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The experiment was conducted at the screen house and experimental field using five sweet potato families with the objectives to investigate the vegetative growth pattern of seedlings developed through open pollination and susceptibility of the leaves of the sweet potato seedlings to major field diseases attacking sweet potato crop in Umudike Southeastern Nigeria. The five sweet potato families were laid out in a randomized complete block design with 20 seedlings per plot and 100 seedlings per block and replicated twice. Data were collected 60 days after being transplanted to the field on: seedling field establishment, vine length, vine diameter, number of the primary and secondary branches, number of leaves and number of seedlings that bloom. Data collection on the incidences and severity of the major pests and diseases of sweet potato were also taken. The result indicated considerable variation in the growth pattern of the sweet potato families evaluated. The families MUSG 0614-22 and MUSG 066-6-15 had high germination percentages of 98.7 and 95.5% respectively than the rest of the families. The variability in growth pattern that existed among the sweet potato seedlings could be utilized in the varied farming systems such as in mix cropping for the erect growing genotypes and spreading genotypes with many branches for sole cropping in suppressing weeds and erosion control in erosion prone areas. Sweet potato seedlings with negative response to sweet potato virus diseases, leaf spot disease and sweet potato leaf blight disease is an indication of resistance to field infestation of major field diseases of sweet potato. Flowering observed in some genotypes could be used for selection of sweet potato plants that has favourable traits whose genes could be used for genetic improvement by breeders.

Keywords: Sweet potato seedlings, open pollination, growth pattern, farming systems, leaf diseases.

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Citation: Nwankwo IIM (2015). Evaluation of sweet potato seedlings for growth pattern and susceptibility to major leaf diseases of sweet potatoes. J. Agric. Crop Res. 3(5): 73-79.