Abstract
Plants of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) were exposed prior to harvest to 1 week of warm-dry, warm-flooded, cold-dry or cold-flooded soil conditions. Roots harvested from the warm-flooded soil showed more rotting during curing than roots from the other treatments, and rotting continued during storage. Roots harvested from the cold-flooded soil rotted to a lesser extent during curing but rotted rapidly during storage. Roots harvested from the cold-dry soil showed no rotting during curing; however after 52 days of storage, the number of roots with rot increased sharply. Root respiration rates from cold-flooded, cold-dry, and warm-flooded soils were not significantly different, but those rates were much higher than the rate in roots from warm-dry soil. ‘Jewel’ had a lower respiration rate than NC 317. The cold treatments stimulated sprouting of sweet potato roots during storage. ‘Caromex’ showed the highest sprouting followed by ‘Jewel’, NC 317, and ‘Centennial’.