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Sweet potato has promise for


BC growers UFV trial shows crop’s potential


by SEAN HITREC ABBOTSFORD–Research


presented at the Pacific Agriculture Show in Abbotsford earlier this year suggests that a new variety of sweet potato developed for Canada could be a viable rotation crop, but success depends on a number of things going right. The research, done in 2018


by the University of the Fraser Valley and Vineland Research Innovation Centre, showed that the new Radiance sweet potato grows better in BC climates and the province’s relatively short growing season. Radiance matures in


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90 days versus up to 120 for other varieties, making it an attractive option for growers. The research was funded by the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia. UFV assistant professor


Renee Prasad and her team planted slips of the new sweet potato on Sumas Prairie in the Fraser Valley in late June last year. “If we planted earlier in May


and if we stuck to that 90-day harvest window, then we would have had the potatoes out of the ground and cured and ready for Thanksgiving,” she says.


The hope is they’d be able


to store until Christmas. But curing and storing sweet potatoes was a challenge for Prasad’s team. To properly cure, the tubers need to be kept at 80% to 90% humidity and 26 to 28 degrees Celsius. "It was very hard to get that


humidity to stay up consistently," she says. Ontario’s sweet potato


producers have made use of old tobacco-curing barns that were designed to maintain a certain humidity, she notes. The main pests researchers encountered were wireworms, which are common in potato fields. "If wireworm has been managed in the previous few crops before [planting], you could get good looking sweet potatoes," she says.


COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • JULY 2019


UFV assistant professor Renee Prasad says BC-grown sweet potatoes aren’t quite ready for prime time. [SEAN HITREC PHOTO]


By modifying harvesting equipment and developing an adequate place to cure and store Radiance, sweet potatoes might, “in theory,” be viable, she concludes. “They are in a different plant family [than potatoes]. They don't share the same key pests at all – except for wireworm – but you have tools to manage wireworm in potatoes,” she says. “Both [potatoes and sweet potatoes] are nutrient-feeders and neither leave a lot of organic matter to put back into the soil, which is, of course, one of


the things you want to be doing with a good crop rotation.” Certain factors can destroy


the crop for commercial sale, such as inadequate water immediately after planting, which causes elongation and random field rot that can happen “even in a field with no prior sweet potatoes.” Prasad was able to get the equivalent of 30 tonnes per hectare in plots that made use of plastic coverings and high- density plantings.


Though the 2018 tests from UFV showed promise and


there is a market for locally grown sweet potatoes in BC, testing by BC Fresh and partner farmers indicates that sweet potatoes aren’t quite ready for prime time just yet, and especially not in the Fraser Valley. BC Fresh CEO Murray Driediger says the valley’s just not warm enough.


Insufficient yields “If you don't get a really


good growing season, you don't get the size and the yield to the crop that's required in order to make it viable,” he says. “I think you could do it on a small scale for farmers markets and local stands, but as far as being able to grow an economically viable crop to meet the standard specs of what's acceptable for the retail level, I don't think you're going to be successful.” Tests are currently


underway in the Interior using Radiance, says Driediger. He’s optimistic that local sweet potatoes will be showing up in BC stores in the future. “We're hoping that over the


next couple of years we can perfect it and bring something on stream commercially, but to date we haven't been successful doing something that at this point would be considered a long-term viable program,” he says. Prasad and her team at UFV


are pushing forward this year with increased funding interest to continue researching the effects of plastic covers over Radiance sweet potatoes in the Fraser Valley as well as different soil types.


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