The 2023 growing season has been exceptionally good even though we started late due to late rains and cold temperatures. The weather during planting started off with mild temperatures ranging from high 50's at night and high 70's to low 80's during the day with full sun. Wind was almost nonexistent this year, which was a blessing. No replanting was needed this year.

Temperatures steadily increased back to normal in July with daily temperatures ranging from mid-60's at night to high 90's to low 100's. Canopies are all full and look great. Plants have normal to above normal sets and disease pressure is low. Some fields are showing signs of low pressure nematode and mid pressure wire-worm with a larger percentage of fields not showing any disease or pest pressure.

Because of record rains this past winter, this year we are blessed to have all the surface water we need. Our surface water comes through a complex canal system of the Merced River Watershed and originates from the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We are anticipating harvest to start in early to mid-August when early fields will be at full maturity. We are out spot digging in different areas of all fields and quality and yields looks really good. We still have plenty of supply to carry us into the new season. We plan to move directly from old crop into new crop and we will have plenty of new crop sweet potatoes for our current customers and for additional business.

We are growing 9 varieties this year: Diane, Vermillion, Covington, Bellevue, Murasaki, Bonita, Stokes, Ben Yagi, and Okinawa. These are categorized into 5 main varieties: Red, Orange, White, Purple, and Japanese.

We look forward to supplying our current and new customers with all our Sweet Potato varieties and a successful year!