General Technical Documents Evaluating Postharvest Practices to Improve Sweet Potato Storage and Culinary Characteristics

Curing sweet potatoes right after harvest improves culinary quality and reduces postharvest losses caused by diseases and skinning. This practice, however, is seldom applied by growers in Mississippi suggesting suboptimal conditions and quality for marketing in addition to losses to postharvest diseases. This project was stakeholder driven and supported by the Mississippi Sweet Potato Council to show the benefits of curing sweet potatoes and encourage Mississippi growers to adopt proper curing practices. The objectives and activities were to: 1) conduct on-farm demonstration trials on curing sweet potatoes in Mississippi; 2) evaluate the effect of curing on diseases and culinary characteristics of Mississippi sweet potatoes; 3) disseminate information about postharvest technology through workshops and publications.