Cultivation and Herbicides for Weed Control in Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas)

Abstract

Alachlor, chloramben, cinmethylin, diphenamid, fluazifop, fluazifop-P, metolachlor, metribuzin, napropamide, oryzalin, and sethoxydim were applied on transplanted sweet potato at Tifton, GA, during 1982 to 1985. The weeds most prevalent were large crabgrass, Florida pusley, smallflower morningglory, and yellow nutsedge. No significant phytotoxicity was observed from any herbicide treatment over the 4 yr. Cultivation at 4 wk is advantageous to eliminate early flushes of weeds which escape control and reform the beds. Alachlor or metolachlor at 4.5 and 3.4 kg ha-1, respectively, and metribuzin controlled weeds best. Although no serious phytotoxicity was evident, these treatments tended to cause lowered yields of marketable roots while marginally affecting total yields in most cases. Metribuzin was the only compound which controlled late-season broadleaf weeds such as smallflower morningglory effectively.

Weed control in sweetpotatoes

“…None of the other herbicide treatments or the hand-weeded treatment showed evidence of any damage to the sweetpotato plants. The herbicides acetochlor (Chen et al 1993), clomazone (Porter 1990) and alachlor (Herman et al 1983;Galze and Hall 1990) have all been evaluated internationally and have shown no significant phytotoxic effects on sweetpotato.…”

Mulch Treatment Effect on Weed Biomass and Yields of Organic Sweetpotato Cultivars

“…Sweetpotato producers have only two options for controlling weeds on plant ridges: hand weeding and herbicide application [9]. Due to the vining characteristics of sweetpotato, and to avoid physical damage to plants, mechanical cultivation as a weed management method is not often employed before canopy closure [10,11]. According to the California Sweetpotato Council, hand weeding is common for weed control in organic sweetpotato fields [12] because of the vine nature of the crop.…”

The effect of weeding with two kinds of fertilizers on sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) growth and yield

“…Gomes (2014) stated that weeding at the appropriate time would reduce the growing of weeds and reduced competition, and thus growth and the harvest of the plant will increase. Glaze et al (1990) stated that sweet potato competes with weed, reducing yields and causing problems during harvest.…”