Seed yam tuber production from vine cuttings

Abstract

Seed yam tuber production accounts for 30 per cent to 50 per cent of total cost of production. Efforts to obtain seed yam tubers from vine cuttings are still rudimentary, and research information available is scanty and sparse. Studies to compare the effectiveness of vine cuttings for seed yam tuber production were conducted in 2010 at International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Nigeria, with a clone of Dioscorea rotundata (white yam) TDr 95/18544. Vine cuttings (VCs), with one node, one leaf, and 10 – 15 cm long were cut from the middle portion of the stems of 90-days old mother plants. Healthy VCs were planted singly in a rooting medium, and the rooted VCs were transplanted to the field at 40 days after planting, and harvested 110 days after transplanting when the leaves had senesced. Screenhouse-derived plants (SDP) originated from tissue culture have a higher survival percentage than cuttings from field-derived plants (FDP). Higher shoot formation was also observed in SDP whilst no shoot from FDP. Mean yield of tubercles from SDP was 8.5 times higher (P = 0.05) than yield from FDP. The mean percentage change in the yield of tubercles obtained from the cut mother plants and the uncut mother plants was 16 times more in SDP than FDP. Production of healthy seed yam tuber is possible using healthy mother plants for vine cuttings.