Potato seed tubers in Brazil are commercialized in different sizes as determined by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply. The sizes are classified in types, which vary from type 0 (zero), tubers above 60 mm, up to type V, tubers below 23 mm. In this work, we evaluated the influence of seed tuber size on the incidence of bacterial wilt on cultivars Agata, BRS Ana, Asterix, and Bintje, grown in a field naturally infested with Ralstonia solanacearum, in Brasilia, Brazil. We used small, medium and large tubers, measuring in average 30, 50 and 90 mm, which correspond respectively to types IV, II and 0 according to the Brazilian legislation. Significant differences in bacterial wilt incidences were detected among cultivars: BRS Ana and Asterix did not differ from each other and were more resistant than Agata and Bintje, which formed a statistically homogeneous pair. Differences on the seed tuber size and interactions between cultivars and tuber size were not significant. Therefore, the seed tuber size, within the limits covered in this paper, have no effect on disease incidence in field screening for potato resistance to the bacterial wilt.
Solanum tuberosum; Ralstonia solanacearum; seed potato; brown rot
