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.

“I was skeptical coming into harvest this year, but several operations have reported above average yields, which is much needed after last year,” he said. “State production fell 15% in 2023 due to extreme drought.

“This year, I’ve seen fields yielding 150% of the state average yield, which I’m attributing to a favorable early season. Many growers have run out of wooden storage crates and are shipping them in from across the country,” said Harvey, who is also a researcher with the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.

However, not everyone is experiencing high yields. Producers who were unable to plant at the earliest dates possible are experiencing lower yields.

“Many growers pushed to get the crop planted earlier this year to avoid a repeat of last year with some starting planting as early as the beginning of May, which helped reduce the effects of this year’s drought conditions,” Harvey said.

“Other growers were not able to avoid the heat, and several recorded less than 4 inches of rain for the growing season. Many of them suffered depending on when their contract labor arrived, and those who were limited to later planting dates did see substantial reductions in plant populations and therefore, yield.”

Caleb Englert, producer and Mississippi Sweet Potato Council president, said he is also impressed with the overall crop.

“A lot of producers have had good yields, and quality is really, really good this year for the most part,” he said. “It just depends on how the rain hit you.”

Dry weather contributed to a higher incidence of insect injury.

“Several fields have early-season insect damage, which could be caused by the lack of rainfall,” Harvey noted. “Many insect control products require moisture or rainfall events for improved efficacy.

“Another issue I’ve seen in isolated fields is called soil pox, caused by the bacteria Streptomyces ipomoeae. It’s usually just a minor disease, but it can rear its head in hot, dry conditions like what we had this year. Severe damage can include substantial cracking 1 inch deep over the entire length of the root, rendering the sweet potato unmarketable,” he said.

Mississippi’s 45 sweet potato farming operations planted around 30,100 acres across 15 counties. Mississippi is second only to North Carolina in sweet potato production. This year, sweet potatoes were grown from Humphreys to Tate Counties.

Harvey said prices for loose sweet potatoes range from 44 to 89 cents per pound depending on the region and grocery chain where they are sold.

“Sweet potatoes remain one of the cheapest vegetables to buy in the grocery store, so for the sake of the farmers, I hope we see a slight increase in price this year. But I don’t anticipate any price changes that the average consumer will notice or feel,” Harvey said.

MSU Extension is offering free nematode testing for soil samples from Mississippi sweet potato fields through Dec. 31. Samples can be submitted at the local Extension office in nematode bags or quart-sized, zip-top plastic bags. Bags must be labeled and submitted with the nematode sample submission form F448, available at https://extension.msstate.edu/lab.