Effect of different types of sweet potato (Impomea batatas) cultivars on growth performance in woven polypropylene plastic bags

ABSTRACT The sweet potato is one of the exceptionally healthy foods that requires low inputs for production. However, in South Africa the majority of people purchase their staple food, owing to land scarcity. The woven polypropylene plastic bag (WPPB) planting technology, could be a solution for food production in limited spaces. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of different sweet potato cultivars on growth performance using the WPPB technology. Compared to the standard (‘Blesbok') cultivar, all the tested cultivars (‘Bosbok', ‘Bophelo', ‘Mafutha' and ‘Mvuvhelo') had higher chlorophyll content. ‘Bophelo' and ‘Mvuvhelo' obtained thickest (0.40 and 0.45 cm) stem diameters. ‘Mafutha' achieved the highest (64.30 cm) vine length and number of shoots (4.64). Noticeably, ‘Mafutha' produced the highest (4.50) number of flowers compared to the standard. ‘Bophelo' obtained the highest (122 g) dry shoot mass and ‘Bosbok' recorded the highest (11.2) number of enlarged roots (NER). Contrary to that, ‘Mafutha' had the lowest (3.4) NER. In conclusion, ‘Mafutha' performed well in terms of the above-ground plant parameters, whereas ‘Bosbok' was best with regard to the below-ground plant parameters. Therefore, planting ‘Bosbok' and ‘Mafutha’ cultivars in WPPBs achieved the best below and above growth performances, respectively.