For selecting the resistance sources to sweet potato foot-rot, disease caused by the fungus Plenodomus destruens, the reaction of ten cultivars, inoculated under field conditions, were evaluated. The inoculum was produced on toothpick by the cultivation of fungi on PDA, for 06 days, under continuous light and room temperature ranging from 26 ± 2º C. The inoculation procedure was carried out 20 days after planting, by insertion of infected toothpick at the base of plant. The evaluation was performed 35 days after inoculation procedure, using a grading scale ranging from 1 (highly resistant) to 4 (highly susceptible). The Angico, Mãe de Família També and Carpinteira cultivars showed susceptibility reactions while RC 18, C O Branca and CR 71 cultivars were the most resistant to foot-rot, although it did not differed significantly from UFRPE 1-88, CNPH 004, Princesa cultivars. The high resistance level presented by these cultivars makes them suitable for the use of the same ones in management of this disease, and still, in programs of genetic improvement, as resistance sources to P.destruens.
Plenodomus destruens; Ipomoea batatas; cultivar resistance
