~ 1718 ~ Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2018; SP1: 1718-1721 E-ISSN: 2278-4136 P-ISSN: 2349-8234 JPP 2018; SP1: 1718-1721 Udit Kumar Department of Horticulture, RPCAU, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar, India Girish Chandra Department of Life Science, SGRR University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India Correspondence Udit Kumar Department of Horticulture, RPCAU, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar, India A brief review of potash management in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Udit Kumar and Girish Chandra Abstract Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is an important food and very popular vegetable crop of the world. It is also known as white or Irish potato. It is an annual herbaceous dicotyledonous plant with underground stems that give rise to several tubers. It is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial genus Solanum of the Solanaceae family (also known as the Nightshade family). The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. It has very unique place as far as human diet is concerned. It is important crop of sub-tropical and temperate regions which provides nutrient and sufficient energy for dietary consumption that’s why it is regarded as staple food. As a food, it is one of the cheapest s ources of carbohydrate and avails appreciable amount of vitamins B and C as well as minute quantity of some minerals. It is the world's fourth largest food crop, following rice, wheat, and maize. Keywords: Review, Potash, Potato Introduction Potato originated in the environs of Lake Tritica basin in the Andes of Peru Bolivian region in high mountains of South America of the New World. It was introduced in India in the early part of the 17 th century through British missionaries or the Portuguese traders. It was first mentioned in Terry’s account of a banquet at Ajmer hosted by the Mughal King, Asaph Khan to Sir Thomas Roe in 1615. It was grown in Surat and Karnataka around 1675 and later in the Nilgiri Hills in 1822. It has extensive cultivation in Ireland, Germany, Netherland, France, Spain, Romania, Poland, Russia, China, India, USA, South America, Russia and the European countries. India is the second largest producer of vegetables in world after China. In India, potato is being cultivated on 2.12 million hectare area with a total annual production of 434.17 lakh MT (Anonymous 2016). It is grown in almost all part of India, except Kerala, in diversified agro - climatic conditions. About 90% of the total potato area is located in subtropical plains, 6% in the hills and 4% in the plateau region of peninsular region (Chadha, 2009). It is grown under short day conditions in winter months from October to March in plains and a small area in the hilly regions where it is grown under long day conditions in summers from April to September. Potato is mainly rabi crop and is grown mainly in UP, Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat (Rana, 2008). Today, India is the second largest producer of potato after China, followed by Russian Federation, Ukraine and USA, in the world (FAO, 2013) with a production share of 12.4%. Potato is an integral part of human diet. It produces more protein (524 kg/ha) as compared to wheat (254 kg/ha) (Sazid and Aftab, 2009). Potato tuber contains about 80% water and the rest is dry matter. Starch is the major component of the dry matter accounting for approximately 70% of the total solids. Potato produces more edible energy per unit area and time than wheat, rice and maize (Dutt, 2008). The average raw material composition of a potato tuber is as: dry matter (20%), starch (13-16%), total sugars (0-2%), protein (2%), fibre (0.5%), lipids (0.1%), vitamin A (trace/ 100 g fresh weight), vitamin C (31 mg/ 100 g fresh weight), minerals (trace), ash (1-1.5%), amylose (22-25%) and glycoalkaloids (<1 mg/100 g fresh weight) as an anti- nutritional factor. Due to its high nutritional value and production potential per unit time, it is able to sustain burgeoning population of country and ward off malnutrition and hunger. Potato, because of their high potassium (K) requirement than any other vegetable crop sometimes regarded as an indicator crop for K availability (Ulrich and Ohki, 1966). Potato yield is greatly affected by nutrient availability, that is why research on appropriate fertilizer regimes has received much attention worldwide (Vos, 2009). Al-Moshileh and Errebi (2004) reported that K application rate upto 450 kg ha −1 significantly increased tuber yield over N and P application alone.