The Analysis of Genetic Stability of Sweet potato varieties (Ipomoea batatas(Lam). L)propagated through Roots

An experiment was conducted between 2022 and 2023 in the South-South part of Nigeria to analyze the genetic stability of sweet potato varieties raised from the roots using their yield and yield components. The data collected were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using the Genstat Edition 3. Means were separated using the Least Significant Difference (LSD). From the result obtained in both years of the experiment, Nwaoyorima gave a very high mean value in terms of yield in tons per hectare (4.06). This was closely followed by kwara(4.87) and buttermilk (3.86). The result also showed that the varieties had good marketable root weight, marketable root number, total root number and total root weight across the year. The variety, kwara, gave the highest marketable root number (30.91), followed by Nwaoyorima (25.71). Also, the mean marketable root weight was highest in kwara (3.86). This was followed by Nwaoyorima(3.48). The result obtained from the experiment also showed significant relationships among the traits considered (P<0.05). The table shows that the number of marketable roots had a very strong relationship with the number of unmarketable roots (0.550**), total root number (0.472**) and marketable root weight (0.481*). The table also showed a significant relationship between marketable root weight, total root number (0.364*) and total root weight (0.345*). The unmarketable root weight also had a highly significant relationship with total root weight (0.417*) but had no significant relationship with virus incident (-0.467) and virus severity (0.041). The result showed that sweet potato propagation using the root can also retain the genetic stability of a variety, as it does with those propagated with vines or nodes.