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“To
raise the best sweet potatoes, you need to start with the best
slip you can get and hope for good weather. While we can’t
do much about the weather, Jones Farms can help you put the
best plant in the field to maximize your crop … and it
all starts with micropropagated seed,” says Jim Jones.
The Jones
Farms operation is a family affair that Jones runs with his wife
Barbara, along with their two children, Jimmy and Jessica. Jones
started farming as a teenager with his grandfather in 1974, growing
sweet potatoes in the fifth middles of tobacco fields. The next
year, he had an acre of sweet potatoes and kept increasing his
acreage over the
years. In the early ‘80's Jones grew 30 to 40 acres and stayed
under 100 acres till the ‘90s.
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 Jones
started buying micropropagated mother plants from NC State University
in the mid '90s, soon thereafter becoming a certified plant and
seed producer.
With confidence in micropropagated seed, he increased to 250 acres
last year and 340 this season.
Going into 2002, Jones Farms has increased its
acreage to supply our customers.
See
which varieties of sweet potatoes Jones Farms grows
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 Over
the years, Jones also invested in four new greenhouses. He added
bio-protection steps two years ago and now has no mite problems
at all. To combat field pests, He tries to keep all his G-1 plants
in secluded areas, away from commercial sweet potato fields.
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Last
year he built a new curing barn and added yet another curing barn
this summer. |
 Jones'
business has increased largely because of satisfied customers. “I’ve
never gotten a bad box of seed potatoes,” reports one customer.
He also makes a habit of sending an additional 100 plants with every
10,000 purchased. He recommends that growers buy some G-1 seed each
year, to keep seed stock at it's best. |
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