Managing Sweetpotato Vines for Space Reduction and Root Yield in the Greenhouse: Up, Down, and All around

Sweetpotato (Ipomea batatas (Lam.) L.) is a candidate crop for food production and air revitalization in space life-support systems. A cultivar developed at Tuskegee University (TU-82-155) produces large amounts of edible roots high in antioxidants, and the vines have edible leaves and shoots, reducing the inedible plant waste. Research in the NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training in Advanced Life Support (ALS NSCORT) at Purdue has focused on developing cultural strategies to reduce the amount of bench space occupied by sweetpotato vines without inhibiting root yield. Growing strategies included vine pruning, select defoliation, hanging baskets with cascading growth, upwardly guiding vines, eliminating branching and maintaining single vines in different orientations and trained around mesh forms. Root yields from the various techniques will be discussed. Maintenance of single, unbranched vines that can be trained around conical and cylindrical mesh frames was the most successful strategy for reducing area occupied without reducing edible root yield. Effects of container size and different growth media were compared. Smaller root volumes stimulated root production relative to larger root volumes, and media with high water-holding capability inhibited storage-root growth. This research was supported by NASA: NAG5-12686.