Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Ward, Jason K.

Committee Member

Davis, Jeremiah D.

Committee Member

Shankle, Mark W.

Committee Member

Arancibia, Ramon A.

Date of Degree

5-17-2014

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Agriculture

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Department

Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering

Abstract

Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) is one of the major tropical root crops of the world and it is widely distributed throughout the tropical and temperate regions of Africa, Asia and the Americas. During harvest and post-harvest handling, the skin can be separated from the underlying tissue of the storage root. Storage root damage contributed to income losses for producers. To minimize these loses, producers set the skin of the sweetpotato by removal of the vines prior to harvest. New mechanical (undercutting) and cultural (biochar) methods were developed and tested. Mechanical undercutting would sever the feeder roots of the plant causing drought stress and initiate the skin set reaction. Application of biochar was used to change soil physical properties to reduce skinning in storage roots. The new practices may give producers options to increase the storage life of the crop.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/19266

Comments

biomass||root cutting||Skin-set

Download

Share

COinS