Introduction to the specialty sweet potato varieties Xinong 431 and Touxinhong

Xinong 431: This variety is a new fresh-eating, roasting-type sweet potato bred by Northwest Agricultural University. It has medium-short vines, generally 1.5 m long, with many branches at the base and heart-shaped leaves. The leaf color and veins are uniform and light green. It forms tubers early and in a concentrated manner; the tubers are spindle-shaped, with smooth skin, orange-yellow skin, orange-red flesh, and bright red dried slices. The taste is sweet, fragrant, mealy and sandy, with good mouthfeel, and after cooking the skin and flesh separate easily, making it very suitable for roasted sweet potatoes and sweet potato preserve processing. It is highly resistant to stem nematode disease and black spot disease, resistant to waterlogging, and tolerant of storage and transport. Spring-planted sweet potatoes generally yield 5000 kg per mu, and summer-planted ones about 3500 kg. With excellent comprehensive traits such as high yield, early maturity and good quality, it is one of the ideal varieties to replace Beijing 553. Touxinhong: This variety was developed over three years by farmer-breeder Zhang Quanzhong of the Laoji Sweet Potato Seedling Center in Linquan County, Anhui Province, and is a new variety with high quality, good taste, especially high yield and excellent storability. This sweet potato is not only a good variety for processing starch, vermicelli and dried sweet potato slices, but also has deep yellow flesh and is an excellent choice among roasted sweet potatoes. The tuber is spindle-shaped, with yellow skin and flesh the color of duck egg yolk, and the dried slices after sun-drying are bright red and very attractive. Its quality, yield and output value are more than double those of "Beijing 553". Its comprehensive traits and economic output value are superior to any current domestic variety, and it is deeply welcomed by consumers. Spring planting yields about 6000 kg per mu, and summer planting about 4000 kg per mu. It has strong fertilizer tolerance, a high rate of large tubers, uniform tubers, and fast bulking speed. The vines are 1 m long, easy to plant densely, and the leaves are green. Spring-planted sweet potatoes average 1.5 kg of tubers per plant. Large plants reach more than 8 kg. It contains 6.3% sugar, 24% starch, and has a drying rate of 32%. It tastes sweet and fragrant, with a strong mealy texture. Planted in early spring, it can be harvested and marketed in August, right during the off-season; planted in summer, it is harvested in mid-to-late November, and whether stored over winter or marketed after harvest, it is an excellent choice among roasted sweet potatoes.