Balanced Fertilizer Management Strategy Enhances Potato Yield and Marketing Quality

Optimizing nutrient supply can promote plant growth, minimize production input, and enhance economic returns in crops. Here, we determined the effect of different fertilizer strategies on the tuber yield and economic outcomes in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). Six fertilizer treatments were arranged in a randomized, complete block design at Dingxi Research Station (104°35′ E, 35°36′ N), Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, from 2008 to 2010. Balanced fertilizer strategy (i.e., N, P, and K nutrients were combined in an appropriate ratio) was compared with imbalanced treatments where N, P, or K nutrient was omitted in decrement in the fertilizer strategy. On average, the balanced strategy increased tuber yield by 25% in 2008, 35% in 2009, and 14% in 2010, compared with imbalanced treatments, and 74% in 2008, 81% in 2009, and 33% in 2010, compared with no‐fertilizer control. Among the three nutrient elements, N component contributed an average of 18% of the increased tuber yield, P contributed 14%, and K contributed 13%. The combination of N, P, and K together in a package led to an additional 18% yield increase on the top of the yield contributed individually by each of the three nutrient components. The balanced strategies also led to 11% greater net return than the imbalanced treatments and 29% greater net return compared with the control. The combination of N, P, and K in an appropriate ratio can serve as an effective fertilizer strategy to achieve additional tuber yield, improve marketing quality, and enhance economic returns in potato production. Core Ideas One of the primary objectives in this study was to determine the relative contribution of individual nutrient elements (N, P, or K) to the tuber yield and to quantify whether the combination of the three key nutrients in a package would increase potato tuber yield further. The fertilizer management treatments had a significant effect on the economic outcome each year. Averaged across the study sites, the NPK balanced fertilizer strategy had the highest production cost due to the highest input of fertilizers, but this strategy also led to a 11% greater net return (gross income mines input cost excluding laboring) than the other fertilizer treatments and 29% greater than the zero‐fertilizer control. The mechanism responsible for the additional 18% of the increased tuber yield with the balanced fertilizer strategy was not determined in the present study. However, our data suggest that the combination