ASHS 2024 Conference

Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) production relies on clonal propagation of either sprouted storage roots grown in plant beds or from cuttings from greenhouse grown plants. In the USA, the Sweetpotato National Clean Plant Network Centers (SP-NCPN) provide virus-free planting stock of important cultivars for sweetpotato growers. However, most of the virus-indexed materials can be rapidly re-infected by one or more viruses within one growing season via insect vectors. Production of enough virus-indexed propagules is a major challenge and annually shortages exist. We have developed a controlled environment agriculture (CEA) technology that provides rapid propagation of virus-indexed propagules from SP-NCPN foundation stocks within 6 – 12 months. From a single virus-indexed in vitro plantlet, 500 rooted plants were obtained in 3 months compared to 3 plants via tissue culture micropropagation. Within 3 months the 500 rooted plants generated about 250,000 plants. Field performance (establishment and yield) of slips and rooted transplants from the CEA technology were compared with traditional plant bed derived slips. No significant differences were detected for establishment and canner and cull yield, whereas differences were found for total, marketable, jumbo, and US no. 1 yield. Our results offer a potential solution for providing growers a readily available source of virus-indexed propagule source that are comparable to field grown slips.