Morphophysiological Characteristics Analysis of Tuber from Multiple Sweet Potato Clones (Ipomea batatas Lamb.) with Mulching Application

The purpose of this research was to determine the morphophysiological characteristics of sweet potato tubers. The design used in this research was a Randomized Group Design consisting of the first factor, namely sweet potato clones with different color of tuber flesh (yellow, purple, orange) and the second factor was types of mulching (without mulch, plastic mulch and straw mulch). The results showed that the highest water content was in orange-fleshed sweet potato clones. Tuber flesh hardness in the three types of sweet potato was not significantly different, but the results of the observation showed that the higher the tuber water content the softer the tuber flesh. The highest betacarotene content was found in sweet potato clones with orange-fleshed tuber (845 mg/100 g) and the lowest was in sweet potato clones with purple-fleshed tuber (566 mg/100 g). The highest anthocyanin content was found in sweet potato clones with purple-fleshed tuber (10.46 mg/100 g) and the lowest was in sweet potato clones with yellow-fleshed tuber (3.73 mg/100 g). Mulching application in this study significantly affected the water content and hardness of sweet potato tuber but did not significantly affect the levels of betacarotene and anthocyanin.