Can cracked sweet potatoes be used as seed potatoes? How to choose sweet potato seed potatoes?

Sweet potatoes are the rhizomes of plants. Farmers who grow sweet potatoes will pick out some of the smaller ones that are not of good quality when digging them up, and reserve some for the next year's planting. These are called seed potatoes. So are cracked sweet potatoes suitable as seed potatoes? What kind of sweet potatoes can be used as seed potatoes?

Can cracked sweet potatoes be used as seed potatoes?

There are two types of sweet potato cracking: physiological cracking and pathological cracking. Sweet potato cracking caused by physiological reasons such as climate, fertilizer, water, soil, and variety is not hereditary or infectious. Sweet potatoes with slight cracking can be used as seed potatoes. Sweet potatoes cracking caused by sweet potato stem nematodes must never be used as seed potatoes to prevent the spread of sweet potato stem nematode disease due to insects and eggs carried by potato vines.

When choosing seed potatoes, it is best to select sweet potatoes with a regular and slender shape, smooth skin, no pests or diseases, no mechanical damage, and uniform size. Such seed potatoes will produce uniform, numerous and strong seedlings.

Sweet potatoes with physiological cracks lose their commercial value and can be used as seed potatoes, but you should pay attention to choosing sweet potatoes with slight cracks, good crack healing, no rot, and no diseases or insects. Since there are no buds at the cracked and healed sweet potatoes, they cannot germinate. Therefore, when planting and raising seedlings, the cracked parts should be placed downward and the intact parts should be placed upward, which is conducive to the growth of more healthy sweet potato seedlings.

How to choose sweet potato seed potatoes

Sweet potatoes should meet the following three conditions as mother seeds:

First, choose sweet potatoes with high yield and good quality as mother seeds, such as drought-resistant, high sugar and powder content;

Second, choose sweet potatoes that are not damaged or scarred when dug, and are of moderate size. If they are too big or too small, they are not ideal for mother seeds;

The third is to choose sweet potatoes with shiny surfaces and many eyes. The so-called many eyes are the points that may sprout next year, which will greatly increase the seedling rate!

What part of the plant is the sweet potato

The sweet potato we often eat is just its rhizome, not its fruit.

Sweet potatoes grown in the north rarely bloom and set seeds, because the light must meet certain conditions. In the autumn and winter potato area in the south, that is, south of 23 degrees north latitude, sweet potatoes can bloom naturally, but the seed setting rate is not very high.