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Abstract
‘Georgia Jet’ sweet potato transplants were produced in heated beds to determine the effects of aged pine sawdust and builders’ sand (traditional media) and fresh and aged pine bark, and fresh pine sawdust (alternative media), on early‐season transplant production and media characteristics. At the first harvest, higher transplant numbers were obtained with the fresh pine sawdust or pine bark (mean 1,053 transplants/m2) than with the other media (mean 619 transplants/m2). Transplant fresh weights at the first harvest responded in a similar manner. The total early‐season number of transplants obtained with fresh pine bark (1,455 transplants/m2) was also greater than the total number of transplants obtained with the traditional media and aged pine bark (mean 951 transplants/m2), but not greater than the total number of transplants obtained with fresh pine sawdust. Mean lengths and weights of transplants obtained with the alternative media were at least as great as the values obtained with transplants grown in the traditional media. Highest media pH values were obtained with builders’ sand; the pH values of the fresh pine media were less acidic than the pH values of the aged pine media. Lower volumetric water contents and greater fluctuations in temperature were obtained with builders’ sand than with the pine media. Media had no effect on the percentage of intact roots at the end of the experiment.
Notes
Department of Horticulture, 101 Funchess Hall.