News Filed Under Sweet Potatoes

RAYMOND, Miss. -- Despite another year of dry, hot conditions during the growing season, Mississippi’s sweet potato crop looks excellent overall as producers head into the final weeks of harvest. Lorin Harvey, sweet potato specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said 85% of the crop has been harvested as of Oct. 30. He has been surprised by the yields that many producers are seeing.

Did you know the Mississippi State University Extension Service has a laboratory that is designated to diagnose plant diseases and nematodes? Yes, it does! Learn how the Mississippi State University Extension Service Plant Diagnostic Laboratory and its scientists protect the crops that provide our food and fiber along with other home and garden crops.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Most of Mississippi’s sweet potatoes are grown far northeast of the state’s worst drought conditions, but that did not keep excessive heat and dryness from factoring in this year’s crop.

Lorin Harvey, sweet potato specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said dry weather affected production more than most growers anticipated. Because of the drought, irrigated acres performed better than potatoes on dryland.

Sweet potato producers and industry professionals are invited to tour Mississippi State University’s research plots and learn current information about this crop’s production at an Aug. 24 event in northeast Mississippi. The 2023 MSU Sweet Potato Field Day at the Pontotoc Ridge-Flatwoods Branch Experiment Station begins with registration at 8 a.m., followed by a guided tour of ongoing projects that begins about 8:30.

Sweet potato growers in Mississippi can get free nematode testing of soil samples they send to Mississippi State University from now until Dec. 31, 2024. The samples can be submitted in nematode bags available at local county MSU Extension Service offices; samples are also accepted in quart-sized, sealed plastic bags.

VERONA, Miss. -- Producers come across issues each season that need to be addressed, whether they require new research on a problem or a commodity specialist who can help identify timely solutions.

For those people, February is the month to speak up. Specialists and scientists with the Mississippi State University Extension Service and Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station are available specifically for them at three different MSU Research and Extension Center locations throughout the state during annual Producer Advisory Council meetings.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Lorin Harvey has heard from several Mississippi sweet potato growers that the quality of this year’s crop is the best they have seen in 20 years.

“The high quality of the crop is what stands out to me this year,” said Harvey, sweet potato specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. “We have to see how things hold up in storage, but I have high hopes.”

The state’s sweet potato growers will have a wealth of information available to them in a half-day event Aug. 25 in Pontotoc. The Mississippi State University Extension Service and Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station are hosting the 2022 Sweet Potato Field Day at the Pontotoc Ridge-Flatwoods Branch Experiment Station. There is no cost to attend. Registration begins at 8 a.m., with the station tour starting at 8:30.