Almost alone among researchers at the U.S. Vegetable Laboratory on Savannah Highway, entomologist Mike Jackson can't track his various produce experiments in progress.
While his fellow U.S. Department of Agriculture breeders spend the last months of summer watching supposedly hardy broccoli strains wither in the sun and marveling at how well an oddly shaped watermelon withstands insect attacks, Jackson is stuck with a subterranean mystery. As the researcher in charge of sweet potatoes, he doesn't have a clue how his root-tubers are faring until a tractor plow unearths them in October.
"It's like Christmas," Jackson said on this year's harvest day, eagerly examining a few of the more than 400 turned-up specimens for size, color, pest scars and disease. The planted varieties include popular breeds from other countries, which aren't yet widely grown in the U.S.; test breeds submitted by growers and breeds developed at the lab, which is perpetually trying to devise a more vigorous sweet potato that meets the market's needs.
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