1208 



EARLE V. HARDENBURG 



SUN-SPROUTING OF SEED 



The practice of sun-sprouting seed is one which, tho recommended for 

 many years by experiment stations, has been very little practiced by 

 potato growers. It requires the bringing of the seed stock from dark 

 cellars into a place of moderate light and higher temperatures for a period 

 of from four to six weeks prior to planting. The main objects are to 

 improve the stands and increase the yields by (1) the development of 

 short, thick, green sprouts on which tuber-bearing rhizomes develop close 

 together, (2) the opportunity to rogue diseased and otherwise inferior 

 seed, and (3) increasing the earliness thru the starting of healthy growth 

 before planting. Flagg, Towar, and Tucker (1896), in Rhode Island, 

 using duplicate plots and harvesting at two different dates, obtained 

 increased yields from sprouted seed ranging from 32 to 54 bushels per 

 acre. Fraser (1912) sun-sprouted seed of the varieties Sir Walter Raleigh 

 and Carman No. 3 for thirty-six days prior to planting, and obtained 

 increases in yield ranging from 0.9 to 73.7 per cent. Hutcheson and 

 Wolfe (1917), in a two-years comparison, obtained a difference in market- 

 able yield of about 8 bushels per acre in favor of sun-sprouted seed. 



The extent to which sun-sprouting is practiced in the areas surveyed is 

 shown in table 44. Altho earliness is much desired by Long Island growers, 



TABLE 44. GROWERS WHO SUN-SPROUTED THEIR SEED IN THE FOUR REGIONS SURVEYED 



no one was found who sun-sprouted seed for the 1912 crop. Much care is 

 used in choosing seed at the time of its purchase in the North. The several 

 days required for cutting the large amount of seed handled by the average 

 grower in this region affords some opportunity for sprout development 

 in the meantime. Furthermore, since nearly all of the Long Island crop 

 is planted by machine, care would be necessary that none of the sprouts 

 so formed would be knocked off in going thru the planter. 



The 4 per cent of growers practicing sun-sprouting in Steuben, County 

 in 1912 furnishes too small a number to study the influence of sun-sprouting 

 on yield in this region. 



The influence of sun-sprouting on yield in Monroe County in 1913 is 

 shown in table 45. The difference of about 8 bushels per acre in favor of 



