A comparison of the Tuber-Unit and the Tuber-Index methods of potato improvement

Conclusions

Following this method of procedure, 4 Kentucky growers indexed 1,000 tubers each in 1932. Although it is too early to say that “indexing” will supersede “tuber-uniting,” yet several things stand out.

• 1. The cutting and indexing of the tubers is done at a time when there is little other work that may be done,

• 2. The stand in the rows of indexes was full and even this spring because of the good conditions for hand planting.

• 3. “Roguing” of undesirable index hills is not laborious, done with a pencil, and it is complete.

• 4. Selection can be better made in the spring, for characteristics that determine seedstocks desirable to use for the spring crop, the main crop of Kentucky growers.

• 5. Because the remnants may be planted with a planter, even covering and minimum loss of soil moisture are assured, and better stands and better yields result.

• 6. The labor involved in indexing is less than when the tuber-unit method is used, more than offsetting the apparent complications the index method entails. The men who have used the index method feel, as does the writer, that it enables the grower more rapidly to improve his seedstocks, with respect to the running-out diseases. This remains to be proved until seed grown by both methods in 1932 are planted side by side in 1933.