ABSTRACT
Successful commercial uses of plant growth regulators on potatoes have been the inhibition of sprouting, improvement of tuber color of certain red varieties, and increase in tuber numbers. The US potato production is approximately 330 million hundred weight. Potato growers in the northeast production areas use maleic hydrazide (MH) more extensively than in the western production areas. While successful research on the use of alcohol vapors for the control of sprouting and maintenance of tuber quality has been reported in the US, commercial use of the method has not been incorporated into North American potato storage programs. Use of chemical sprout inhibitors allows the potato tubers to be stored at temperatures which retard sugar build-up in tissue, thus, reducing the processing of dark-color potato products. The use of MH as an inhibitor of sprouting in potato tubers was first reported by J. W. Zukel in 1950.
