Capital press., March 10, 2017, Page 14, Image 46

14 CapitalPress.com
March 10, 2017
Sweet potatoes get a trial run in SE Oregon
By BRETT TALLMAN
For the Capital Press
ONTARIO, Ore. — With
20,000 acres of onions planted
in southeastern Oregon, the area
produces nearly a quarter of the
nation’s storage-onion crop.
“Onions are the lifeblood
of the area’s economy,” Stuart
Reitz, a professor with Oregon
State University’s Malheur
County Extension, said. “It’s
a huge economic engine that
supports several hundred grow-
ers, processors and three dozen
shipping companies.”
With the help of Joel Fe-
lix, an associate professor with
OSU’s Agricultural Experiment
Station in Malheur County, Fro-
erer Farms of Nyssa, Ore., is
testing a new crop for the area.
Felix was born and raised in
Tanzania, an African nation that,
in 2014, produced more than 3
million tons of sweet potatoes.
“The sweet potato is not new
Capital Press File
Joel Felix, an associate professor with Oregon State University’s Agricultural Experiment Station in
Malheur County, is working with a local farm to grow sweet potatoes.
to me,” Felix said. “I know it
very well; I know the length of
time to get a crop and I thought
we had enough time to get a
crop here.”
In 2010, he put together a
demonstration showing that
sweet potatoes could be grown
in the Treasure Valley.
Word spread about Felix’s
demonstration. Potato proces-
sors in Oregon and Idaho want-
ed to know more.
“We have a lot of proces-
sors locally who truck in sweet
potatoes from North Carolina
and California,” Felix said. “By
procuring potatoes grown local-
ly, they thought they could cut
down the cost of transportation.”
The following year, Felix
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conducted an experiment look-
ing at varieties and irrigation
criteria. After picking the brains
of growers in North Carolina
and California, he narrowed his
search to four varieties suitable
for Eastern Oregon’s climate.
“We settled on Covington,”
he said. “The variety has orange
flesh and some good qualities
like resistance to disease and
insects.”
Covingtons mature in 90 to
120 days, a suitable window for
the growing season in the area.
At the end of May, sweet pota-
toes are transplanted to fields
and, by the beginning of Octo-
ber, they’re ready to harvest.
“Another good thing, (the
sweet potato) doesn’t use water
anywhere close to what Irish po-
tatoes use,” Felix said. “Sweet
potatoes are from the tropics;
they don’t want to be cooled.”
“We grew our first crop in
2016,” Craig Froerer, CEO of
Froerer Farms, said. “About
40 acres. I’d say we had mod-
erate success, but we have a lot
to learn.”
Froerer estimated that No.
1-grade sweet potatoes went
for 18 cents a pound, while No.
2 and oversized sweet potatoes
went for about 10 cents a pound.
No. 1s were fresh packed
at Owyhee Produce and sold
to retailers, while No. 2s and
oversized went to processors
in Western Oregon and Eastern
Idaho.
Though Froerer does not ex-
pect sweet potatoes to replace
the 800 acres of onions that
make up his primary cash crop,
Froerer Farms did invest in spe-
cialized equipment, including a
sweet potato harvester.
“Looking at his investments,
I’d say he’s serious about it,” Fe-
lix said. “He’s the only grower
in the area with the harvesting
equipment and he is continuing
to grow them, so the checkbook
must be balancing.”
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