Farmer Highlight: Sweet Potatoes

Max Staker is a local farmer who supplies USU Soup Connection with sweet potatoes.

Max was kind enough to tell us about his sweet potato operation. He reveled a few tips and tricks to growing sweet potatoes we would like to share.

 

Use sweet potato starts from a local nursery

Max remembers growing sweet potatoes since he was about 15-16 years old, although he didn't have much success until about 6 years ago when he started using sweet potato starters from a local nursery.

·     Use the right method

Sandy loam soil is ideal. Start with a 15 inch mound soil, in which the potatoes will be planted. Max likes to add Visqueen plastic over the top which allows the potato to maintain more heat, especially in the spring.

·     Give them nutrients

You must have adequate compost to fertilize the potato so it can sprout. Make sure to include this in your soil mound. Potatoes also need adequate amounts of phosphorus to grow. Remember that if you take a soil sample to USU extension they can help with adding the right amount of fertilizer.

·      Give it room to grow

Plant the sweet potato starts 10-11 inches apart. Water them by hand for the first month, from then on you can water down the furrow. Make sure the furrows are about 3 feet apart so the water doesn’t touch the sweet potato starts. This will make the potato split.

This year Max planted 250 starts and his total yield was 500 lbs of potatoes! He grew two varieties this year, Beauregard and O’henry.  His biggest sweet potato this year was the size of a football! Max loves to cook sweet potato fries and use them in soups and stews.

Thank you Max for supplying the community with local and delicious sweet potatoes!