Alberta Sweet Potatoes and T&T Seeds will be selling Radiance slips this year for commercial growers and home gardeners, a news release from Vineland Research and Innovation Centre (VRIC) says. They join American-based Jones Family Farms in selling the early maturing sweet potato variety.
Alberta Sweet Potatoes in Jenner, Alta. will be growing Radiance slips for the first time this growing season, the release notes. Alberta Sweet Potatoes is a new company started by Stephanie Lessner and her parents Marjorie and James Lawson. The family are grain and livestock farmers who identified the need for sweet potato slips on the Canadian Prairies and decided to start a business to supply this market.
Alberta Sweet Potatoes will have a limited supply of Radiance slips for sale in 2021. They plan to expand production in the coming years as demand increases, the release says.
Headingley, Man.-based T&T Seeds is a family-owned business specializing in early season garden seed and nursery stock for home and market gardener, the release notes. They have been selling sweet potato plants across the country online and in-store since 2019.
“This year we are thrilled to increase our production capacity and partner with Vineland to grow Radiance sweet potatoes and help Canadians get a taste for this new root,” Kevin Twomey, T&T Seeds’ general manager, says in the release.
Radiance, is a variety developed by Vineland Research and Innovation Centre in Ontario in collaboration with Louisiana State University AgCenter, and is bred specifically for Canada’s shorter growing season. The variety launched to commercial growers in 2017, and with these new partnerships it’s now available to home gardeners also.
