Abstract
Abstract Sufficient sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) pre-basic seed at the start of the “seed” value chain is critical and often a bottleneck in the production of sweetpotato in Sub-Saharan Africa. Predominantly, pre-basic seed is multiplied in screenhouse using the conventional soil substrate method which is costly, is untenable, and achieves sub-optimal yields. The sandponics system is a better alternative for sweetpotato pre-basic seed multiplication in the screenhouse attributed to increased yields and cost-effectiveness. This experiment compared sweetpotato yield- and growth-related traits of planting materials sourced from the sandponics system with conventional soil substrate planting materials for four genotypes when grown in the field. A randomized complete block design was used with three replicates. Results showed a significant difference (p ≤ 0.05) between sources of planting materials and among genotypes for the measured traits. The interaction of source of planting materials and genotype was significant (p ≤ 0.05) for harvest index. Vine survival, storage root yield, number of storage roots per plant, and vine yield were higher by 4.1%, 24%, 27%, and 24%, respectively, in favor of planting materials sourced from the sandponics system. Sandponically multiplied planting materials showed superior performance for yield and most of the measured growth-related traits to planting materials multiplied by the conventional soil substrate method.
Highlights
Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) has several advantages that give it an important role in combating hunger and malnutrition (Woolfe 1992; Namanda 2012)
The superior field performance of planting materials sourced from the sandponics system compared to the conventional soil substrate planting materials considering vine survival, total storage root yield, number of storage roots per plant, and vine yield could be attributed to the higher residual nutrients in planting materials multiplied by the sandponics system as reported by Makokha et al (2020)
This indicates that field establishment and growth of plants benefit from the residual effects of the system used for the multiplication of planting materials
Summary
Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) has several advantages that give it an important role in combating hunger and malnutrition (Woolfe 1992; Namanda 2012). Yield potential of sandponically produced sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) 237 quality planting materials of improved genotypes, farmers opt to source seed from their own fields, neighbors, or friends. This practice contributes to buildup of pests and diseases and accounts for the low storage root yield in SSA countries (McEwan 2016), which is below 10 t ha−1 (FAOSTAT 2017). Findings from research have shown that the sandponics system is a better alternative to the conventional soil substrate method for pre-basic seed multiplication in the screenhouses This method involves the use of sterilized sand media with a fertigation system to multiply sweetpotato planting materials. This study was designed to investigate the effect of methods of multiplying planting materials (sandponics system and conventional soil substrate method) and genotype on sweetpotato yield and growth-related traits when grown in the field
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