Evaluation of Sweet Potato Germplasm Accessions for High Tuber Yield and Carotene Content

Abstract

The experiment on the evaluation of sweet potato accessions was carried out in Randomized Block Design (RBD) with 73 accessions at Department of Vegetable Crops, Horticultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Coimbatore. The accessions were evaluated (3 seasons) for its growth parameters viz., vein length, flowering habit, tuber length, tuber girth, number of tubers, yield and carotene content. The evaluation was done to screen the accessions/varieties with objectives based on the preference of the farming communit of Tamil Nadu with short duration, medium sized tubers, maximum number of tubers and high tuber yield. The results of the experiments revealed that,the vine length ranged from 92.57 cm (Ib 17) to 317.24 cm (Ib 4); tuber length ranged from 9.61 cm (Ib 9) to 24.74 cm (Ib 63) and tuber girth ranged from 2.43 cm (Ib 41) to 8.43cm (Ib 36). The sweet potato accessions such as Ib 14, Ib 27, Ib 44, Ib 55, Ib 57, Ib 63, Ib 66 and Ib71 showed non-flowering habit. The maximum (5.27) and minimum number of tubers (1.42) was recorded in Ib 19 and Ib 52 respectively. Mean single tuber weight ranged from 54 g (Ib 39) to 142 g (Ib 22). Among the accessions evaluated, CO 5 was excelled with high tuber yield (315.31 kg plant -1) and carotenecontent (20.02 μg/g). However, Ib 72 (white flesh type) has exhibited equally good tuber yield of 315.02 kg/plant