Seedling production sweet potato in function of leaf position and different concentrations of IBA.

Abstract

With the objective of evaluate the influence of leaf position and the use of IBA in the seedling production of sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas L., two assays were implanted in agricultural greenhouse. The experimental design applied for both was the randomized blocks design, with three blocks and a replication in each block, and the first experiment was conducted in a 4x2 factorial scheme, testing four leaf positions (fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh) and two IBA concentrations (0 and 100 mg.L^-1). For the second experiment, it was used a 2x5 factorial scheme, two leaf positions (third and fourth) and five IBA concentrations (0 mg.L^-1; 25 mg.L^-1; 50 mg.L^-1; 75 mg.L^-1 e 100 mg.L^-1). The variables evaluated were: survival, plant height, leaf number, root length, dry root weight, stem, leaf and petiole. In both assays it was found that the presence of IBA contributed negatively to the seedling development of sweet potato. In fact, the different leaf position had no effect on most of the variables in both assays, except for the number of leaves in assay 1. Therefore, seedlings of sweet potato must be produced in the absence of IBA and are not influenced by leaf position.