Conditions good for Miss. sweet potatoes

ALGOMA, Miss. — Growers attending the sweet potato field day got some good news: Though the cool, wet spring delayed plantings, the mild summer has provided excellent growing conditions.

The planting beds have exceeded expectations, Mississippi State University Extension Service specialist Stephen Meyers told The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.

The day’s activities for growers took place Thursday at the extension service’s Pontotoc Ridge/Flatwoods experiment station.

Heavy rains in North Carolina — the nation’s biggest sweet potato producer — have cut down that state’s crop, enhancing prospects for Mississippi and Louisiana producers to have an even more profitable year.

“What drives markets is availability,” said Benny Graves, executive secretary of the Mississippi Sweet Potato Coun- cil. “They went from $15 a bushel to $18.50 in about three weeks.”

Most of the state’s sweet potato crop is concentrated in Calhoun, Chickasaw and Pontotoc counties. “Mississippi is the second-largest producer of sweet potatoes in America,” Graves said.

“We have 18,000 acres of sweet potatoes planted this year. Sweet potatoes have been a staple of the Vardaman area since 1910.”

Last year’s crop, he said, was worth $78 million to the state. “If you’re inter- ested in eating healthily, at some point you’re going to add sweet potatoes to your diet,” Graves said. “Here in Mississippi, we feed the world.”

Research findings at Thursday’s exhibition included new cultivars, experimental methods of limiting harvest damage and a variety of efforts to combat plant diseases, weeds and damaging insects.

Hugh Pettit, who farms near Houston, wanted better weed control data.