Marketing and Expansion Opportunities with Specialty Sweetpotatoes in Florida
Sustainable Agriculture
Wendy Mussoline
UF/IFAS Agriculture Extension Agent II
Putnam County Extension Office
East Palatka
Abstract
Sweetpotato is an ideal crop to be grown in Florida’s subtropical climate and sandy soils, however the production acreage is relatively small. According to the National Sweetpotato Collaborators Group Progress Report, Florida ranks sixth in the Country with only 4305 harvested acres in 2021. Challenges include limited herbicide and insecticide labels for broadleaf weeds and wireworm, restrictions regarding movement outside the State because of weevil, and limited seed supply chains, particularly for newly developed cultivars. Sweetpotato has recently been recognized by UF as an emerging crop for Florida and Seed-it funds were dedicated to explore new cultivars with improved quality, nutritional advantages, increased productivity, and pest resistance traits for Florida. A multi-State effort was launched to initiate sweetpotato cultivar trials, particularly with newly developed purple-flesh breeding lines, in three UF locations – Live Oak, Hastings, and Fort Pierce. Ten cultivars were obtained from three different breeding programs – NC State, LSU, and CAREnergy. The trials were planted on approximately 0.25 acres at each site in a randomized complete block design with four replicates. Results varied from site-to-site, but both the purple splendor and the purple majesty were consistently high yielding. They also showed tolerance to pressure from both wireworm and weevil. To date, results have been presented at the Tri-State Cucurbit and Emerging Vegetables Annual Conference at the Jackson County Extension Office on January 25, 2022 and at the 46th Annual Meeting of the National Sweetpotato Collaborators Group in New Orleans on February 11-12, 2022. A collaborative effort was established between a grower in North Florida and a certified grower in North Carolina to obtain slips of purple majesty for expanded sweetpotato acreage in Florida. Two young minority farmers in North Florida also intend to obtain some of the newly developed cultivars to expand their farm-to-school efforts in Putnam County. Local marketing efforts include a youtube video by Chef Leslie Moyers (Culinary Director with Indian River Food Bank) making sweetpotato pudding, an extensive evaluation survey by Chef Tracy Nazzaro (Traders Hill), and a local sweetpotato pie contest hosted by the Azalea City Brewery in Putnam County.
Authors: Sandra Guzman, Wendy Mussoline
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Sandra Guzman Associate Professor, Indian River Research and Education Center, Florida, 32604
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Wendy Mussoline UF/IFAS Agriculture Extension Agent II, UF/IFAS, Florida, 32131