Establishment of Mass Propagation System of Virus-Free Sweetpotato Plants and Conservation

Sweetpotato fields in Korea are highly infected with virus and virus like diseases that greatly diminish both yield and quality as indicated by field observations and laboratory tests. In order to solve this problem, there is an urgent need to produce and mass propagate virus-free planting materials for distribution to the farmers. These experiments were conducted, firstly, to determine the most appropriate culture media, nutrient solution, and cutting intervals to maintain growth and vigor of tissue cultured plantleta as mother plants for propagation in insect-proof greenhouse. And as a labor saving method, the production efficiency of plug trays for rapid propagation of stem cuttings as a source of planting materials was likewise evaluated. Results showed that plants grown in medium B supplied with 0.5 and 1.0 strength of MS nutrients had high growth rate, and 20-day cutting interval was the best. 72-plug tray was better than 128-plug. Secondly, it was to develop a technique for the production of first-generation seed roots using hydroponics cultivation system. The yield of virus-free plants propagated in the non-insect proof and open-field cultivation was 2,402 kg/10a, 6% higher than those in the insect-proof cultivation, and the rate of virus re-infection was 18% higher compared to 3.3% with insect-proof cultivation. Lastly, it was to investigate the growth performance of virus free plants in farmers' field. Differences were existed in the yield depending on the variety used, but virus free plants showed an increase of $6{\sim}24%$ over virus infected plants.