Number of Nodes and Intra-Row Spacing Influence on Growth and Yield of Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas (L) Lam.) at Sayo District, Western Ethiopia

Sweet potato is one of the most commonly grown root and tuber crops in Ethiopia. The productivity of the crop is, however, low due to many factors. An experiment was carried out to investigate the influence of number of nodes and intra row spacing on growth and yield of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) in the open field during 2021 main cropping season at Sayo District, Western Ethiopia. Three nodes cutting levels (five, seven and nine nodes) and four intra row spacing (25, 30, 35 and 40 cm) was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. The result indicated that of the intra-row spacing and node number significantly influenced days to maturity, vine and internode length, node number, above and underground fresh biomass. Interaction effects of node numbers and intra-row spacing were found significant effect on days to maturity, vine and internode length, node number, above and underground fresh biomass,marketable tuber yield, average tuber weight and days to physiological maturity. The maximum marketable yield (45.29t ha^-1) was recorded invine cutting with 9 nodes planted at 30 cm intra row spacing.Therefore, in the study area farmers can use vine cutting of 9 nodes with intra-row spacing of 30cm that would improve total tuber root yield productivity of the sweet potato.