than any other nutrient, including nitrogen. Potato yield, quality, overall plant health and vigor are all significantly impacted by potash. It controls the amount of water in the plant; crops with insufficient or low potassium levels do not use water effectively. Additionally, plants with enough K levels are better able to deal with water stress during dry spells. The stiffness of the plant cells is maintained in large part by potassium.
The soil type, variety, agro-climatic region and crop sequence all affect how much potassium a crop needs.
Deficiency of Potassium Leads to:
- Low yield & poor marketable quality
- Thin cell wall and weaker stem
- Prone to disease & insect pest
- Less response to nitrogen
- Tuber with low starch
- Susceptible to the adverse effects of drought & frost
Benefits of Potash in Potato Crop:
Potassium is essential for producing high yields of high-quality potatoes because it affects how nutrients and carbohydrates travel from the leaf to the tubers.
- Promotes starch content
- Better taste
- Potassium influences citric acid content and cooking blackening
- Potassium sulfate with magnesium is effective against black spot
Important information: Although there is no such chemical in fertilizers, nor it is absorbed by or found in the plants in such form, the potassium content in fertilizers is expressed as K2O. While fertilizer recommendations are typically expressed as K2O, soil and plant tissue analysis values are typically expressed in terms of %K.