Yield and tuber quality of orange-fleshed sweet potato cultivars under drought stress in greenhouse

Abstract

Water shortage is an environmental stress that affects the growth, quantity and quality of sweet potato production. The study objective was to analyse the effect of drought stress on the quantity and quality of orange-fleshed sweet potato. Field research has been carried out in April to July 2019 in the greenhouse. This research used a randomized block design with two factors, the first factor was sweet potato cultivars (Beta-1 variety, Perbaungan cultivar, Cengkeh Turi cultivar and Tanah Seribu cultivar) and the second factor was drought stress with different watering level namely severe drought (watered until 1 month and until 2 months with 10 days interval, respectively) and control (watered until 4 months with 10 days interval). The results showed that the orange-fleshed sweet potato cultivars produced significantly different average tuber weights, the number of tubers, beta carotene content, starch content and tuber moisture content were not significantly different. Drought stress influences the yield and quality of tubers which causes a very significant decrease in the parameters of number of tuber, tuber weight, beta carotene content, starch content and tuber water content. The higher the level of drought will cause a decrease in the quantity and quality of sweet potato production.