I've spoken with our experts here at NCSU. Because of your description, and
the fact that only one of four varieties was hit they agree that it was
probably SPFMV-RV, a virus that can be pretty devastating, as you well know.
I also found out a couple of things about sweetpotatoes. First, the spelling
of Sweetpotatoes, should be one word (or at least hyphonated) to not confuse it
with a modifier for "potatoes" (i.e. white potatoes, irish potatoes, etc.).
The American Phytopathological Society Press recently published a book of
common names of vascular plants, in which sweetpotato was listed. Second,
there is an excellent source of virus-free material at NCSU. The
Micropropagation unit produces pathogen-free (Virus, Bacteria and Fungi) stock
material, and sells the stock material to Foundation and Certified Growers.
They have all the major cultivars of sweetpotatoes, and strawberries. The
benefits are true-to-variety planting material, virus indexed plants, high
quality plants (size, color, vigor, yield).
I know this doesn't help you now, but it may in the future. Morning Glory is a
weed host of SPFMV, (perrenial morning glory is especially bad) so removal of
that material may help. According to our experts (by the way, I am not an
expert. I'm a Ph.D. student) your best bet is using virus-free stock.
If anyone wants any information on the Micropropagation Unit, let me know. I
could post the info to the listserver. I hope this helps. . .Russ
-- Russ Bulluck Graduate Student Plant Pathology NCSU Box 7616 Raleigh, NC 27695 ------------------------------------------------------------- The soil population is so complex that it manifestly cannot be dealt with as a whole with any detail by any one person, and at the same time it plays so important a part in the soil economy that it must be studied. --Sir E. John Russell The Micro-organisms of the Soil, 1923 -------------------------------------------------------------
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