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Author:Che-Lun Huang, Qi-Dong Liu, Wayne C. Liao, and Yung-Chang Lai*
Abstract:
The objective of this research was to study effects of flooding treatments during different growth stages of spring and autumn cropping seasons on the storage quality of sweet potato after post-harvest. Cultivar ‘Tainung No. 66’ (‘TNG 66’) was grown in spring and autumn cropping season and treated with flooding for six days in different growth stages, i.e., initial growth stage (45 DAP), late growth stage (110 DAP), and both initial and late growth stages (45 & 110 DAP). After harvest, the tuberous roots of sweet potato from different flooding treatments were stored in the chamber at 15℃ and 90% relative humidity (RH) for 60 days. The results showed that numbers of rotten roots and the percentage of weight loss among different treatments increased with the increasing of storage time. In autumn cropping season, numbers of rotten roots and the percentage of weight loss between flooding treatments and no treatment were not significantly different before 30 days of storage, but these were significant difference after 40 days of storage. In spring cropping season, numbers of rotten roots and the percentage of weight loss between flooding treatments and no treatment were not significantly different among all the storage times, and heavy rain in the season was detrimental to the storage quality of sweet potato roots. Overall, this study showed that the major factor of weight loss during storage was the increasing numbers of rotten roots, and the flooding treatment in different growth stages would increase the numbers of rotten roots in autumn cropping season. In order to maintain the quality of stored roots, the storage time of sweet potato tuberous roots, which exposed to flooding treatments prior to storage, should not be extended to more than 30 days. In spring cropping season, the rotten numbers of roots would increase largely during 20–30 days of storage whether sweet potato was exposed to flooding treatments in early stage or both early and late stages, so that the storage time should not be extended to more than 20 days of storage.
Key words:Sweet potato, Flooding treatment, Storage after post-harvest, Tuberous root quality
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