Ornamental sweet potatoes have gained considerable interest among green industry professionals over the last five to ten years. The LSU AgCenter has been actively involved in evaluating ornamental sweet potatoes for landscape performance.
In addition, recent studies at the LSU AgCenter have determined that some cultivars contain one or more viruses not currently found in food-crop sweet potatoes. These primarily include sweet potato leaf curl virus and C-6 virus. LSU AgCenter efforts have utilized meristem-tip culture procedures to produce plants apparently free of these viruses from Marguerite, Blackie and Tricolor. Virus-tested versus contaminated cultivars have been compared in container studies.
Virus Presence, Container Studies & Landscape Performance (PDF)