Sweet Potatoes
Mississippi sweet potato growers plant more than 20,000 acres of sweet potatoes each year. The state consistently ranks second in the United States in sweet potato acreage and third in production. In 2012, sweet potatoes were grown on approximately 22,500 acres, producing 394 million pounds of sweet potatoes with an estimated value of $79 million.
Sweet potato production is highly labor intensive. Each spring, a portion of the sweet potato roots produced in the previous year are placed into plant production beds and covered with 2 to 3” of soil. These sweet potato “seeds” produce vegetative shoots.
After several weeks, when the shoots reach 8 to 10” in length, these shoots are cut (by hand or mechanically). The shoots that are cut from the plant beds are called “slips.” Slips are then mechanically transplanted into ridged planting beds 8 to 10” high and 36 to 48” apart in sweet potato production fields.
Three to four months later, sweet potatoes can be harvested. Following harvest, sweet potatoes must be cured to set the skin, heal any wounds or abrasions that occurred during harvest, and increase the quality of the sweet potato flavor. Curing is accomplished by exposing newly harvested sweet potato roots to temperatures of 80 to 85°F with 85 to 90% humidity (typically for 6 to 8 days). Following curing, sweetpotatoes are stored at 55 to 60°F with approximately 85 to 90 percent humidity for up to 12 months.
At Mississippi State University, researchers and extension personnel from multiple departments collaborate to improve all facets of sweet potato production. Current research efforts include the areas of crop production, pest management (weeds, diseases, nematodes, and insects), plant physiology, food science, and agricultural and biological engineering.
Production
- Improving Sweetpotato Packing Line Ergonomics (PowerPoint)
- MSU Sweetpotato Research & Extension Update 2013
- Update on Advanced Sweetpotato Lines
- Mechanical Undercutting to Minimize Sweetpotato Skinning During Harvest
- Southeastern U.S. Vegetable Crop Handbook
- Mississippi Sweetpotato- 2012 Industry Evaluation
Pest Management
- Wild Hog Management
- Sweetpotato Tolerance to Dual Magnum Applications Followed by Simulated Rainfall
- Insect Control Guide for Agronomic Crops
- Weed Control Guidelines for Mississippi Vegetable Crops
- Nematode Thresholds
- Southeastern U.S. Vegetable Crop Handbook
Other Sweetpotato Information
Publications
News
Some fields benefited from timely rains, while others either received not enough or too much.
Just because sweet potatoes are harvested in the fall doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy them year-round! With this recipe for Grilled Sweet Potatoes, you don’t even have to heat up the oven!
Sweet potatoes and yams. They’re the same thing, right?
Not really. They look and taste different. Sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are sweeter with a smooth, thin skin. (Photo by Kevin Hudson)
Spring rains created two sweet potato crops in Mississippi, and the later-planted crop is shaping up to be better than the first as harvests get underway.
Mississippi sweet potato fields that missed needed rains in June and July are experiencing favorable harvest conditions in October.
Jamie Earp, president of the Mississippi Sweet Potato Council, said yields are “fair, at best” at the halfway point in the 2018 harvest season.
Success Stories
Vardaman producer named Farmer of the Year
When Joe Edmondson surveys his farming operation at Topashaw Farms, he thinks about his more than 40 full-time employees and the hundreds of seasonal workers who work the acres.
After growing up on a family sweet potato farm, Jamie Earp left thinking farming just wasn’t for him. (Photo by Kevin Hudson)
