Seedling Quality and Yield Performance of Cutting-Derived Sweet Potato Seedlings for Mechanized Transplanting

This study evaluated the seedling quality and yield performance of cutting-derived sweet potato seedlings to support mechanized transplanting.Two-node vine cuttings of the sweet potato cultivar 'Beniharuka' [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.] were prepared from terminal, second, and basal node positions and grown in a greenhouse for 20 or 30 days.In a field performance trial, these treatments were compared with conventional unrooted vine cuttings.Cutting survival rates during the nursery stage ranged from 99-100% across all treatments.After the nursery period, terminal-node cuttings grown for 30 days exhibited the greatest shoot and root lengths among the cutting-derived seedling treatments and, at 120 days after transplanting, showed the highest total yield and storage root weight per plant, with values numerically higher than those of the conventional vine cuttings.Moreover, most cutting-derived seedling treatments, except for 20 days basal cuttings, produced a greater proportion of marketable storage roots than the conventional unrooted vine cuttings.These results indicate that two-node cutting-derived seedlings, particularly terminal cuttings grown for 30 days, can maintain yield and marketable storage root production levels comparable to those from conventional vine transplanting.Therefore, cutting-derived seedlings may serve as suitable transplanting materials for mechanized sweet potato transplanting.