Soil born problems such as nematodes and wire worm cannot be controlled with meristemming because they are outside factors having nothing to do with diseases within the plant as is the case with inadequate farming practices such as over watering which can produce scurf.

*Note that the scurf does not affect the inside of the sweetpotato.  It is merely cosmetic here, but will still render the crop unmarketable. Due to the outer tissue damage it creates, scurf will however, cause the sweetpotato to rot quickly from the outside inwards, both in the field and in storage.