Table 2.

Vine length, leaf length, leaf width, and number of leaves of sweet potato pretreated with PBZ subsequently subjected to WW (47.5% SWC) or mild water deficit (32.3% SWC) for 7 days or SWD (17.5% SWC) for 14 days.

Treatment	Water deficit	7 days				14 days
		Vain length (cm)	Leaf length (cm)	Leaf width (cm)	Number of leaves	Vain length (cm)	Leaf length (cm)	Leaf width (cm)	Number of leaves
cv. ‘Japanese Yellow’ (+)
	WW	35.21bc	8.85b	6.82c	14.9a	43.67bc	9.46bcd	8.70abc	19.25a
	WD	32.76c	8.73b	6.53c	14.0a	40.20c	9.22bcd	8.17bc	17.67ab
		(6.96%)	(2.54%)	(4.25%)	(6.04%)	(7.95%)	(1.36%)	(6.09%)	(8.21%)
cv. ‘Tainung 57’ (-)
0 μM PBZ	WW	50.48a	10.49a	10.52a	12.4b	67.90a	10.98a	10.62a	18.33a
	WD	34.52bc	9.44ab	9.07ab	10.0c	33.38d	8.44cd	8.12bc	7.38c
		(31.62%)	(10.01%)	(13.78%)	(19.36%)	(50.84%)	(23.13%)	(23.54%)	(59.74%)
17 μM PBZ	WW	40.42b	10.40a	9.95ab	12.2b	59.95ab	10.60ab	10.15abc	16.50b
	WD	34.60bc	9.67ab	9.03ab	10.8bc	39.73c	8.75cd	7.99c	9.44c
		(14.40%)	(7.02%)	(9.25%)	(11.48%)	(33.73%)	(17.45%)	(21.28%)	(42.79%)
34 μM PBZ	WW	41.05b	9.71ab	8.87ab	12.8b	55.13bc	9.23bcd	10.05abc	13.83bc
	WD	36.73bc	9.40ab	8.80ab	12.4b	42.44c	8.03d	8.03bc	9.00c
		(10.52%)	(3.09%)	(0.79%)	(3.13%)	(23.02%)	(13.00%)	(20.10%)	(34.92%)
51 μM PBZ	WW	45.97ab	8.98b	8.89ab	12.1b	55.44bc	10.32abc	10.26ab	18.60a
	WD	33.68c	8.60b	8.44b	11.4bc	34.90d	8.04d	8.08bc	8.00c
		(26.74%)	(4.23%)	(5.06%)	(5.79%)	(37.05%)	(22.09%)	(21.25%)	(56.99%)

Different letters in each column show significant difference at p ≤ 0.01 by Tukey’s HSD. Figures in parentheses represent growth reduction percentage of water-deficit stressed plants compare to WW in each cultivar.