A Rapid Assessment Technique for the Screening of Sweetpotato for Use in Bioregenerative Life Support Applications 2002-01-2485

Single leaf sweetpotato cuttings were used for rapid screening of a sample population for adaptation to hydroponics. Leaves cut at the union with the stem were planted in channels covered with white plastic. Holes were punctured through the plastic for the leaf petiole to stand in the channels. They grew in an environmental chamber at 28/22° C, 70% relative humidity and 14 hours light regime at 600 μmol m ⁻² s⁻¹/10 hours dark. Five leaves per line were evaluated after 14 days. This technique differentiated the performance of genotypes and showed that there is much variability for the characters measured.