Abstract

CASTILLO MATAMOROS, Rolbin; BRENES ANGULO, Arturo; ESKER, Paul  and  GOMEZ-ALPIZAR, Luis. Agronomic evaluation of thirteen genotypes of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.). Agron. Costarricense [online]. 2014, vol.38, n.2, pp.67-81. ISSN 0377-9424.

The goal of this study was to determine the agronomic performance of 13 sweet potato genotypes for their cultivation in Costa Rica. Ten were introduced from North Carolina State University’s Micropropagation and Repository Unit, and were grown for the first time in Costa Rica. Two (Exportación and Zanahoria) were more recent introductions into the country, having been cultivated here for at least 5 years, and the one remaining (Criollo) is the most widely used locally. The field experiment was conducted at the Fabio Baudrit Experiment Station, of the University of Costa Rica, located in Alajuela province. The treatments were laid out in a randomized complete block design, with 13 genotypes and 4 repetitions. The analysis of variance showed significant differences (p=0.0001) among genotypes for all evaluated variables: fresh and dry foliar weight; storage root fresh and dry weight; number of storage roots, storage root weight/plant, dry matter content and yield (t.ha^-1). The root yield of all genotypes evaluated was higher than that of the local variety Criollo (6 t.ha^-1) as well as the national average (5 to 7.8 t.ha^-1), ranging from 12 to 48 t.ha^-1. These results indicate that some varieties are promising for release in Costa Rica, not only because of their good performance in terms of yield, but also due to quality traits such as orange or yellow flesh, associated with high carotene content.

Keywords : Storage root; dry matter content; root yield.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )