The lower degree of mechanical harvesting is a bottleneck hindering the healthy development of sweetpotato industry in China, while the mismatching be- tween agricultural machinery and agronomy is one of the main factors for poor me- chani.cal harvesting. In this study, total five sweetpotato varieties were selected, and the effects of different shapes and sizes on mechanical harvesting of sweetpotato were investigated. The results showed that the breakage rate of Xuzishu 5 was lowest, so it is more suitable for mechanical harvesting in field. At the same time, the correlations between sweetpotato shape, breakage rate and exposure rate were analyzed. It was found that there was a significant linear correlation between sweet- potato shape and breakage rate （P〈0.01）; the higher the flat rate is, the higher the breakage rate is; and sweetpotato shape had no significant effect on exposure rate. Therefore, tuberous root with lower flat rate, as well as better agronomic characters should be selected in the breeding process of new sweetpotato varieties.
For the study of main traits of purple-flashed sweetpotato in different soil and ecological environments, 18 cultivars of purple-flashed sweetpotato with different enthocyenin contents were planted at Yancheng and Xuzhou separately. The main quality traits were determined. The results showed the quality traits of purple-fleshed sweetpotato were significantly influenced by soil and ecological environments. Geno- type （G）, environment （E） and genotype x environment （GxE） interaction had signif- icantiy effects on the contents of anthocyanin, dry matter, starch, protein, reducing sugar and soluble sugar in storage roots. Anthocyanin content was most easily af- fected by the environment. The E effect on anthocyanin content was greater than G and GxE effects. However, the GxE interaction effects on other 5 quality traits were greater than G and E effects. The 6 quality traits were significantly different at 1% level under different environments respectively. The contents of dry matter, starch and anthocyenin were higher in Yancheng than in Xuzhou, while the contents of protein, reducing sugar and soluble sugar were higher in Xuzhou. The variation co- efficients of all quality traits at Yancheng and Xuzhou were in the same order： an- sugar〉protein〉starch, the variation coefficient of anthocyanin content was higher in Xuzhou, and the variation coefficients of other 5 traits were higher in Yancheng. Correlation analysis showed that the reducing sugar and solu- ble sugar contents were negatively correlated with starch content, and had no sig- nifiant correlation with anthocyanin and protein contents. Dry matter content and starch content were positively correlated, and anthocyanin content and other quality traits had no significant correlation.
The effects ol different genotypes and planting densities on main agronomic traits, storage root traits and yield were studied with 6 high-quality sweetpotato varieties as study objects by 2-factor completely random design. The results showed that there were significant differences in stem diameter, length of the longest vine and top/root （T/R） between different genotypes, T/R differed significantly under dif- ferent planting densities, and number of basal branches decreased with planting density increasing. Genotype and genotype x density showed significant or very sig- nificant effects on fresh root yield per plant, dry matter content and fresh root yield per hectare, fresh root yield per plant gradually decreased with planting density in- creasing, while fresh root yield per hectare increased with planting density increas- ing. Numbers of storage roots in different sizes of the 6 sweetpotato cultivars all exhibited an order of number of large-sized storage roots〈number of medium-sized storage roots〈small-sized storage root; and there were very significant differences in ratio of large-sized storage roots between different genotypes. The number of large- sized storage roots, ratio of large-sized storage roots and number of commercial storage roots deceased with planting density increasing, while there were no signifi- cant differences in number of medium-sized storage roots, number of small-sized storage roots, ratio of medium-sized storage roots and ratio of small-sized storage roots between different densities. Correlation analysis showed that there was signifi- cant positive correlation between number of basal branches and fresh root yield per plant; dry matter content in storage roots was in significant positive correlation with stem diameter, and in significant negative correlation with length of the longest vine; fresh root yield per hectare was in significant positive correlation with fresh root yield per plant, and in very significant negative correlation with dry matter content; and ratio of la
