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Research Article

Soil Moisture Regimes Alter Growth-Stage-Specific Relationships between Growth Characteristics and Storage Root Yield in Sweet Potato
Hyo Jeong Lee1
,
Seung Ka Oh2
,
Young Son Cho1*
1Department of Smart Agro-Industry, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52725, Korea
2Agri-Food Bio Convergence Institute, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52725, Korea
*Corresponding Author
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Abstract

Soil moisture availability is a major environmental factor affecting sweet potato growth and storage root yields, particularly under increasingly variable drought and excessive rainfall conditions. This study evaluated the growth-stage-specific responses of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam. cv. Jinyulmi) to contrasting soil moisture regimes over three consecutive years (2023–2025) under rain-shelter greenhouse conditions. Three moisture treatments—severe drought (DD), optimal moisture (N), and excessively wet soil conditions (WW)—were evaluated in 2023, and five treatments—DD, drought (D), N, wet soil conditions (W), and WW—were evaluated in 2024 and 2025. Stem length, stem diameter, and the SPAD value were measured at the storage root initiation, bulking, and pre-harvest stages, and their relationships with storage root weight were analyzed. Soil moisture treatments were clearly differentiated, with the mean volumetric soil water content in the N treatment maintained at 31.3–33.6%. The N treatment generally maintained relatively high SPAD values during the bulking and pre-harvest stages and produced the highest storage root yield in all three years, reaching 31, 49, and 37 Mg ha-1 in 2023, 2024, and 2025, respectively. Correlation patterns varied with the growth stage and soil moisture regime. Under the optimal moisture condition, the SPAD value and/or stem growth were positively associated with the storage root weight across growth stages, whereas drought and excessive soil moisture altered these relationships. Storage root yield was substantially reduced under both water-deficit and excessively wet conditions. These results demonstrate that the soil moisture regime modifies the relationships among shoot growth, leaf greenness, and storage root development, suggesting that maintaining soil moisture near the range associated with the highest observed storage root yield under the conditions in this study is important for stable sweet potato production under variable water conditions.

Keywords
drought stress
excessive soil moisture
SPAD
storage root bulking
storage root bulking
volumetric soil water content
water management
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Information
  • Publisher :KOREAN SOCIETY FOR HORTICULTURAL SCIENCE
  • Publisher(Ko) :한국원예학회
  • Journal Title :Horticultural Science and Technology
  • Journal Title(Ko) :원예과학기술지
  • Received Date : 2026-09-03
  • Revised Date : 2026-09-23
  • Accepted Date : 2026-10-08
  • DOI :https://doi.org/10.7235/HORT.20260048
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