A Win–Win Situation: Performance and Adaptability of Petite Sweetpotato Production in a Temperate Region

Abstract

New-found interest in sweet potato production in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern U.S. has been steadily increasing in the last several years. Sweet potatoes are usually grown for fresh market use and novel marketing strategies and new consumer niches are providing farmers options of growing new sweet potato varieties with exciting colors and flavor profiles that are adapted to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern U.S. Petite sweet potatoes have gained market attention because they are easier to handle and faster to cook compared to U.S. No. 1 storage roots. The goal of this research was to determine the performance and adaptableness of eight commercial sweet potato varieties and two unreleased accessions for U.S. No.1 and Petite sweet potato production under black plastic mulch tailored for the mild temperate growing conditions of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern U.S. Two in-row spacings (15 cm and 30 cm) and two harvest dates (90 and 120 days after planting, DAP) were evaluated during the 2018 and 2019 growing seasons. Our results showed that the ideal harvest time is at least 120 DAP compared to an early harvest at 90 DAP as there was a 2-fold difference in marketable yield at both 15 and 30 cm in-row spacing with marketable yield between 20 and 54 t ha−1. ‘Averre’ and ‘Beauregard’ produced the highest U.S. No. 1 and Petite yields under both in-row spacing treatments harvested at 120 DAP for both years evaluated, though the general effect of in-row spacing and DAP interaction (separate years) on yield performance was cultivar specific. We also found that growing degree days is a better predictor for harvest than days after planting, with an accumulation of at least ~700 GDD (base temperature 15.5 °C) or ~1300 GDD (base temperature 10 °C) for both U.S. No. 1 and Petite roots. Additional studies are required to identify the stability of cultivars tested and treatments imposed with environmental interactions in this region. In addition, there is an urgency for updated sweet potato management practices exclusively designed for sweet potato varieties for the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern U.S.

Horizontal Planting Orientation Can Improve Yield in Organically Grown Sweetpotato

“…For example, Villordon et al (2009a) used a base temperature of 15.5 C and a ceiling temperature of 32.2 C, and calculated 2600 GDDs. Duque et al (2022) used two models without setting a ceiling temperature. For a base temperature of 15.5 C, they calculated 700 GDDs; for a base temperature of 10 C, they calculated 1300 GDDs.…”

Evaluación agronómica de germoplasma promisorio de batata (Ipomoea batatas) en el departamento del Valle del Cauca, Colombia

“…En algunos casos, la contribución del ambiente a la variación en el rendimiento de la batata es mayor que la del genotipo (Adebola et al, 2013). Sin embargo, la respuesta de los genotipos varía en diferentes ambientes (Grüneberg et al, 2005), igualmente, el rendimiento de raíces tuberosas totales y el rendimiento de raíces tuberosas de primera categoría o comerciales varía según el cultivar entre épocas y distancias de siembra de manera diferente (Duque et al, 2022). En batata se han identificado genotipos con rendimiento estable en diferentes localidades (Abidin et al, 2005), mientras que en otros casos se ha identificado adaptabilidad específica (Manrique y Hermann, 2000).…”

Optimized Design and Experiment of a Self-Covering Furrow Opener for an Automatic Sweet Potato Seedling Transplanting Machine

“…Environmental pollution contributes to global climate change, which significantly affects crop production. Unlike other staple crops such as wheat, corn, and rice, sweet potatoes have strong adaptability and resistance to drought and poor soil conditions [10,11]. Meanwhile, sweet potato is the basic raw material for extracting industrial starch [12].…”