Upper Cumberland sweet potato farmers monitoring a dry September as they wait for crops to bulk up ahead of the traditional October harvest.
White County farmer Anthony Villa said the lack of rain this month has slowed the growth of the potatoes. Villa said he remains optimistic that upcoming rain in the forecast will arrive in time to improve the yield before the first frost.
“This year has been especially challenging,” Villa said. “The sweet potatoes got off to a pretty good start in June with plenty of growth, but this dry period in September has really kept them from sizing up like they should.”
Red Boiling Springs farmer Jeff Poppen said the dry weather can actually improve the flavor of the potatoes even if it limits their physical size. Poppen said his soil management techniques, including the use of compost and minerals, help the ground retain moisture from the previous winter to sustain the plants through dry spells.
“Quality is very good,” Poppen said. “Sweet potatoes thrive in dry weather, and they often are sweeter than if it rains. But we will not get probably the yield or the size, the big ones, like we would have if we had gotten a little bit more rain.”
Poppen said he expects to harvest approximately 100 bushels, or 5,000 pounds, of sweet potatoes this year. He said the crop was historically a staple for Tennessee gardeners because the potatoes could be stored in baskets all winter to provide a reliable food source.
“It’d be kind of unthinkable to try to go through the winter without a few bushels of sweet potatoes in your house,” Poppen said. “They’re a big part of my farm, financially.”
“I would say right now would be that time that I should probably be more concerned about the crop, but like I said there is rain in the forecast, but if we don’t get that rain then yeah the yields are going to be very low,” Villa said. “But in general they like moisture to establish their roots and get the foliage going, and a little bit of rain to help them size up, and then we will need dry conditions later on to be able to dry them and get them out of the ground easily so it’s not just like a mudfest, which it very well likely might turn into that, but we’ll just deal with it at that point if it does.”
Both farmers said they are working to preserve an heirloom variety of sweet potato known as the Golden Nugget. Villa said the variety has been stewarded in Tennessee for at least 100 years, while Poppen said he obtained his seeds in the mid-1970s from a farmer whose family had grown them since the late 1800s.
“The way that we can continue to steward that variety is we have to keep growing it and we have to have successful yields to be able to save the potatoes so we can replant them for slips next year,” Villa said.
Poppen said the Golden Nugget is smaller than modern commercial varieties but offers superior flavor and keeping qualities. He said the Ellington Agricultural Station previously requested the variety to use in a historical replica garden.
Villa said the agricultural economy in Middle Tennessee has shifted over the last century as land prices have risen and developments have replaced many large-scale vegetable operations. He said most significant sweet potato production in the state has moved toward West Tennessee.
“I think that now most people are, well for one not able to afford land to even grow sweet potatoes on, so I think that has pushed a lot of the agriculture out and has turned it into developments,” Villa said.
Poppen said supporting local farms through organic and sustainable practices creates a more resilient community. He said he has seen a significant increase in demand for organic food over his 50-year career.
“It’s people that are tending the farms in a way that’s sustainable, renewable, regenerative, organic, and biodynamic that we want to support because those farms will be more resilient to the droughts and weather conditions and they’re cutting back on the use of poisons and petrochemical fertilizers and herbicides and pesticides, and there’s a very big movement to quit poisoning the earth,” Poppen said.
Villa said his farm maintains 30 to 40 different types of vegetables to ensure the business is not dependent on a single crop. He said the sweet potatoes currently have healthy foliage and few weeds, but the actual spuds require more moisture to reach their full potential.
Villa said he sells the majority of his produce to a grocery store in Cookeville to help build the local economy.
