Gerise Krusa, age 11, of Portage, Ind., for her question:
HOW IS THE SWEET POTATO GROWN?
Leading sweet potato growing state in the United States is North Carolina where more than 3.6 million bags of the vegetable are sent to market every year. One bag of sweet potatoes weighs 100 pounds. Virginia, Mississippi and California are next in order as leading sweet potato producing states followed in order by Texas, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee.
Sweet potatoes, the popular vegetable that is often chosen to be served on holiday menus, is a member of the morning glory family. The vegetable comes from the large, fleshy roots of the plant. Some sweet potatoes are yellow while others are white. The yellow type is grown chiefly in the southern
United States while the white variety can be found most often in Africa and Asia. Yellow Jersey and Triumph are the two most popular dry varieties while the Porto Rico and the Centennial are favorites of moist varieties.
Sweet potatoes are sometimes called yams, but yams actually belong to another family and are grown most often in the tropica.
To grow a sweet potato plant, the root is first placed in moist, warm sandy soil in a greenhouse or hotbed for about four weeks prior to planting time. Stem buds from the roots produce new plants called slips that push up through the soil.
A grower will remove the slips from the greenhouse and plant them about a foot apart in rows that are about three to four feet apart. The rows are usually ridged to help the water drain. Commercial growers then often have treated the soil with weed control chemicals which help the slips grow.
Sweet potato crops are harvested before the first frost occurs. The roots are then handled carefully to prevent bruising. They are cured, or dried, in buildings that have temperatures ranging from 80 to 90 degrees
Fahrenheit. Later the sweet potatoes are stored in rooms that have temperatures in the 55 to 60 degree range.
Sweet potatoes sometimes are affected by disease caused by tiny plants called fungi. The fungi can be controlled by using disease free planting roots, by treating the roots with chemicals or by crop rotation.
Sweet potatoes are high in vitamins A and C. They are available in markets either fresh, canned or dehydrated.
The popular sweet potato was first grown in the tropical regions of the Western Hemisphere and were raised in colonial Virginia during the early 1600s. American scientist George Washington Carver made 118 products from sweet potatoes.